the beautiful final few minutes of Michael Nyman's opera 'Love Counts' with libretto by Michael Hastings.

The opera was the tenth release on MN Records, and the second opera recording for the label, Love Counts is a love story between the unlikeliest of couples: Avril, a lecturer in mathematics at a major college who has divorced a man who physically abused her, and Patsy, a middle-weight fighter at the end of his career who cannot read or recognise numbers.

Michael Nyman uses Riemenschneider's collection of 371 Bach chorale harmonisations to help Patsy find his voice – they are harmonically fragmented, sped up, slowed down, overlaid with themselves. Just as Dr P, the Alzheimer's suffering protagonist of Nyman's The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, has 'his' Schumann, so, in Love Counts, Patsy, a parallel sufferer, has 'his' Bach.

Award-winning writer Michael Hastings had previously worked with Nyman on the libretto for the opera Man and Boy: Dada, also available on MN Records.

Love Counts was commissioned by the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlesruhe, Germany and first performed there on 12th March 2005, directed by Robert Tannenbaum. This is a recording of the Almeida Theatre (London) production of Love Counts where it was performed in July 2006 by the Michael Nyman Band, bass baritone Andrew Slater and soprano Helen Williams, designed by Peter McKintosh and directed by Lindsay Posner.

The production received great critical-acclaim with four-star reviews from The Independent, The Times (London) and The Guardian.
Reviews

'Via this intimate coupling of music and words, by turns witty and nostalgic, Nyman and Hastings reveal themselves to be sentimental old souls, intent on turning Raging Bull into Love Story'. The Observer

'Andrew Slater is wonderfully believable as the gravelly voiced, slow-witted Patsy, his swagger long beaten out of him, and is perfectly counterpointed by Helen Williams's vulnerable, compassionate Avril. Together they bring the opera to life quite marvellously.' The Guardian

Buy from MN Records

"There You Are....And That Tree"

https://mnrecords.greedbag.com/buy/symphony-no-11-hillsborough-memo-0/ 

Symphony No. 11: Hillsborough Memorial represents the culmination of Michael Nyman's thinking around the tragedies connected with Liverpool Football Club. 25 years after the Hillsborough disaster, he says that he hopes it will make a small but significant contribution to the healing process still necessary for the families of the lost fans.

Trailer for Michael Nyman's Symphony No. 11: Hillsborough Memorial

Two pieces by Michael Nyman
From the concert of 2 July 2014 at Carpenter street in Providence

Chris Erway -- electric piano
J. P. A. Falzone -- Rhodes piano, triangle
Brendan Glasson -- Hohner Cembalet, bells
Liz Isenberg -- Wurlitzer piano
Sakiko Mori -- Crumar Roadrunner 2, percussion
Scott Reber -- Casio, percussion
Florence Wallis -- Hohner Pianet

Michael Nyman - Bell Set No 1 (Live)

Artist:  Michael Nyman
Song: Memorial
Film:   The Cook,The Theif, His wife and Her Lover


Michael Nyman - Memorial(The Cook,The Theif, His wife and Her Lover)

Nyman/ Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs

'Sometime Like Apes' from 'Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs'

Nyman: Prospero's Books CD2

'Miranda' from 'Prospero's Books'

'The Masque' from 'Prospero's Books'

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
Recently rediscovered from the archive of Robert Worby, this demo is from the late 1970s and features some previously unreleased Nyman compositions as well as early versions of 'In Re Don Giovanni' and other music that would later be heard in 'Prospero's Books'.
The Campiello Band later became the Michael Nyman Band, who are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2016.  
Hear the complete Demo tape on Youtube: http://bit.ly/2fqA0Ns

Undated Demo (late 70s)

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 'In Re Don Giovanni' from 1970s Demo

Michael-Nyman-Rochester39s-Farewell(muzofon.com)

Michael Nyman's Official Soundcloud channel

"There You Are....And That Tree"

Michael Nyman

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