Aaron Jay Kernis: Goblin Market
Mary King (narrator)
The New Professionals, Rebecca Miller
Christina Rossetti's poem is notable for psychological, sexual and narcotic implication that could scarcely have been more overt in mid-Victorian Britain, and Kermis has responded by making...
Aaron Jay Kernis: Goblin Market
Mary King (narrator)
The New Professionals, Rebecca Miller
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Christina Rossetti's poem is notable for psychological, sexual and narcotic implication that could scarcely have been more overt in mid-Victorian Britain, and Kermis has responded by making...
About
Christina Rossetti’s 19th Century poem Goblin Market has long divided and bemused readers as to it’s meaning and intent. The story of two sisters and their encounters with the sinister Goblin men and their ‘forbidden’ fruit, has been variously interpreted as an allegory of proto-feminism, a critique on the rise of advertising in pre-capitalist England, and an exploration of feminine sexuality in relation to the Victorian world. This multitude of interpretations only adds to the poems mystique and imagery, captured here by the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis.
Performed by London-based ensemble The New Professionals under Rebecca Miller, the work is a unique concoction of music, mime and masks that delves into the overripe and at times grotesque and shocking imagery of Christina Rossetti’s poem. Goblin Market explores both the Victorian repression coded into its text as well as its parallels with contemporary social issues.
“Aaron Jay Kernis is a remarkable composer...in his Goblin Market...you hear an irresistible variety of invention from the 13-piece ensemble...The music seems perfect...its combination of original invention with a broadly earlier style similarly brings the ear back and forth across the generation...this is an inventive treatment of music theatre.” David Fallows, The Guardian
“Goblin Market...was captivating — with a rich, proto-Romantic score.” Michael White, The Independent
Contents and tracklist
- The New Professionals
- Rebecca Miller
- The New Professionals
- Rebecca Miller
Awards and reviews
May 2011
Christina Rossetti's poem is notable for psychological, sexual and narcotic implication that could scarcely have been more overt in mid-Victorian Britain, and Kermis has responded by making it a recitation in which the narrator - the eloquent Mary King - is heard in the context of an ensemble as varied as it is immediate.
March 2011
Kernis knows that the only way for a setting of this poem to work is to make it overtly dramatic, the ensemble illustrating, shadowing and underlining the words, creating atmosphere, and the narrator's part is thus precisely notated. This would be nothing, of course, if Mary King were not such a superb narrator. She reads the text for what it is, a dramatic poem, enjoying every nuance and inflexion with precision and facility.
