The City Weeps

Exposing the physical, emotional and psychological consequences of invasion and conquest, the inconsolable grief of women in cities like Baghdad, is told through breath-taking, electrifying vocal theatre.

Audience Feedback:

I just wanted to let you know how impressed and moved I was by both pieces. I am also amazed with Frances, by where you can take the voice. I am an opera fan who, on the whole, prefers mainstream traditional opera, but I think your work is accessible even to people like me.

Musically it was great… the singer could feign emotions you don’t normally get to. The lighting was fantastic, and the sand was just amazing! It fitted perfectly with the music.

Lonely Sits The City (2009)
Recorded Artists: The Prophet, Countertenor and The Man, Baritone – David Sheppard (evt). The Sentinels, female quartet and voice samples – Frances M Lynch, Hebrew Speaker – Judith Levi, Percussion samples – Tim Palmer, Cello samples – Judith Mitchell.
Samples from the Golden Lyre of Ur are used with the kind permission of Andy Lowings.

Commissioned by evt with support from ACE, Britten-Pears Foundation and the European Association for Jewish Culture.

The Book of Lamentations consists of five poems detailing the destruction of Jerusalem in 586BCE. These are re-imagined as stages of grief experienced in the aftermath of a traumatic experience: shock, anger, numbness, despair and finally acceptance. The text mixes Hebrew and English; Echah… Alas. The Hebrew letters – alef, bet, gimmel – are used to reflect the acrostic nature of the poems and the musical tradition of including these letters in the setting. (Lovett)

Frances M Lynch and electric voice theatre (evt) have been collaborating with composers Alejandro Viñao and Andrew Lovett for many years. The City Weeps represents new developments for all of us in vocal techniques, drama and live electronics. Viñao produced a spoken drama, contrasting with live singing, transforming seamlessly into recorded sounds: – a marketplace, a call to prayer, TV news broadcasts, and a variety of unexpected musical styles. In case you are wondering, Frances is using an electronic light conductor to help her sync exactly with the computer track. Lovett pushes Lynch’s extended voice, and places it in a surround sound electronic space, peopled with unseen characters with whom she interacts. You’ll hear the voices of the sentinels appear at four corners of the devastated city in which you are sitting.

The Baghdad Monologue (2007)
Commissioned by A.Devantgarde Festival; the final version premiered by evt in Grenoble.

The text is mostly spoken, occasionally sung, and fits tightly into a rhythmic structure, provided by the electro-acoustic score. The piece explores the forceful intervention of the strong and powerful to ‘protect’ or ‘liberate’ the weak. The focus is on the personal experience of a woman who is at the receiving end. Though inspired by Eliot Weinburger’s book, What I heard about Iraq, the dramatic situation developed in my text is a comment on intervention in general, not exclusively on the war in Iraq.’ (Viñao)

Music & Words:
Baghdad Monologue: Alejandro Viñao,
Lonely Sits the City: Andrew Lovett.

Artistic Director, Performer: Frances M Lynch
Sound Designer: Alan Burgess
Lighting Designer: Charlotte McClelland
Stage and Costume Designer: Miranda Melville & Elizabeth Dawson

featuring the voice of David Sheppard as The Prophet

The City Weeps comprises two mini operas for solo soprano and electronics. They encapsulate the harsh reality of conflict, and highlight not only the ability of humanity both to survive invasion and devastation but also to perennially inflict the same wounds across generations and peoples.

"Frances M. Lynch was both the artistic director and the remarkable protagonist: a compelling presence, and a singer uniting an extended range of controlled, contrasting timbres, steadiness of note, sure breath control, and potent, poignant phrasing"

Review from ‘Opera’ Magazine, October 2011 The City Weeps @ Tete a Tete Festival, Hammersmith By Andrew Porter