Saxophone, trumpet, piano, violin and amplified narrator (Voice And Ensemble) SKU: HL.49043955
For narrator and instrumental ensemble. Composed by John Casken. This edition: Folder. Sheet music. Ensemble. Softcover. Composed 2009. 122 pages. Duration 25'. Schott Music #ED13530-10. Published by Schott Music (HL.49043955). ISBN 9790220134555. 9.25x12.0x0.339 inches. English.
The title Deadly Pleasures was suggested by the content of DM Thomas's dramatic poem on an imagined episode in the life of Cleopatra. Cleopatra offers any three men from her royal court a night of unbridled passion, in return for which they must forfeit their lives the next morning. Three men step forward, the last of which is the son she had by her brother Ptolemy, whom she gave away at birth. Unaware that Cleopatra is his mother, he gives her wine laced with mandragora and makes his escape before daybreak. The grisly tale provided the composer many opportunities for dramatic characterisation. The use of a narrator necessitated an episodic structure in which the music captures the atmosphere suggested by the text, and mirrors the different moods as the journey unfolds and the three characters live out their different fates.
