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Project
"... a dense, dreamlike chamber opera heavily tinged with exoticism, like 'Death in Venice' on steroids." - The New York Times
Heart of Darkness
Music by Tarik O'Regan
Libretto by Tom Phillips
Based on the novella by Joseph Conrad
About Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is the latest work from composer Tarik O' Regan, whose CD Voices was released to much acclaim in Europe and North America. O' Regan has been singled out by The Observer (London) as "one of the most original and eloquent of young composers... tonal but cutting-edge" and by The London Times, which noted, "O'Regan's gift for lyric flight seems boundless. You might have to reach back to Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music, or even Tallis, to find another British vocal work so exultant. He's a composer of generous passion and imagination..." Heart of Darkness is being written as an opera in one act for 8 singers and 13 instruments.
Voted one of the 100 best novels of the 20th Century by The Modern Library, Joseph Conrad's masterpiece Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a riverboat captain, on a voyage into the African Congo at the height of European colonialism. Astounded by the brutal depravity he witnesses, Marlow becomes obsessed with finding Kurtz, a notorious ivory trader stationed farther along the river.
Watch "The Lament" from Heart of Darkness!
"The Lament," which takes place near the end of the opera, is sung by the
‘Woman of the River’, following Kurtz’s discovery and removal by Marlow.
It serves as a premonition of Kurtz's death.
About the Creators
 Tarik O'Regan (composer)
Born in London in 1978, British Composer Award winner Tarik O'Regan was educated at Oxford University and completed his postgraduate studies at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His compositions have been performed internationally by, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers and Los Angeles Master Chorale. Living in New York City since 2004, O'Regan has held the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship in Music Composition at Columbia University and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard. His 2006 debut disc, VOICES (Collegium Records), was released to critical acclaim, heralding O'Regan as 'one of the most original and eloquent of young composers' (Observer, London), 'breathing new life into the idiom' (Telegraph, London).
 Tom Phillips (librettist)
Tom Phillips, born 1937, is one of Britain's premier artists with an international following. He is a Royal Academician and best known for his use of text within artworks, as in his treated novel A Humument (Thames & Hudson 1980, revised 2005). He is a visitor at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton on a regular basis and is also well known as a writer and composer in his own right. His own opera, Irma , has been frequently performed and twice recorded; he has also acted as set designer for English National Opera.
 Joseph Conrad (author)
1857-1924, English novelist, b. Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of the greatest novelists and prose stylists in English literature. His notable early works include The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897), Lord Jim (1900), and the novellas Youth (1902), Heart of Darkness (1902), and Typhoon (1903). The novels Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Under Western Eyes (1911), and Chance (1913) are regarded by many as Conrad's greatest works. Of his later works, Victory (1915) is the best known. Marked by a distinctive, opulent prose style, Conrad's novels combine realism and high drama. Their settings include nautical backgrounds as well as high society, and international politics. Conrad was a skilled creator of atmosphere and character; the impact of various situations was augmented by his use of symbolism. He portrayed acutely the conflict between non-western cultures and modern civilization. His characters exhibit the possibilities for isolation and moral deterioration in modern life.
AOP Presentations
Nov. 9 & 11, 2007
Concert reading of scenes
by Tarik O'Regan and Tom Phillips
in association with the Institute for Advanced Study
Nov. 9 - Institute for Advanced Study - Wolfensohn Hall Princeton, NJ
Nov. 11 - South Oxford Space, 138 S. Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY
Music Direction: Steven Osgood and Oliver Gooch
Tarik O’Regan and Tom Phillips will speak in a panel discussion about the piece.
May 19, 2007
Orchestral reading of scenes
in association with Wall to Wall Opera
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway - NYC
November 3-4, 2006
Concert reading and libretto reading of scenes w/ panel discussion
South Oxford Space Brooklyn, NY (11/3)
Institute for Advanced Study - Wolfensohn Hall Princeton, NJ (11/4)
Music Direction and piano accompaniment: Steven Osgood, Kelly Horsted
Performers: Jeanine DeBique, Jack Anderson White, Jessica Miller, Benjamin Sosland, Ross Benoliel, Robert Hoyt, and Michael Zegarski.
Tarik O’Regan and Tom Phillips spoke in a panel discussion about the piece.
June 2-3, 2006
Concert reading of scenes w/ panel discussion
South Oxford Space Brooklyn, NY
Music Direction and piano accompaniment: Steven Osgood, Kelly Horsted
Performers: Kyle Pfortmiller, Kevin Burdette, Amy van Roekel, Anne Graczyk, Robert Hoyt, Chad Johnson, and Michael Zegarski.
Tarik O’Regan spoke in a panel discussion about the piece.
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