Vocal

“… Best of all was Fusebox’s Midnight Closes, a cycle of three lovelorn poems by Hardy set to music by Charlotte Bray. Ecstatically sung by Rhona McKail, these showed a composer who can generate a Bergian lyrical intensity through both a fluent vocal line and a richly expressive piano part (brilliantly played by Yshani Perinpanayagan).”

Rupert Christiansen (The Telegraph)

BARITONE

Sonnets and Love Songs (2011)
baritone, piano
18’00
Text: Fernando Pessoa

Commissioned by the Oxford Lieder Festival, with funds from The Fidelio Charitable Trust and the PRS for Music Foundation ‘Women Make Music’
Recorded at Oxford Lieder Festival 2011: Roderick Williams (baritone), Andrew West (piano)

SOPRANO

Still Standing (2011)
soprano, piano
2’00
Text: Caroline Cowie, based on Shakespeare Sonnets
Miniature commissioned by Richard Thomas for Anne-Sophie Duprels and Andrew Matthews-Owen for Purcell Room concert, October 2011

Midnight Closes (2010)
soprano, piano, (clarinet, cello – optional)
11’00
Text: Thomas Hardy

Commissioned by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust for their Monday Night Platform at Wigmore Hall
Recording from the première, Wigmore Hall, 22 November 2010: Eleanor Dennis, soprano; Gary Matthewman, piano; William Stafford, clarinet; Tim Lowe, cello
Midnight Closes Programme Notes

Watch video here

TENOR

Verre de Venise (2010)
tenor, piano, string quartet
16’00
Text: Rainer Maria Rilke

Co-commissioned by Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence, and Verbier Music Festivals
Recording from Verbier Festival 2010: Gijs van der Linden, Aline Piboule, and the Benyounes Quartet
Verre de Venise Programme Notes

Midnight Closes (2010)
transcribed for tenor (originally for soprano), piano
11’00
Text: Thomas Hardy
Midnight Closes Programme Notes

MEZZO

Dos Poemas de Amor (2007)
mezzo-soprano, piano
13’00
Text: Pablo Neruda
Commissioned by Gemini and premiered by Alison Wells (mezzo-soprano) and Huw Watkins (piano) at St Giles Cripplegate, London

Sonnets and Love Songs (2011)
transcribed for mezzo-soprano (originally for baritone), piano
18’00

OPERA

The Fox and the Crow (2011)
Miniature one-act comic opera
soprano, baritone, harp, cello
7’00
Commissioned by Tête à Tête Opera Festival