before sleep at the end of love (description of a lullaby)

This opera, written and devised by Sarah Hardie, explored the "failure of the contemporary lover", or the (im)possibility of intimacy through spoken word, song and movement.

Originally written for and performed a cappella at Bold Tendencies’, Peckham, this 30 minute opera references theoretical and psychoanalytical writing on the voice (such as Donald W. Winnicott, Roland Barthes and Friedrich Nietzsche). Through spoken-word, song and movement, it explores the failure of the contemporary lover, friendship as a space of total sonority, and questions whether voicing is a loving act or merely a delusional escape from solitude. This iteration was performed in 2017 at the V&A, thanks to a grant from ACE to develop the work to be performed in the V&A, South Kensington, courtyard - sonically and spacially completely unlike the concrete car park it was originally written for.

Conceived of and written by Sarah Hardie with music composed collaboratively with Jack Sheen and choreography devised collaboratively with Eleesha Drennan.

Performed by Sarah Hardie and MUSARC
Libretto performed by Angela Hardie and Sarah Hardie.

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