the selfish giant

chamber opera for six soloists, children’s chorus and chamber ensemble

by Trevor Siemens

libretto by the composer, after the story by Oscar Wilde

Roles

the Giant - bass-baritone

the Child - treble

Snow/Suit 1 - soprano

Frost/Suit 2 - countertenor

Hail/Suit 3 - tenor

North Wind/Suit 4 - bass

children’s chorus

Orchestration

fl (picc), cl, b cl (cl, picc cl), tpt, tbn, 2 perc, acc, harp, vln I & II, vla, ‘cello, db

Duration

approx. 45 minutes

Synopsis

The opera follows Wilde’s fairy-tale of the Giant who banishes the children from his Garden, which is then plunged into perpetual winter. In his frozen isolation the Giant is transformed into a compassionate being. The Giant destroys the wall he has built between the Garden and the outside world, and allows the children to return. He forms a special bond with the Boy, whose return at the close of the opera marks the Giant’s end with the promise of a finer Garden.

The performance area for The Selfish Giant is split between the stage and the auditorium. Throughout the opera the stage represents the Garden, an earthly paradise, while the audience space forms the rough world outside. The opera opens with the Giant and chorus of suits among the audience, while the children inhabit the garden; when their positions are reversed the Giant shuts out the audience and children by building a wall at the front of the stage, unwittingly locking the personified winter elements in with himself.

The libretto has been assembled from various sources, ranging from newspaper reports on the fall of the media baron, Conrad Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, to the poetry of ezra pound, Benjamin Zephaniah and Kathleen Raine.

Certain characters and instrumentalists require microphones in performance for amplification and some live electronic manipulation.