'The Lost Chord' was an experimental performance work, reconfiguring its mode of theatre, and relationship to media, according to the site of its presentation. It decontextualised and reassembled a range of materials, originating in the Victorian creative imagination, not usually experienced in a single performance event or in contemporary theatre. Uses of technology varied, depending on artistic considerations. Resources included 4 male singers, Edison cylinder, tape and original text by me, made in partnership with Opera North, (who hosted an earlier installation work of mine which pointed the way to this.) Grand Theatre, Leeds, Jan 2010 and Riverside Studios, London, Aug 2010 - 1 hr, 6 performances. The Lost Chord is the title of Arthur Sullivan's 1877 song depicting an erotic image of sublime connection through music (the organ) within a hymn-like soundworld. Its success was extended by its compatibility (in 3 min versions) with new cylinder recording technology. This was a jumping-off point for each set of performances, reflecting on the impact of technological change on late 19th-century creativity, enacting tensions between utopian and critical experiences of this. During performances, historic technologies in contemporary theatre modes evoked an atmosphere of exchange between past and present. Media were 'organs' channeling lost presences. The audience were presented with a formal dinner setting they were invited to join. The hosts spoke in emotionally intense fragments, caught in lost controversies and searches for departed loved ones, contesting their perceptions of the past and a technological future, through deconstructions of literary and musical texts by Bulwar-Lytton, Morris, Tennyson, Balfe, Sullivan and Anon
