Davies, Maxwell: Resurrection (2CD)

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies began work on his parodic opera Resurrection whilst studying at Princeton in the early 1960s but it wasn’t until the 1980s that he resumed composition. Its violent diversity is aimed at several different targets – the state, Church, and media – and is often delivered through deliberate juxtapositions of opposing material. The opera is expressed through a dazzling masque-like succession of scenes, and the blackly comic pastiche of hymn tunes, marching band music, saccharine waltzes and banal TV advertisements. Resurrection is about the conformity of an individual when brow beaten by the social and political forces that rage against him. The music helps anchor the plot to recognisable themes and uses many different styles and genres. This is the only recording that is currently available.