Sweet Death

score by Andree Greenwell

libretto by Abe Pogos after the novel La Morte Sucrée by Claude Tardat.

Instrumentation 2 sop., mez., ten., bar., vln., vlc., fl., trb., pf/synth., perc.

Based on Claude Tardat's novel La Morte Sucree. A young woman gorges herself on pastries and confectioneries, bloating her body to gargantuan proportions in militant and celebrated repulsiveness in a bid to physically denounce popular expectations of femininity. Fiercely independent, nothing and no-one is able to dissuade Claudia from her quest for size, and for sweet death.

Andree Greenwell's witty and lyrical score charts this body's massive progress with striking originality, summoning epic and corporeal sounds with surprisingly modest means.

"...powerful, confronting, controversial, contemporary, indigenous music theatre"  Sunday Sun-Herald

World Premiere Merlyn Theatre, for the Melbourne International Festival (September 1991). Directed by Douglas Horton, music direction by Peter Locke, designed by Trina Parker & Jacqui Everitt, lighting design by David Murray.