The Salisbury Proverbs continued Station House Opera's sequence of spectacular and large scale performances with breeze blocks, this time building a temporary monument to celebrate Salisbury's most famous and permanent one. Located and inspired by Salisbury cathedral, the piece involved 25 performers, singers and musicians, the Festival chorus and over 10,000 breeze blocks. The performance itself consisted of a network of proverbial and allegorical narratives which were given an architectural and sculptural form - a version of Breughel's Netherlandish Proverbs.
Commissioned by the Salisbury Festival.
"a combination of music and architecture unlike anything Salisbury has yet experienced ... as the cast moved the blocks, singing and rhythmically moving in complex patterns, almost imperceptibly creating new shapes, arches, towers, lofty structures that suddenly tumbled down, trapping bodies; new arches and elegant pillars growing out of the ruins, only to disintegrate into rubble themselves, reborn again and finally consumed in the flames...a community project, rooted in the ancient heritage of the city and open to all the city's people"
The Blackmore Vale Press
