Concert-theatre · In development
The Canticles
Electric
A world in motion. Classic poetry, live voices, electronic sound and living paintings.
Music and artistic direction · Richard deCosta
The work
The music
is the heart.
The Canticles Electric brings classic poetry into a world of live voices, electronic sound and living paintings. Richard deCosta’s vocal music moves through beauty, desire, absurdity, grief and resilience, while projected art, monumental figures and luminous scenic objects transform the stage around it.
Conceived to stand on its own in concert, the music also supports a developing theatrical language of sculptural performers, handmade surfaces, deep shadow and sudden light. Ensembles and visual elements enter as each piece requires, growing from intimate encounters to the scale of a touring production.
The working vocal core is eight singers, SSAATTBB. Casting, instrumentation and staging continue to develop.
Listen
Hear the musical world.
Three selected recordings introduce Richard’s vocal writing and the developing musical world. The listening selections are presented alongside the current working repertoire below.
Come to Me
She Walks in Beauty
Silver Apples of the Moon
A story in development
Love, loss
and the journey back.
A story framework under consideration follows Orpheus into the realm of death in search of Eurydice. His music wins the possibility of her return, under the condition that he lead her home without looking back.
The song sequence, interpretation and ending remain in development. Dance, towering puppets and sculptural figures offer possible ways of embodying the journey.
Poetry in song
The working repertoire
Sixteen songs moving through beauty, desire, humour, separation, mortality and resilience. The list is a working repertoire; the final running order is still taking shape.
- She Walks in Beauty Like the Night
- Soon As I Beheld Thee
- The Hollow Men
- O Rose Thou Art Sick
- Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day
- Since There’s No Help
- The Old Three-Cornered Hat, and the Breeches, and All That
- Because I Could Not Stop for Death
- Who Has Seen the Wind?
- To One in Paradise
- Dulce Et Decorum Est
- Invictus (An Anthem for Those Still Living)
- There Will Come Soft Rains
- Silver Apples of the Moon
- Paenitentia sine culpa
- Coronach
The visual world
Light. Surface. Presence.
A developing visual world: studies in staging, light, costume and sculptural performance. These concept visualizations explore possibilities for the work. Tap an image to see it in full.
In development
Imagined
for the stage.
Projection, translucent surfaces, light and sculptural bodies create a stage that can change scale around the music. Worn gold, charcoal and amber meet deep shadow, while singers and instrumentalists frame room for movement.
Workshops and a filmed proof of concept are possible next steps toward a touring production. The images explore ideas for percussion, puppetry and movement as the work’s performance language develops.