- Title
- The Spirit Level or The Strange Case of Agatha Banks
- Creator
- Crowley, Anthony; Chew, Richard
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Text; Visual art work
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/157670
- Identifier
- vital:11630
- Abstract
- 27th-28th May 2017, Her Majesty's Theatre Librettist Rufus Norris Composer Richard Chew Performed by Second Year Music Theatre Company of the Arts Academy Director Anthony Crowley Musical Director Richard Chew A free performance, as part of Ballarat Heritage Weekend The Spirit Level or The Strange Case of Agatha Banks is a new music theatre work by Australian composer Richard Chew and English Librettist – Rufus Norris. Originally commissioned by English National Opera, this will be the first production of the work in Australia, and marks the next phase of its development after a first performance in the UK. “This production at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat as part of Ballarat Heritage Weekend, gives students the unique opportunity to work with the composer to develop their craft on a contemporary opera, relevant to times and to the young people involved,” director Anthony Crowley said. It allows the composer time to develop the work further – and initiates international relationships that enrich the creation of new Australian writing – further developing the arts practice of Australian directors and theatre-makers.” The Spirit Level is an opera in one act and 13 scenes. It tells the story of Agatha Banks, a Victorian woman, a wife and mother, who is committed to a mental asylum by her husband William when he discovers that she has been taking part in covert Spiritualist meetings with her female friends. The piece was commissioned by English National Opera, for their youth company The Knack. It bucks the trend of many 19th century period dramas in that there are 21 women in the cast and only three men. The Spirit Level is by turns surreal, comic and deadly serious. “The great epidemics of middle-class Victorian women were depression, substance abuse (usually alcohol) and boredom, all fuelled by the ludicrous social and educational restrictions of the time,” librettist Rufus Norris said. “Spiritualism, ignored by men as harmless fun, provided a popular and welcome distraction for many women, and the lunatic asylum awaited others who had no such release”. The Spirit Level is based loosely on the case of Louisa Lowe, who appeared before a Parliamentary select committee in 1887, claiming that she had been wrongfully incarcerated in a lunatic asylum by her husband, for being a Spiritualist.
- Publisher
- Second Year Music Theatre Company of the Arts Academy, Federation University Australia, Ballarat
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing
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