The Fall of the House of Usher

Instrumentation sop., ten., bar., bass, 2 vlns., vla., vlc., cb., fl/picc., cl., bn., hn., synth., guit., perc.

The melancholic house of Usher is the backdrop to a world in decay. The peculiar feeling of desolation, loneliness, melancholy and purposelessness, that ‘abject dreariness’ that Edgar Allen POE knew so well, takes on a strangely beautiful, mesmerising quality in Glass’ operatic version. Here Poe meets the present in a kind of ‘Industrial Gothic’, his moody minimalism charting Roderick Usher’s enigmatic demise.

“… A Masterpiece in Melbourne …”

Australian Premiere Merlyn Theatre, Melbourne, August 1990.