The Artist, His Muse, The Singer and Her Lover

Kings Place
Kings Cross, London
United Kingdom

Maria Bovino, soprano
Oliver Curry, piano
Zoe Lister actress
Paul Barker composer/pianist




A Comedy Double-Bill of Synthetic Voice Melodrama

The starting point for Paul Barker's double-bill is how to do opera without a voice. Not just a singing voice, but without any voice at all. My Voice and Me is the autobiography of Oliver Curry, an English tenor who lost his voice as a result of rehearsing I Pagliacci in Naples many decades ago; it left him voiceless, unable to make any sound. He tells the story today with the aid of a synthetic voice (which sounds uncannily like Stephen Hawking) whilst simultaneously playing the piano. Oliver's wife, soprano Maria Bovino, makes an unexpected guest appearance. Of Zoe and the Woman I Sing explores in three acts the relationship between an artist and his muse. Actress Zoë Lister is that muse whom the artist turns into an avatar, the better to control her. The avatar speaks with a unique synthetic voice developed by Toshiba Europe along with Paul Barker, modelled on Zoë, designed to emulate any human emotion. Barker has composed many operas exploring different languages and his most recent, EL Gallo, is an opera for six actors and two string quartets without text. It has been performed across several continents with over 100 performances and has won several awards. His exploration of opera now returns to language but dispenses with singers and expects instrumentalists to act.

Paul Barker : Of Zoe and The Woman I Sing
Paul Barker : My Voice and Me