The artists of Variant 6 and Mobius Percussion, and Veronica Jurkiewicz, join hands for the New York Premiere of a new original work by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski:
MOONLITE, an oratorio for voices, percussion, and viola based on the true crime queer love story of the 19th-century Australian bushranger Andrew George Scott, known as “Captain Moonlite.”
Music by Wally Gunn
Libretto by Maria Zajkowski
Variant 6, voices
Mobius Percussion feat. Víctor Pablo
Veronica Jurkiewicz, viola
Captain Moonlite—a rogue, a brigand, a criminal, and a queer—is an outsider who chafes at the constraints of Victorian-era society. He dreams of founding a utopia for himself and the lover he met in prison, James Nesbitt. Unable to make a life in society upon their release, Scott and Nesbitt resign themselves to living outside it, and in pursuing this end, the pair, by misconduct and misfortune, fall foul of the law. Banding together with some other misfits, they set off on a grueling trek through Australia’s arid outback and find themselves in a series of increasingly desperate situations which culminate in a stand-off and shoot-out with police. An officer is shot and killed, and Nesbitt, also shot fatally, dies in Scott’s arms. Scott, stricken and defeated, is imprisoned and sentenced to death by hanging for his crimes. In his cell, he writes heartrendingly of his love for Nesbitt, his terrible loss, and his hope that he will be reunited with his lover in the next world.