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AUSTRALIAN CONTEMPORARY
OPERA CO LEONARD COHEN / PHILIP GLASS

"an audacious work with a massive magnetic pull"

- New York Times

This multi-dimensional performance combines poetry, music, images and text in a complex and intoxicating meeting of two musical icons: Leonard Cohen and Philip Glass.

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Composed by Philip Glass and adapted from Cohen’s 2006 poetry collection Book of Longing, this genre-defying work stars Richard Piper (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and features four singers, ensemble, eight instrumentalists and imagery. Described as "part-song-cycle, part cabaret, part-installation" Book of Longing is a work that explores romance, biography, balladry, the dharma, limericks and rhymes.

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Glass is the long-reigning emperor of modern classical music. Cohen spent his career melding pop, folk and Euro-cabaret with his existential-meets-erotic confessional style. Here, they summon the best in each other with a work of feverish passion and wily humour, full of spiritual striving, romantic yearning and witty self parody.

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Join us at The Edge – Fed Square for this audacious, magnetic and convention-busting performance.

Conducted by

CARLO ANTONIOLI
MSO Cybec Assistant Conductor 2022

Directed by

LINDA THOMPSON

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with

RICHARD PIPER as the voice of Leonard Cohen

EMILY BURKE, soprano

DIMITY SHEPHERD, mezzo soprano

MARTIN BUCKINGHAM, tenor

CHRISTOPHER TONKIN, baritone

with

Caitlin Toohey, soprano*

Genevieve Droppert, mezzo soprano*

Alexandra Amerides, contralto*

Callum Warrener, tenor*

Daniel Felton, baritone*

*ACOCo Young Artist

Visuals by

ALICE EDY

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Presented in partnership with

"I know she is coming
I know she will look
And that is the longing
And this is the book."

- Leonard Cohen (1934 - 2016)

Young Artists

Orchestra