Man and Boy: Dada

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Man and Boy: Dada is a 2003 opera by Michael Nyman with a libretto by Michael Hastings. It tells the story of a friendship between aging dada artist Kurt Schwitters and a twelve-year-old boy. These two characters and the boy's mother make up the cast of the opera.

It was first performed at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany, on 13 March 2004, directed by Robert Tannenbaum. It was then performed in the UK by the Almeida Opera in July 2004, in a production designed by Jeremy Herbert, directed by Lindsay Posner and conducted by Paul McGrath at the Almeida Theatre.[1][2]

The opera features an extensive use of oboe (rare in Nyman's work), mostly in the second act, to capture the feel of post-War popular music, somewhat reminiscent of Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for Variety Orchestra.

## Synopsis

[edit]

Michael is a young boy on a bus who competes with an old man for bus tickets, which they both collect (as did Nyman as a child). The man turns out to be Kurt Schwitters, a dada artist who escaped Germany, although his wife has been killed and his son missing, and is facing deportation. They get to talking about their collections. Schwitters invites Michael to come to his apartment to see them. Michael refuses for obvious reasons, but asks what he does with them, and is told about merz collages.

Michael lives with his mother. His father was a night watchman whose body was never found when his building was struck by a German doodlebug bomb. Although Michael's mother hates all Germans, she makes an exception for the artist, who gradually earns her trust. Michael and Kurt go to the British Museum together and deface a lion statue in a dada manner.

Michael's mother won't allow Kurt to visit while he is sick, and he gets interviewed by a BBC newswoman who likes to hear herself talk and makes sure that her pontifications get more air time than Kurt's corrections. She ends the interview by referring to dada as "dadaISM," with heavy emphasis on the "ism", and goes on quite a pace about Schwitters's references to his "art" rather than "anti-art", as the proponents of dada would have it.

Kurt spends more time with Michael and his mother. He repeatedly suggests that the two get married so that he can become a naturalized citizen, but she is not interested in him that way. He makes numerous mistakes. He offends her with a song about doodlebug bomb, but she agrees to hear it again, as the song was not at all intended to make fun of her husband. He makes a very large mistake at Michael's birthday. Michael wants a bicycle, but Kurt gives him a dada bike that cannot be ridden. Michael's mother is horrified that he would do what she perceives as a practical joke to a boy. His motivation was completely different—he wanted to give Michael something special and unique. Kurt decides that he is too eccentric to get on with Michael and his mother. Michael tries to persuade him to stay, telling him that he appreciates the dada bike and can say to his friends that he crashed it.

## Recording

[edit]

Man and Boy: Dada
an opera in two acts

Studio album by

Michael Nyman

Released| 1 June, 2005 (UK)
July 29, 2008 (United States)
Recorded| October and November 2004
Genre| opera, contemporary classical
Length| Disc 1: 42:27
Disc 2: 62:23
Language| English
German
Label| MN Records
Producer| Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman chronology
| The Actors
(2003)  | Man and Boy: Dada
an opera in two acts
(2005)  | The Piano Sings
(2005)

|
|

The album, based on the Almeida production, was recorded in 2004 and released in 2005. It was the first release on Nyman's own label, MN Records, and his 48th release overall.

### Track listing

[edit]

Disc 1 – ACT ONE

1. SCENE 1 – You need a ticket to breathe the air
2. SCENE 2 – A few things I collect beside bus tickets
3. SCENE 3 – Any more fares please?
4. SCENE 4 – It's kind of interesting rubbish
5. SCENE 5 – Scarper!
6. SCENE 6 – Forty sheep and twenty reindeer?
7. SCENE 7 – Coughs and sneezes spread diseases
8. SCENE 8 – Except take a piss
9. SCENE 9 – Doodlebug

Disc 2 – ACT TWO

1. SCENE 10 – A Famous cup of British tea
2. SCENE 11 – This was a good one – Ponders End to Waterloo
3. SCENE 12 – I'm highly adept at the tango
4. SCENE 13 – Show me a bike!
5. SCENE 14 – Chuk persh szing!
6. SCENE 15 – Happy birthday, dear Michael!
7. SCENE 16 – I am having a trouble with hanky panky
8. SCENE 17 – Latin à la Hammersmith Palais
9. SCENE 18 – A hundred stops but they have no name
10. SCENE 19 – I was trying to explain something about Dada

### Cast

[edit]

* John Graham-Hall (tenor): Kurt Schwitters
* William Sheldon (boy soprano): Michael
* Vivian Tierney (soprano): Michael's mother/old woman/bus conductress/British Museum guard/BBC interviewer

### Musicians

[edit]

Michael Nyman Band

* conducted by Paul McGrath
* Gabrielle Lester, violin
* Rebecca Hirsch, violin
* Tony Hinnigan, cello
* Paul Morgan, double bass
* Melinda Maxwell, oboe
* Gareth Hulse, oboe
* Andrew Sparling, clarinet, bass clarinet
* David Rix, clarinet, bass clarinet
* David Roach, soprano, alto saxophone
* Christopher Gunia, bassoon
* Richard Benjafield, percussion
* Dominic Saunders, piano

### Crew

[edit]

* Composed and produced by Michael Nyman
* Recorded, edited and mixed by Austin Ince at Abbey Road Studios, London, October and November 2004.
* Assistant engineer: Roland Heap
* Assistant to Michael Nyman: Andy Keenan
* Mastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios, December 2004
* Music published by Chester Music Ltd./Michael Nyman Ltd., 2004
* Libretto © Michael Hastings, 2004
* (The librettist gratefully acknowledges contributions and alterations to the text by Victoria Hardie)
* Designed by Russell Mills (shed) [1]
* Co-designed by Michael Webster (storm)
* Portrait of Kurt Schwitters, '1924', photographer, Eli Lissitsky (courtesy of the Sprengel Museum, Hanover)
* Kurt Schwitters, Gerd Strindberg and Edith Thomas (?) in the garden of the house in Barnes, London, 1941/1943 photographer: Kurt and Ernest Scwitters Stiftung, Hanover
* Production photos by Michael Nyman
* Design imagery by Jeremy Herbert and Steven Williams
* Special thanks to Elizabeth Lloyd, Rachel Thomas, John Fosbrook, Gill Graham, James Rushton, Nicholas Hare, James Ware, Declan Colgan, Robert Tannenbaum, Achim Thorwald, Patrick Dickie, Phillippa Cole, Jeremy Herbert, Lindsay Posner, Sarah Wilson, Jeremy Bines, Alexander Balanescu, Annette Gentz, Colette Barber & Lucy Launder at Abbey Road, Karin Orchard at the Kurt Schwitters Archiv, Sprengel Museum, Hanover

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Church, Michael (20 July 2004). "Man and Boy: Dada, Almeida Theatre, London". The Independent. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
2. ^ Clements, Andrew (16 July 2004). "Man and Boy: Dada". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

## External links

[edit]

* Man and Boy: Dada at Chester Novello Music
* Man and Boy: Dada at MN Records
* Anne Midgette, "Schwitters Agonistes: Opera Takes on a Radical", The New York Times, 18 December 2004.

* v
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Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman Band members|

| Current|

* Gabrielle Lester
* Catherine Thompson
* Kate Musker
* David Roach
* Simon Haram
* Andrew Findon
* Nigel Barr
* Dave Lee
* Steve Sidwell
* Martin Elliott
* Sarah Leonard

|

Former|

* Alexander Bălănescu
* John Harle
* Chris Laurence
* Ann Morfee
* Jonathan Carney
* Madeleine Mitchell
* Jamie Talbot
* Georgina Born
* Marjorie Dunn
* Beverley Davison
* Barry Guy
* John Greaves
* Andrew Shulman
* Michael Thompson
* Richard Watkins
* John Metcalfe
* Christian Forshaw
* Ute Lemper
* Marie Angel
* Hilary Summers
* Omar Ebrahim
* David Cunningham
* Molly Nyman

Nyman-produced
albums|

* Decay Music
* 'The Masterwork' Award Winning Fish-Knife
* Michael Nyman
* The Draughtsman's Contract
* The Cold Room
* The Kiss and Other Movements
* A Zed & Two Noughts
* And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices
* The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
* Drowning by Numbers
* La Traversée de Paris
* The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover
* Out of the Ruins
* La Sept
* String Quartets 1–3
* Prospero's Books
* The Michael Nyman Songbook
* The Hairdresser's Husband
* The Essential Michael Nyman Band
* Time Will Pronounce
* The Piano
* Michael Nyman for Yohji Yamamoto
* The Piano Concerto/MGV
* À la folie
* Live
* Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs
* Carrington
* The Diary of Anne Frank
* After Extra Time
* The Ogre
* Enemy Zero
* Concertos
* Gattaca
* The Suit and the Photograph
* Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks
* Practical Magic
* Ravenous
* Wonderland
* The Commissar Vanishes
* Nabbie's Love
* The End of the Affair
* The Claim
* String Quartets 2, 3 & 4/If & Why
* Facing Goya
* 24 Heures de la vie d'une femme
* Sangam: Michael Nyman Meets Indian Masters
* The Actors
* Man and Boy: Dada
* The Piano Sings
* The Libertine
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. I: The Draughtsman's Contract
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. II: Nyman/Greenaway Revisited
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. III: The Piano
* Six Celan Songs • The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi
* Acts of Beauty • Exit no Exit
* Nyman Brass
* Love Counts
* Mozart 252
* 8 Lust Songs: I Sonetti Lussuriosi
* The Glare
* Acoustic Accordions

Nyman-contributed albums|

* The Pavilion of Dreams
* The Sensual World
* Piano Circus
* Taking a Line for a Second Walk
* Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noël Coward
* Generation Sex

Compilations|

* Pure Moods
* The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001
* Man on Wire

Additional operas|

* Tristram Shandy
* Letters, Riddles and Writs
* Vital Statistics
* La Princesse de Milan

Unreleased
film scores|

* Vertical Features Remake
* The Falls
* Brimstone and Treacle
* Ballet Mécanique
* Monsieur Hire
* Mesmer
* Katie and Orbie
* Titch
* Act Without Words I
* Man with a Movie Camera
* Nathalie...
* À propos de Nice
* A Cock and Bull Story

Major individual
compositions|

* Memorial
* MGV

Family|

* Molly Nyman (daughter)

Category

* Les Disques du Crépuscule
* Minimalist music
* Systems music

* v
* t
* e

Dada

New York Dada|

* Marcel Duchamp
* Francis Picabia
* Man Ray
* Beatrice Wood
* Louise Norton
* Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
* Juliette Roche Gleizes
* Jean Crotti

European Dada|

* Dragan Aleksić
* Louis Aragon
* Jean Arp
* Johannes Baader
* Alice Bailly
* Hugo Ball
* André Breton
* Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia
* Serge Charchoune
* Arthur Cravan
* Jean Crotti
* Otto Dix
* Theo van Doesburg
* Marcel Duchamp
* Suzanne Duchamp
* Paul Éluard
* Max Ernst
* Julius Evola
* George Grosz
* Raoul Hausmann
* John Heartfield
* Emmy Hennings
* Hannah Höch
* Richard Huelsenbeck
* Iliazd
* Marcel Janco
* Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
* Clément Pansaers
* Francis Picabia
* Man Ray
* Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes
* Jacques Rigaut
* Henri-Pierre Roché
* Kurt Schwitters
* Walter Serner
* Philippe Soupault
* Sophie Taeuber-Arp
* Julien Torma
* Tristan Tzara
* Jacques Vaché

Works|

* Bicycle Wheel
* Bottle Rack
* Fountain
* Dada-Review
* Prelude to a Broken Arm
* Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?
* L.H.O.O.Q.
* Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating
* Rrose Sélavy
* Readymades of Marcel Duchamp
* The Gas Heart (1921 play)
* Handkerchief of Clouds (1924 play)

Publications|

* Dada Manifesto
* 291 (magazine)
* 391 (magazine)
* The Blind Man (magazine)
* Dadaglobe

Influences|

* Alfred Jarry
* Incoherents
* Eugène Bataille (aka Sapeck)
* Parade (ballet)

Influenced|

* Conceptual art
* Surrealism
* Nouveau réalisme
* Pop art
* Fluxus
* Monochrome painting
* Downtown music

Related|

* Alfred Stieglitz (photographer, art promoter)
* Walter Conrad Arensberg (art collector)
* 291 (art gallery)
* Galeries Dalmau
* Found object
* Anti-art
* Anarchism and the arts
* Anti-anti-art
* Anti-poetry
* Appropriation (art)
* Art intervention
* Cabaret Voltaire
* Noise music
* Épater la bourgeoisie
* Shock art
* Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada (1993 documentary)
* Man and Boy: Dada (2006 opera)

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