Culture Break: Michael Nyman: The Fringed Curtains of Thine Eye

From Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs, which is a work he created based on The Tempest. The interesting part is that he didn't used any of the songs, having already set the songs for Prospero's Books. This is probably my favorite piece from the work.

Performed by Catherine Bott, Hilary Summers, Ian Bostridge, Ensemble Instrumental de BasseNormandie & Dominique Debart. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a performance video on YouTube or anywhere else.

Culture Break: Michael Nyman, "Sometime Like Apes" (from "Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs")

Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs is probably my favorite thing by Michael Nyman, although he did a very good soundtrack to Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, which, like N,S & A, as based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. He also did a ballet based on the same play, so I guess this work was intended to get it out of his system. I might add that Nyman is one of the more protean composers I've run across -- one of those American Individualists who seem to follow no set pattern.

And yes, the video is from Prospero's Books, which, all things considered, is one of the more outrageous adaptations of Shakespeare I've seen.