The Great Enormo

Arnold A Grand, Grand Festival Overture for three vacuum cleaners, one floor polisher, four rifles and orchestra
Stravinsky Firebird Suite

Michael Rosen narrator
Juliette Pochin soprano
City of London Sinfonia
James Morgan conductor

Guest Director Michael Rosen wants to compose a theme tune for Mr Enormo Biggins’ Great Fun Park. And he needs your help.

The Great Enormo is a fantastic new theme park that allows its visitors to travel through time. So the music to accompany it should reflect different periods and places from history, shouldn’t it? It’s not so easy, and Michael has his work cut out coaxing, cajoling and bullying the orchestra into producing the tunes. As he jumps from the Medieval to the Jazz Age, from the Wild West to intergalactic space, will the viola player get his solo? And who’s the soprano who keeps turning up unexpectedly?

The Great Enormo is both an interactive guide to the orchestra and a whirlwind tour of musical history. Its sharp mixture of fun, surprises and a bit of spookiness make it the perfect Kerfuffle for primary school children and their families.

Michael has also chosen the rest of this wacky and wonderful programme. Malcolm Arnold’s A Grand, Grand Festival Overture is a hilarious orchestral set-piece which ends up with the vacuum cleaners and rifles vying for supremacy; how the rifles win brings an unexpected twist to any concert. For Stravinsky’s glittering Firebird Suite, Michael has written short poems telling the story of the Firebird, which he will read at the beginning of each movement.

At the Great Enormo your dreams become real
At the Great Enormo what’s real is a dream
We’ll take you to climb a castle in the air
We’ll take you where you’ll hear yourself scream...
Michael Rosen

Celebrating the work of two of Brighton’s leading charities, there will be a collection at the end of this performance for Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival and Rockinghorse Children’s Charity.View the event programme