Dr Dee by Damon Albarn
Dr Dee: An English Opera is an opera created by theatre director Rufus Norris and musician and composer Damon Albarn. It was inspired by comic book author Alan Moore. Its debut performance was at the Palace Theatre, Manchester in July 2011, as part of the 2011 Manchester International Festival. The opera is based on the life of John Dee, medical and scientific advisor to Elizabeth I. Damon Albarn became associated with the Manchester International Festival through a 2006 concert production by his band Gorillaz, Demon Days Live, a 2007 Chinese opera, Monkey: Journey to the West, and a 2009 immersive theatre production, It Felt Like a Kiss, for which he wrote music. An opera titled Doctor Dee was originally planned as a collaboration between Albarn, Gorillaz partner Jamie Hewlett and comic book author Alan Moore. According to Moore, he was approached by Albarn and Hewlett to collaborate on an opera featuring superheroes, but instead he suggested John Dee as a subject. He withdrew from the project when expected contributions from Albarn and Hewlett to his magazine Dodgem Logic failed to materialise. Moore is credited for "inspiration" in the opera's official programme and his incomplete libretto was published in Strange Attractor magazine.
