The award-winning As Irmãs Siamesas, which was written by José Rubens Siqueira and features Hussey's wife Cinthya, is currently enjoying a two-month run at the Teatro Aliança Francesa in São Paulo, where the pair live.
Recorded over a two-month period last summer, Hussey - together with pianist James Bacon and violinist David Milsom - recorded the score for a CD for sale at perfomances. Due to demand from fans, however, a CD is being made available for a limited period through The Mission's webstore.
Individually numbered and signed, and expanded to feature music not available on the original theatrical release, the CD will only be available for purchase from the store until midnight on Friday 30 November.
"I’ve never made it a secret that I harbour ambition to compose and score for film," explains Hussey. "Sadly, for a myriad of reasons, I’ve never been presented with the opportunity to do so. So it was with open arms I recently accepted the invitation to write music for a stage play. As Irmãs Siamesas is a Brazilian play written by José Rubens Siqueira and this particular new version is directed by my good friend, Sébastien Brottet-Michel, a French actor who works with the world renowned Parisienne 'Theatre De Soleil'. The fact that my wife, Cinthya, is one of the two actors in this two women play, the other being Nara Marques, is perhaps why I was offered the job. A little nepotism never hurt anybody."The brief was…brief. After conversation with Sébastien we decided the music should be slow - none of the tempos are over 70 bpm - empty and open with lots of space, flexible, unsentimental; music that doesn’t dictate the way an audience should react and feel to the dialogue and action on stage, but interacts with the actors in an unobtrusive way.
"We talked about the setting of the play as being timeless and placeless, rural rather than urban. I wanted to avoid using instruments that were modern, that required electricity, that would place it in a specific time. I thought about ageless acoustic instruments, such as a piano, a violin, and a classical acoustic guitar, that might be found in a lot of homes where the onus is on families entertaining themselves rather than by TV, radio, or, these days, the internet. These instruments became my exclusive sound palette for this project. Muted colours, if you want.
"It’s been a great learning process, and discipline, for me as a musician to compose and make music that doesn’t strive for, nay demand, the listeners attention. In conjunction with the brilliant English pianist, James Bacon, and renowned violinist, David Milsom, we have fashioned a series of adagios that, whilst are a million light years away from the music I usually create, I am so very proud of."
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Photo by Paul Grace