Tuesday, May 08, 2012

A Clockwork Operetta?


Indeed.

From a story in the New York Daily News...

"A Clockwork Orange" follows protagonist Alex as he leads his pack of goons (or "droogs" as they're called in the characters' quasi-Slavic slang dialect of Nadsat) on regular gore-filled jaunts through a futuristic England before he's sent to jail for murder and conditioned into a drug-induced aversion to violence. Along the way, he dons his signature half-Twiggy-half-Dandy-all-sociopath look, does a few renditions of "Singin' in the Rain" and drinks a lot of…milk.

But, in fact, "A Clockwork Operetta" is not an outlandish concept. After writing the book, Burgess penned his own original screenplay complete with lyrics for five songs (but, alas, no music). Kubrick rejected Burgess’ cinematic adaptation, preferring to write his own, which would go on to earn an Oscar nomination, and the lyrics remained largely undiscovered. 

Decades later, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation commissioned Dr. Kevin Malone, head of composition at the University of Manchester's music department, to bring the newly found lyrics into the spotlight.




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