MONARCHY Suite for Birth, in utilizing history, tradition, and Queen Elizabeth II's delivery of her loaded eulogy on princess Diana's death, not only brings awareness to a specific moment in time, but provides as opportunity to investigate the issue and reexamine our preconceived notions.

Working with the speech scenario of Lady Diana, Princess of Wale's funeral, the musical theme of Prince Charles's birth, Queen Elizabeth II's voice and the British knighted composer Sir Michael Tippett, offer a chance to look at the complicated circumstances of the British Monarchy in the last half century and to contemplate on its history and future.

The Monarchy seems to be in a conquerable position. They have traditionally been culturally influential and a model for the western heritage, but today that establishment seems precarious. They have very few private moments and those moments are shared with the world, therefore they are public moments and ones which have tremendous influence upon and within our culture.

Composition and concept by Kenneth Doren (1966 - )
Based on the instrumental musicby Sir Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998):
"Suite for the Birth of Prince Charles" for the birth of Prince Charles (1948 - )
Lyrics spoken and written by Queen Elizabeth II of England (1926 - )
from her televised address on Sept. 5 1997 on the death of Lady Diana Spencer (1961 - 1997)
Sung by mezzo soprano Patrice Jegou (1971 - )

"MONARCHY Suite for Birth" (2000) is a digitally manipulated audio installation which incorporates the eulogy given by Queen Elizabeth II of England at Lady Diana's funeral, music originally composed for the birth of Prince Charles by Sir Michael Tippett and a mezzo soprano singing a duet with the Queen of England. This is an experimental participatory opera as an audio installation where the viewers/listeners interact with 36 parabolic speakers.

The viewer/listener will come up to a large rectangle room. As they enter the room, audio will shower down on to them from highly directional parabolic speakers, mounted at ceiling level. As viewers/listeners move underneath each speaker, they hear one of 36 individual compositions. The viewers will be free to move as they please with no set pattern to follow, and in doing so, unknowingly place themselves within the digital environment. This is the key to the installation - - to simulate virtual reality (digital experience) within the audio realm. Together these elements make use of technology to penetrate traditional musical methods and to critique contemporary views of historically sacred traditions.