Sweeney Agonistes: Full Score.

Bookseller Notes

An unpublished jazz opera score for Eliot's 'Aristophanic Melodrama', by jazz musician and composer (largely for the screen), John ('Johnny') Dankworth.Laid in is a typed letter to the composer in 1996 asking for information on this work, at the foot of which Dankworth has replied with a manuscript message, explaining that it was 'first performed at a TS Eliot Memorial Concert in London [in 1965]', and mentioning that it has only been performed 'a few times in US & UK', with its principal 'disadvantage' being its short running time - 'only [...] 23 minutes (or so!)'. Dankworth lists some of the original cast, which included Nicol Williamson in the title-role, John Le Mesurier, Anna Quayle, Alex McGowan, Clive Revill, as well as Dankworth's wife Cleo Laine. Dankworth's score is a suitably visceral one, drawing on his background as a jazz musician, with the text adapted by Peter Wood and stage settings by Bridget Riley.