Gerald Barry (1952-)
The Importance of Being Earnest, opéra en 4 actes

Barbara Hannigan, soprano
Peter Tantsits, ténor
Joshua Bloom, baryton
Katalin Károlyi, mezzo-soprano
Hilary Summers, contre-alto
Alan Ewing, basse
Benjamin Bevan, basse
Joshua Hart, récitant
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Thomas Adès, direction

Gerald Barry's riotous opera brings out the savagery beneath the genteel Edwardian manners of Wilde's play : its score includes gunshots, whistling and speaking from the orchestral players, marching boots, and the smashing of 40 dinner plates, while its characters – among them Lady Bracknell sung by a bass and Cecily by a stratospheric soprano – shout at each other through gales, quote Schiller's Ode to Joy (in German) and make polite conversation through megaphones.