I rewrote Michael Tippett
Midsummer Marriage. Scrapped most of the text, re-orchestrated it drastically to bring out the structural formality, which has a point. Then, a brainwave! Thinking of Chinese weddings, where the bride ceremoniously serves tea, I hit on the idea: why not have her stamp on a tea cup and break into a wild dance of liberation? Greeks and Jews smash crockery at their weddings. It certainly shook Tippett up. How could he have missed the irreverent mischief in Shakespeare and Mendelssohn? Alas, when I woke, the new manuscript blurred from my dream.
PS click photo to enlarge. It's a 19th century Cantonese watercolour on rice paper
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