Rotten Kid

//

Erchao Gu & Clare Best

30th June // 2021

Milton Court Concert Hall // Guildhall School of Music & Drama


// a comic folk tale exploring the shadowy world between truth and lies, which becomes more and more seductive as the threat to survival looms large

// Rotten Kid is an opera in one act inspired by a Chinese folk tale. The action takes place in and around Mother’s house, where she lives with her son Rotten Kid, in a provincial town. Rotten Kid, now a young man, doesn’t remember his Father, who went away when he was very young

// a frequent visitor to the town’s gambling den, Rotten Kid has been unlucky lately. When he gambles away Mother’s horse and their house, it’s time for radical action. He sets himself up as a Marriage Broker, determined to find a wealthy suitor for Mother, to rescue them from bankruptcy. Then an unexpected suitor turns up, and events take a new direction… 

// Rotten Kid tells the story through words, music, projection and live shadow play in an economical and tourable production. It can easily be adapted to different, often unconventional performance spaces.


// scenography // puppeteering //

credits

 

rotten kid // tenor

George Curnow

mother // soprano

Juliet Wallace

suitors // bass

Francisco Reis

music director

Victoria Hofflin

violin

Anastasia Egorova

clarinet // bass clarinet

Jonathan Willett

double bass

Matthew Downey

percussion

Tom Hodgson

libretto

Clare Best

music

Erchao Gu

director

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh 

scenography

Manuela Pecorari // Paola Sanchez 

production // deputy stage manager 

Paris Linxuan Wu