Tom Phillips / Gavin Bryars / Fred Orton - Irma (1978)

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:39 Overture and Aria: 'I Tell You That's Irma Herself'
00:17:12 First Interlude
00:18:52 Aria: 'Irma You Will Be Mine'
00:25:33 Second Interlude
00:26:29 Chorus: 'Love Is Help Mate'
00:31:22 Postlude

[@MrMusicbyMartin]

This is lovely, a mixture of Wagner, Steve Reich 10 years later, a Brian Wilson chamber pop suite, Les Baxter, a Soft Machine record, all shaded in an unearthly hue with its dreamlike tempo, plain singing without vibrato and Bryars’ stitching together of classical motifs.

[@janispartington349]

Thank you.

[@Sebensui779]

Thanks!.

[@graemeorr8121]

I still find this haunting, after listening to it since the late 1980s. Tom Phillips didn't like it - his art was edgier and more post-modern. But as far as interpretive minimalism goes, musically this is unusually romantic.

[@MrMusicbyMartin]

The story of this work is very odd: who scores an opera without actually writing any of the music?