MACARONI: The Ballet!
On July 10, 2024, the dream team who brought you Cinderella join forces once again to create a new short ballet: Macaroni! Here are it’s program notes:
A love letter to camp, Macaroni is a collage of ideas inspired by histrionic accounts of camp culture through time. "He stuck a feather in his cap, and called it Macaroni"
When “Yankee Doodle” became a popular tune in the late eighteenth century, to call someone a “Macaroni” was to connect them to a satirical type -- typically a male overly concerned with fashions and foreign art. The trend challenged gender norms in clothing and society and quite often the penny-press portrayed the Macaroni as a feminised character to be ridiculed - the equivalent of today’s queerphobic treatment of the LGBT+ community.
Combining layers of camp humour, with a provocative reflection on historical acts of satirical discrimination, the ballet takes the origins of the 1772 Macaroni Scandal and weaves its themes into a fabulous and detailed new work. Today, most people who sing the famously patriotic anthem 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' are unaware of its true origins to the gender bending style of the fabulous Macaronies.
With an original score by composer Claire Cowan and eccentric costume design by Emma Kingsbury, the world of the Macaronis is brought to life with decadent dance and storytelling.
On the date of the premiere, I will also release the soundtrack online.
Macaroni pays homage to camp fashion, icons, and objects through a musical collage of influences, beginning with the song 'Yankee Doodle.' I wanted each musical 'wink' towards the history of Camp to feel celebratory and fun. The tracks often spin off in unexpected directions, with outbursts of voice and snippets of sampled historic dialogue.
The album features seven tracks, each exploring different facets of camp culture:
1. "Introducing the Macaroni" - A playful variation on Yankee Doodle with a rhythmical Latin twist, setting the stage for the album's eclectic journey.
2. "Tea Party" - Features camp dialogue in a rhythmic and playful way, becoming increasingly absurdist as the track progresses.
3. "Badminton & Flamingos" - Begins as a slow motion badminton game ends in a homage to the campest of objects - the plastic garden flamingo.
4. "The Pretty Gentleman" - An operatic aria sung by tenor Giancarlo Visi, blending Jeff Buckley-esque overtones with lonely electric guitar. The lyrics juxtapose tender imagery with absurd pasta metaphors.
5. "Mac n Cheese" - A downbeat blues inspired track, featuring a relaxed, glitchy beat and tumbling piano lines.
6. "The Marvellous Macaronis" - Begins with a sassy slow harpsichord tango-esque melody and culminates in a pumping club beat, showcasing a "more is more" approach with beat box samples and orchestral outbursts.
7. "His Name Was Mozart" - A cathartic and uplifting soft rock finale, incorporating vocal phrases from Liberace's classical music program.
Album credits:
Composed, Mixed and Mastered by: Claire Cowan
Featured tenor: Giancarlo Visi