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• New Zealand Composers On Screen 

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Markheim is a man at the end of his tether. What started as a robbery gone wrong has ended in a murder – a murder that seems certain to force him to kill once more. And then kill again. Trapped, he is made to confront circumstances that have brought him to this terrible crisis. Just at the moment a mysterious stranger appears – but it soon becomes clear that this saviour is not all he seems. Is he the devil driving to further temptation and inevitable damnation? Or an angel come to save him from himself?

Loosely based on R. L. Stevenson’s macabre story, Markheim, a haunting story of guilt and redemption, Good Angel, Bad Angel is a chamber opera for three voices and four instrumentalists.

SYNOPSIS: The opera opens in an old curio-shop where the owner and his daughter are having a row. She feels unappreciated by her miserly father and says she’d prefer to spend Christmas Day with someone who cares for her – her boyfriend. She storms out leaving the old man to his gold and silver. A knock at the shop door. The shopkeeper is reluctant to open, but realising it could be a potential customer, lets in the caller. It is Markheim, a small time thief. He claims he wants to buy a Christmas present for his girlfriend. The old man shows him his stock. When the old man’s back is turned Markheim kills him. Believing that there is a hoard of gold hidden somewhere in the shop, Markheim is now free to look for it. Another knock at the door. Two drunks are wanting to visit the old man. Markheim doesn’t answer and tries not to panic. Finally the drunks wander off. Quite unexpectedly, a complete stranger – the visitant – enters from the back of the shop. He offers to tell Markheim where the gold is hidden. Fearing the unknown, Markheim refuses to answer. The visitant tells him the old man’s daughter is coming back to the shop to apologise for her outburst. If Markheim is still here when she arrives, he will have to kill the daughter as well to cover his crime. A dialogue follows with Markheim realising more and more the hopelessness of his position. The visitant keeps reminding him that the daughter will be arriving very soon. Markheim insists the money will allow him to start a new life and in a high dramatic solo passage declares that freedom is within his grasp. The murder is one-off, he claims, and from now on his life will be on the straight and narrow. A knock at the door. It is the daughter. The visitant says Markheim will have to let her in. Then he will have to kill her. Markheim opens the door and tells her that her father is dead. At first she thinks the old man collapsed and that the doctor has been called. Then Markheim shows her the knife. Realising what has happened she sings a moving lament for her father and begs for her life. The powerful trio that follows is interrupted by a knock at the door. It will be her boyfriend. The girl starts to scream for help. For Markheim this is the end. Or perhaps a new beginning.

• Cresswell: Good Angel, Bad Angel; computer-set 

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• Cresswell: Good Angel, Bad Angel 

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Using animal imagery to take us into the heart of the human condition, Inland charts the fragile equilibrium between shepherd, flock, dog and hawk. Inland is a dance-theatre work conceived and choreographed by Douglas Wright. The work was commissioned by the 2002 New Zealand Festival with funding from Creative New Zealand.

• Palmer: Inland 

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• Palmer: Inland  Year: 2002 

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New Zealand’s landscape has long been a source of inspiration for artists and composers. I was fortunate enough to have enjoyed frequent trips to the mountains when young, and I still remember them fondly to this day. I have written quite a number of works on the theme of New Zealand’s natural environment. So I was very pleased to be asked by the Dunedin Sinfonia (now Southern Sinfonia) and Natural History New Zealand to compose ‘Southern Journeys’.

After initial discussions in 1999, I was given freedom to come up with my own ‘synopsis’ for the piece. The music was to be written first, and then recorded by the Dunedin Sinfonia so that images could be put to the music. This was a considerable luxury for the composer, as normally the film is made first and later the music is written to fit the images. Natural History was insistent that I should compose my music without the restriction of specific images, and for that I am very grateful.

Although Southern Journeys is programmatic, I have attempted to incorporate a symphonic logic into the music. Themes are developed and transformed, and there is an element of cyclic form with the return of the opening theme at the very end of the work. Ideally, the music should be able to stand alone without film, and still make sense.

The first movement is subtitled ‘Ancient South’ and portrays southern landscape, particularly remote areas such as mountains and sounds. The land is constantly being changed by water, snow and wind, the most dramatic example being the effects of avalanches. In the second movement, ‘Southern Adventures’, humans interact with Nature, at sea, in caves, on rock faces, in the air. Although these adventures are often difficult and treacherous, we feel exhilerated by this risky communion with Nature. The third movement, ‘Seasons in the South’, begins with the stillness of lakes and forests in Autumn, and moves on to explore southern bird and sea life. Winter announces its arrival with a storm, followed by the thawing of snow and ice and the first signs of Spring. The last movement, ‘Our Place’, explores our own environment and contrasts it with the natural environment we have witnessed in the previous movements. A note of caution is sounded: we cannot take the natural beauty of the South for granted. We have to respect and care for it, so as to maintain the balance between our needs and the needs of Nature. At the end of the movement a harmony exists between the beautiful aspects of a city like Dunedin and the natural environment.

Southern Journeys received financial assistance from the Millennium Fund and Natural History New Zealand.

• Anthony Ritchie: Southern Journeys  Year: 2000 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Southern Journeys  Year: 2002 

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In my work as a composer I have found bringing together classical and jazz musicians to be a rich and unique way of working. I have experience in both fields and my compositional talent and interest lies genuinely across the two art forms.

This piece has been specifically composed for these performers and their unique sets of skills. Each performer is of a very high calibre and each possesses something special and unique in their playing and approach to music making. Mike Kime and Reuben Derrick often have moments of freedom as they are both accomplished improvisers. Gretchen Dunsmore and Mark Le Roche are classically trained performers with excellent skills and intelligent ears and minds. I knew that each of them would bring something to the work that would be unique and exciting.

More recently my creative interest in movement and form has expanded to contemporary dance and I wanted to involve and include another artistic discipline in this work. Collaborating with Julia Milsom has been an exciting new venture for me. The nature of the sounds within the piece are highly applicable to contemporary dance and have been interpreted and expressed with considerable talent and skill by Julia.

Layers of sound in time is a theme I have developed extensively in the piece. The layers interact, evolve, contrast, compliment, and conflict with each other to create a depth of space and time between them.

The work is an exploration of the timelessness that comes in moments of deep introspection through evocative sounds and movement.

Alex van den Broek

• van den Broek: Still Standing Silent; computer-set 

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• van den Broek: Still Standing Silent; computer-set 

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• Alex van den Broek: Still Standing Silent; video 

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• Alex van den Broek: Still Standing Silent  Year: 2009 

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• Ritchie A.: The God Boy; Computer Set 

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• Ritchie A: The God Boy; computer-set 

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• Ritchie, A.: The God Boy; computer-set 

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• Ritchie A.: The God Boy  Year: 2004 

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• Anthony Ritchie and Jeremy Commons: The God Boy  Year: 2004 

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• Opera Otago: The God Boy by Anthony Ritchie  Year: 2004 

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• New Zealand Composers On Screen 

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The Maori Merchant of Venice, the Maori film version of the English bard William Shakespeare’s classic play ‘The Merchant of Venice’, brings an exotic look, a musically rich soundtrack and a unique cultural mix to Shakespearean tradition. The director and executive producer of the film is Don C Selwyn.

• Clive Cockburn Clips 

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• New Zealand Composers On Screen 

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• The Maori Merchant of Venice - soundtrack  Year: 2002 

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