Michael Bennett (Visitor) & Omar Ebrahim (Officer)
Music Theatre Wales, Michael Rafferty
CD
$17.00
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This one-act chamber opera was composed and premiered in 2000, by A Contemporary Theater in Seattle. The libretto is by Rudolf Wurlitzer from the story by Franz Kafka. It is scored for string quintet and two singers. In this world premiere recording by the Music Theatre Wales, tenor Michael Bennett plays the Visitor and baritone Omar Ebrahim is the Officer.
In The Penal Colony: The Machine
In The Penal Colony: Prologue
In The Penal Colony: I
In The Penal Colony: II
In The Penal Colony: III
In The Penal Colony: IV
In The Penal Colony: V
In The Penal Colony: VI
In The Penal Colony: VII
In The Penal Colony: VIII
In The Penal Colony: IX
In The Penal Colony: X
In The Penal Colony: XI
In The Penal Colony: XII
In The Penal Colony: Xiii
In The Penal Colony: XIV
In The Penal Colony: XV
In The Penal Colony: XVI
In The Penal Colony: Epilogue
12th February 2012
“This is a tough but worthwhile listen...If singers and players at times sound raw, it's fitting for this allegory of cruelty and the moral dilemma of being a bystander.”
11th February 2012
“the repetitions of Philip Glass’s opera make a perfect reflection of Kafka’s verbal
ones. Omar Ebrahim projects the fervour of a true believer as the Officer, Michael Bennett is the appalled Visitor.”
April 2012
****
“Glass homes in with scary effectiveness on the officer's description of the machine...Omar Ebrahim's officer moves from robotic vibrato to loving devotion as Michael Bennett's lighter timbre darkens, and the quintet maintains momentum.”
May 2012
“Bennett is especially impressive in the role of the visitor - the innocent bystander-turned-accomplice. Playing is not without its blemishes (the untidy conclusion to scene 9, for example) but in an opera which deals in stark detail with some of humanity's darkest blemishes, this becomes strangely appropriate.”
In The Penal Colony: The Machine
