Omnis Temporalis: A Visual Long-Playing Record

The musical adaptation of Seth’s George Sprott, captured on vinyl and packaged by the cartoonist himself!

＂Something strange happens when you pass your work along to another artist for interpretation. It goes away a relative and comes back a stranger. Lines of dialogue I had written in my graphic novel, now spoken or sung by actors, were odd and moving. I could suddenly recognize from what wellspring of emotion they had originated in me. A truly moving experience.＂ --Seth

Seth’s acclaimed graphic novel George Sprott has now inspired a modern opera by the artistic director and musician Mark Haney. Captured on a classic vinyl record with a sumptuous, over-the-top design by Seth, Omnis Temporalis: A Visual Long-Playing Record is part chamber music, part song cycle, and part audio drama. Haney’s unique project builds on Seth’s original picture novella while standing alone as a musical triumph.

Omnis Temporalis remixes elements of Seth’s George Sprott to bring the main character and several other residents of Dominion to life, telling a story of time, memory, loss, and the ties that bind. Featuring acclaimed TV and voice actor Richard Newman as George and soprano Dory Hayley as Daisy, the cast also includes many of Canada’s best-known stage and TV actors.

The trio of alto flute, cello, and double bass create a musical palette on which the dialogue and songs float in an ethereal, atmospheric narrative that traces parts of George’s life as we accompany him through the last day of his life.

Seth is the cartoonist behind the graphic novel Clyde Fans. His comics have appeared in TheNew York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeney’s Quarterly. His illustrations have appeared on the cover of TheNew Yorker, TheWalrus, and Canadian Notes & Queries. He designs collections of work by Charles Schulz, John Stanley, and Doug Wright, and was the subject of a National Film Board documentary entitled Seth’s Dominion. Seth lives in Guelph, Canada in a house he has named Inkwell’s End.

Mark Haney is the Artistic Director of The Little Chamber Music Series That Could as well as the Composer-in-Residence at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery. Mark is acclaimed for his work exploring Canadian identity, culture, and community. As a composer Mark is best known for ＂Aim for the Roses＂, an avant-garde double bass suite that tells the true story of Canadian daredevil Ken Carter.