The Leopard

by Sean McCann

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    • 3x Vinyl LPs with jackets
    • Exclusive LP-side of music (not available digitally)
    • Perfect bound libretto book (88 pages)
    • Certificate, signed and numbered edition of 100

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    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
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    edition of 100 
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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Holy Restaurant, The Leopard, Victual Vittle Bottle Cunt, Dafne Phono, Solo Voce, Calendar, The Magnesia Suite, "Collaborations" Readings, and 61 more. , and , .

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1.
Overture 05:57
2.
Sailboat 11:15
3.
Copy 1 02:42
4.
Cottage 07:12
5.
Forest 06:55
6.
Copy 2 03:26
7.
Tavern 12:41
8.
Hotel 05:59
9.
Copy 3 03:48
10.
Library 07:29
11.
Restaurant 06:03
12.
Copy 4 03:01
13.
Cemetery 08:39
14.
Coda 04:40

about

Sean McCann presents The Leopard, an opera.

Dialog, music, and elaborate sound design fold into a narrative fantasy about self-cannibalization and transformation. Written and recorded over five years, this is McCann’s first album since 2019’s Puck (Recital) and his first opera. The opera is voiced by composer Martin Bresnick, artist Nour Mobarak, musician Max Eilbacher [Horse Lords], and voice actors David George and Krystel Abimeri. McCann performed and recorded most of the music himself, meticulously editing every sound.

The opera opens with an ornate musical overture before plunging into a surreal tableau: characters on a sailboat cooking and consuming themselves over a makeshift stove. Over the course of eight scenes, the plot continually dissolves and recombines, inducing a narcotic dreamstate. The opera is overseen by Copy, a chimerical figure who both guides and distorts the plot. Four wordless interludes feature Copy in a greenhouse, playing old Victrola records while pruning floral incarnations of each persona. One hears screaming silverware, sprays of watering cans, a thunderstorm, and the baking of each character into a loaf of bread. Musical flourishes appear, such as Barbara Strozzi’s devastating Lagrime mie (1659) which is performed in an empty library alongside a Gertrude Stein-esque spoken incantation read by Nour Mobarak. The opera closes with a grand coda; a haunting, elegiac work for violins and choir.

The opera is accompanied by a book that contains the libretto along with unspoken texts and artwork. Each scene in the book contains a “Copy path,” a kind of plot betrayal or text smear that beckons the listener to fall inside plot holes and uncover flickers of meaning for themselves.

The Leopard navigates a new form that lays somewhere between radio-play, experimental opera, and dioramic film. Available from Recital as a double-CD edition or a limited triple-vinyl LP box set (edition of 100).

credits

released October 31, 2025

Libretto by Sean McCann
Sound design and music by Sean McCann

CAST
The Leopard: Martin Bresnick
The Mummy: David George
Opal: Nour Mobarak
Gale: Krystel Abimeri
Daniel: Max Eilbacher

(2020 - 2025)

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Recital Glendale, California

Founded in 2012 by Sean McCann.
Focusing on abstract and beautiful music.
Sometimes just one of those things and sometimes both of those things.

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