ALLIGATOR SONG from POND

transcription of a Julian Grant opera fragment by YVAR MIKHASHOFF

 piano

(1992)

5'

Yvar Mikhashoff (1941-93) was a legend, a larger than life character, pianist and transcriber extraordinaire, who did me the great honour of dressing up a small and abandoned opera fragment when we were both involved at the Almeida Theatre in North London, at a time when there was a new music and new opera festival there. Yvar himself wrote a programme note: 

'In the opera POND, there is an arioso about an alligator, perhaps even an imaginary alligator.  I have extracted the material from this scene and taken it underwater - in a manner of speaking.  This is what the alligator might sing, if asked; it is also what he perceives he hears from below  in his watery domain: sounds, vaporous and liquid. My alligator only briefly shows his head to  his human stewards. He prefers to hide himself and plunge, deeply, into his pond.'

He dedicated his transcription to a friend, appropriately named Stewart Pond.  

First performed 18 July 1992 by Yvar Mikhashoff at the Almeida Festival, Almeida Theatre, London N1

SEE ALSO: the YVAR MIKHASHOFF page at the ESTATE PROJECT