RUNE – fashion-opera
A vast cosmological fantasy featuring an ensemble of three grand pianos, RUNE is the final part of the ‘fashion-opera’ cycle by Scottish composer Alastair White (b.1988) following the highly acclaimed releases of ROBE (‘excellent’ – BBC Music Magazine) and WOAD ‘the height of compositional magnificence’ (Fanfare).
On a planet where history is forbidden, a young girl dares to tell her story. A voyage across galaxies and millennia, hers is a tale of the archipelagos of Khye-rell and their matterwork, through transdimensional canals and sealanes to the RUNE of the universe’s origin. This song, her story – through the very act of being told – will have consequences beyond imagining…
This is an audio version of the live premiere production which was presented as part of the Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival 2021 – now with remastered HD sound – which critics described as “genuinely original” (TEMPO), “perfect” (Vogue Italia), “blockbuster…explosive” (Opera Magazine), and “unquestionably my highlight…a melding of physical and metaphysical, of quantum mechanics and spatial manifestation” (Seen and Heard International).
A visual spectacle that featured sculpture, contemporary dance and high fashion by design house KA WA KEY, RUNE comes with a booklet including both the libretto laid out in its original typographical design – as well as images of the capsule collection created especially for the opera.
White’s work has been shortlisted for a number of art awards and the composer has been praised for creating “a whole exciting new genre of art” (BBC Radio 3) and “a groundbreaking new genre” (Classical Music).
Track Listing
- Prologue: "O"
- "The thing is, I don't feel any older"
- "You are so lucky, he says"
- "The party and the sunlighy are below me"
- The Song of Anger
- Transdimensional canal I: "Answer, seeker"
- "Man made earth, made furrows in the earth"
- "I clasp it. It is like touching a water-damaged page"
- "If life makes ..."
- "In the beginning ..."
- Transdimensional Canal 2: "Sing it, then."
- The Song of the RUNE
Alastair White (b.1988): RUNE
Reviews
“On dazzling form, Alastair White’s new opera, recorded live, creates seductive, virtuoso textures from just two singers and three pianos. Both singers dazzle in the way they despatch White’s elaborate vocal lines. To enter White’s world is to enter a parallel universe… a dazzling fantasy that explores alternative ideas and realities. All five performers are impressive in their grasp of the complexities of White’s language, and the way these complex lines are woven into a whole which transcends the virtuoso elements. The whole is profoundly seductive, a sound world that dazzles and intrigues.
” —Robert Hugill
“Alastair White offers a score and a sensitive libretto served by a committed interpretation. The fashion-opera offers a new artistic form, more total, more immersive, full of meaning and connections. If the disc offers only one of the facets of the great show that must be the fashion-opera (we would like to attend a live performance!), it constitutes a beautiful gateway to the musical universe of Alastair White too unfamiliar in the French-speaking musical world.
” —Maxime de Brogniez
