Page 41 - FINAL_Theatre of Sound Coverage Book

she delves in this quest. One might see the castle as metaphoric: it is the chambers of
the human heart, mind and soul that remain forever locked.

Michael Mayes, Gweneth Ann Rand, Gerald Finley, Susan Bullock (via Zoom),
Daisy Evans and Stephen Higgins, in the rehearsal room

The nature of Stone Nest means that the audience are never more than three metres away
from the protagonists. “So, the singers don’t have to articulate the characters’ emotions
over an orchestra. Bartók’s scoring requires such huge forces – there are just two
characters, no chorus, but there are 150 musicians in the pit. We will have just six
members of the London Sinfonietta, though the keyboard player does play lots of different
keyboards, and this reduction marries with the experience of dementia, when life does
become small. So, it’s a dramatic orchestration. It was important that we didn’t just have
a ‘pocket version’ but actually created something new that was cohesively built into the
production. This is an important aspect of Theatre of Sound: that there is no division
between the stage and pit. And, the music is really exposed in the new score that Stephen
has arranged and which he will conduct. I keep hearing things that I’ve previously missed,
as there’s a spaciousness, but also beautiful colours.”