The Salisbury Proverbs
A temporary and shape-changing monument to celebrate Salisbury's most famous and permanent one. Located next to Salisbury cathedral, the production 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.
with Lucy Benson, Matthew Bowyer, Lorna Gay Copp, Sharon Crawford, Bruce Gilchrist, David Goulding, Susannah Hart, Niki Jewett, Julian Maynard Smith, Matthew Neave, Dean Proctor, Michael Sherrin
singers: Annabelle Cheetham, Rene Linnenbank, Duncan MacKenzie, Judy Slater
chorus: The Salisbury Festival Chorus
instrumentalists: Nigel Allcoat, Andy Baker, Udo Dzierzanowski, Cathy Stevens, David Jackson, Frank Perry, Martin Pyne
Directed by Julian Maynard Smith
Music by Howard Moody
“(Salisbury Festival director Helen Marriage) saved the best till last – Ute Lemper, and the astonishing Station House Opera. The work was premiered to an at times bemused but increasingly fascinated audience. A unique blend of opera and architecture…rooted in the ancient heritage of the city and open to all the city's people.”
Fanny Charles, The Blackmore Vale Press
“It would be as easy to wax lyrical as harrumph sceptically about the festival’s biggest undertaking to date – the extraordinary Salisbury Proverbs.”
Ben O’Neill, The Journal
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The Salisbury International Arts Festival
An ArtsAdmin production, 1997
