Jetsetter, extract from opera

for alto recorder, mezzo soprano, harpsichord, violin, Baroque cello

by Anne Ku

Last Update: 15 November 2008

Composed in February 2006

Premiered in Utrecht, Netherlands, 17 March 2006

Pearlmira Kwesi-John, mezzo soprano
Emi Matsumoto, harpsichord
Inigo Aguilar, alto recorder
Veronika Manova, violin
Malgorzata Oczko, Baroque cello

Second performance: Susice, the Czech Republic 26 June 2006

Barbora Novotna - mezzo soprano
Vojtech Esterle - cemballo
Jakub Kydlicek - recorder
Veronika Manova - violin
Malgorzata Oczko - violoncello

The jetsetter laments when she is not travelling: would she rather lead a normal family life or romance the world?

Journey of a thousand miles begins, tales of the jetsetter, Bon Journal Newsletter, Volume 1 Issue 6. (2-page pdf)

Programme Notes for live recording MP3 files and PDF write-up.

This mini opera opens with a solo cello playing a lamentio:

The phone rings, and the singer is woken from her lament.

Later on:

Libretto:

What do I see before me?
A sea of nothingness
empty and bleak.
No sound. No emotion. No life.
Still as a corpse.
Silence, yet I feel no peace.
No end to this death
Like the long lonely lonely winter
No end. No end.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, hello
It's me. I know. I'm fine. Just fine. And you?
Why not? I see. Poor thing. Oh my!
So sorry. Don't you worry.
Uh huh. I see. Oh yes. All right.
You, too. Okay. I will. Good-bye.

My friend with her husband company car vacation home.
My friend and her children cats and dogs and toys and noise and a mother-in-law.

And I, just me.

I have seen the world from east to west.
Never a moment of rest.
Those were my younger days,
my heart was led astray.

Dining with strangers, dancing till dawn
Played games with chance, Flirted with romance.

London to Houston, nonstop business class
Amsterdam Tokyo, Mexico Shanghai

Singapore, Sierra Leone, Budapest
Hawaii, Tahiti, Zanzibar is next!

PHONE RINGS

Hello, hello
It's me. I'm fine.
I see.
I'm free.
How long?
How soon?
Tomorrow I can go!
Tomorrow I can go!
Tomorrow I can go!

PDF - (672 kB, 8 pages) full score --- updated 9th May 2006, with markings of performers

MIDI (76 kB) 12 min sec. (My music notation repeats when it's not supposed to, back to the very beginning. Not sure how to fix it!)

Parts (2-page PDF each): voice, recorder, violin, cello and harpsichord (629 kB, 8 pages, with reduced staff for other instruments)
Note additions from bar 182 onwards absent in previous versions. [Markings and edits not updated as in full-score.]

Premier at the Spring Composition Concert of Utrecht Conservatory with links to MP3's of live recording and programme notes
Friday 17th March 2006 at 7 pm K&W Building 27 Mariaplatts, 3511LL Utrecht

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