NYMAN: Opera (4 CDs)

This 4-CD box set contains two operas, both in two acts, that are also available separately from MN Records: MNRCD101-2 Man and Boy: Dada and MNRCD111-2 Love Counts. 'Man and Boy: Dada' is the first in a triptych of chamber operas written by Nyman with librettist Michael Hastings. It tells the story of the unlikely friendships between the ageing Dadaist artist Kurt Schwitters, who is exiled in war-torn London; a 12-year-old boy called Michael, who shares the artist's obsession with collecting London Transport bus tickets; and Michael's mother, widowed by the war. The recording reunites the cast from the UK premiere performance at the Almeida Theatre in July 2004 tenor John Graham Hall as Schwitters, William Sheldon as the boy, and soprano Vivian Tierney as the boy's mother. Paul McGrath conducts the Michael Nyman Band.

'Love Counts' is a love story between the unlikeliest of couples: Avril, a lecturer in mathematics at a major college who has divorced a man who physically abused her, and Patsy, a middle-weight fighter at the end of his career who cannot read or recognise numbers.

This is a recording of the Almeida Theatre (London) production where it was performed in July 2006 by the Michael Nyman Band, bass baritone Andrew Slater and soprano Helen Williams, with designs by Peter McKintosh and directed by Lindsay Posner.

CDs 1 & 2 MAN & BOY: DADA
Act I Scene 1: Excuse Me - Excuse Me
Act I Scene 2: This Lah-di-dah Dame
Act I Scene 3: Wore These On My First Pro Win
Act I Scene 4: How Much Does This Bill Say?
Act I Scene 5: This Is a Set
Act I Scene 6: Patsy, My Love
Act I Scene 7: Let's Suppose for Today
Act II Scene 8: They Say Nothing Is Secret
Act II Scene 9: Forty Seven - Sixty Three
Act II Scene 10: It's for You... Why Is It for You?
Act II Scene 11: Now, in Hebrew Mathematical Art
Act II Scene 12: You Didn't Tell Me You Did This Every Morning
Act II Scene 13
Act II Scene 14: You... Look As If You Have Lost Something?
Act II Scene 15: Give Me My Card Back!
Act II Scene 16: Hello, Guv'nor, Yes, It's Me...
Act II Scene 17
Act II Scene 18: I've Tried to Tell You What I Think
Act II Scene 19
Act II Scene 20: I've Spoken to the Guv'nor at the Gym Today
Act II Scene 21: There You Are...and That Tree...

CD 3 & 4 LOVE COUNTS
Act I Scene 1, 'You Need a Ticket to Breathe the Air'
Act I Scene 2, 'A Few Things I Collect Beside Bus Tickets'
Act I Scene 3, 'Any More Fares Please?'
Act I Scene 4, 'It's Kind of Interesting Rubbish'
Act I Scene 5, 'Scarper!'
Act I Scene 6, 'Forty Sheep and Twenty Reindeer?'
Act I Scene 7, 'Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases'
Act I Scene 8, 'Except Take a Piss'
Act I Scene 9, 'Doodlebug'
Act II Scene 10, 'A Famous Cup of British Tea'
Act II Scene 11, 'This Was a Good One - Ponders End to Waterloo'
Act II Scene 12, 'I'm Highly Adept at the Tango'
Act II Scene 13, 'Show Me a Bike!'
Act II Scene 14, 'Chuk Persh Szing!'
Act II Scene 15, 'Happy Birthday, Dear Michael!'
Act II Scene 16, 'I Am Having Trouble With Hanky Panky'
Act II Scene 17, 'Latin a La Hammersmith Broadway'
Act II Scene 18, 'A Hundred Stops But They Have No Name'
Act II Scene 19, 'I Was Trying to Explain Something About Dada'