[NewMusicEvents] Mordake at Intersection for the Arts January 10th

[Erling Wold]

Work-in-Progress Showing and Benefit for Mordake,

an Opera by Erling Wold

starring John Duykers

Intersection for the Arts

446 Valencia Street

Thursday January 10, 7:00pm

Tickets $5 General Admission

For more information call 415-399-9554 or www.mordake.com

The tale of Edward Mordake is taken from the nineteenth century text  
of the Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by George M. Gould and  
Walter L. Pyle, which begins by saying that

One of the weirdest as well as most melancholy stories of human  
deformity is that of Edward Mordake, said to have been heir to one of  
the noblest peerages in England. He never claimed the title. He was a  
man of fine attainments, a profound scholar and musician of rare  
ability. His figure was remarkable for its grace, and his face - that  
is to say, his natural face - was that of an Antinous. But upon the  
back of his head was another face, that of a beautiful girl, ‘lovely  
as a dream, ugly as a devil.’
The voice of his 'devil twin' taunts him and reveals to Edward his  
true nature but, unable to see this truth, and unable to integrate his  
two aspects - good and evil, self and shadow, male and female - he  
destroys himself and his family.