Macbeth (1971)
With Kaleidophon, Delia created sound for Ewan Hooper's production of Macbeth at the Greenwich Theatre, opening on the 18th February 1971.
For other versions, see Macbeth.
Reviews
“semi-musical setting of the witch chants in contemporary idioms.”[1]
“The [characters] are of no period or place and the sounds around them are electronic and anonymous.”[2]
“They sing their cauldron recipe to a waltz song like the doctors in Wozzeck.”[3]
“A great night for the noises off... a night of whistling and whinnying and the calls of whippoorwills, of electronic music for the witches' chants, of echo chambers and metallic vibrations from the back projected ghosts.”[4]
“[The] production gets nearer the centre of the play than more ambitious rivals. Liberally employing what Henry Reed once dubbed “reinforced concrete music” and setting the action on a tilted promontory suspended above two jagged edge rostra, it evokes the right atmosphere of eerie ambivalence in which nothing is but what is not”.[5]
Papers
- DD135529: Letter dated 23 March 1971 from Ewan Hooper thanking Delia and Brian for their work on Macbeth sound.
- DD135629: Theatre programme: cover "First performance Feb. 18, 1971"
- DD135700: Theatre programme: cast and article by Ewan Hooper
- DD135745: Delia's handwritten notes: "1st sound - Change? (thicken thunder + echo)"
- DD135820: Delia's handwritten notes: "1. Cue missed?"
- DD135830: Zoom on top half of DD135820
- DD135854: Zoom on bottom half of DD135820: "horses earlier please"
- DD135914: Delia's handwritten notes: "1 - Thunder & witches"
- DD135928: Delia's handwritten notes: "CUT DRUMS where trumpet [in] battle / (23) Cat"
- DD135943: Delia's handwritten diagram of stage
- DD140011: Delia's handwritten timing diagram "1 - 2.25" "Annette £50 Effects"
- DD140025: Delia's handwritten notes: "Tape 1 - Tape 2" "39. 4th Apparit approach"
- DD140051: Delia's handwritten notes: "Tape 1 - Tape 2" "1. Thunder + Witch B.G."
- DD140104: Delia's handwritten notes: "35 .. 53" "Desk witches" (back of DD140051)
- DD140140: Typewritten cue sheet: "MACBETH / Sound / I.1. Sea breaking against cliffs"
- DD140152: Typewritten list of theatre personnel
- DD140239: Typewritten cue sheet, page 1: "MACBETH / ACT I / 1. Thunder in the distance - 22. / ACT II / 23. - 29. Banquo arriving noise"
- DD140302: Typewritten cue sheet, page 2: "30. Banquo arriving noise - 53. Witches' familiars together"
- DD140336: Delia's handwritten notes: "Sea alone" ...
- DD140402: Delia's handwritten notes: "P.3 Sea breaking & washing" ...
- DD140425: Delia's Handwritten notes: "4 time / [A] Primitive vocal - mysterious, smokey"
- DD140448: Delia's Handwritten notes: "4 time / [A] Organ - low reed - waw waw"
- DD140505: VCS3 dope sheet: "Macbeth - twangy crochets"
- DD140554: Newspaper clipping: "Lady Macbeth - or just Miss World?" by Herbert Kretzmer: a short and scathing review
- DD140622: Newspaper clipping: "London gets a new Lady Macbeth", published one week before the opening night
- DD140754: Newspaper clipping: the image of Hildegard Neil above the Fiddick review
- DD140901: Newspaper clipping: "MILTON SHULMAN at the new Macbeth" from the Evening Standard: a mostly negative review.
References
- ↑ DD140726: Review "Macbeth" by Peter Fiddick.
- ↑ B. A. Young in The Financial Times, quoted in Breege Brennan's thesis.
- ↑ DD140920: Review "Macbeth" by B. A. Young
- ↑ DD140834: Review "Enter Corporal Macbeth" by Peter Lewis of the Daily Mail on 18th February.
- ↑ DD140642: Review "Macbeth" by Michael Billington in The Times newspaper.
