The Lost Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci

A setting of an incomplete poem, describing a lost painting of a creature you but dare look upon.

Words: Percy Bysshe Shelley

It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky,

Upon the cloudy mountain peak supine;

Below, far lands are seen tremblingly;

Its horror and its beauty are divine.

Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie

Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine,

Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath,

The agonies of anguish and of death.

Yet it is less the horror than the grace

Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone [...]

The Lost Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by Khymerikal with funds from the Ida Carroll Trust and the Nicholas Boas Trust. It was first performed by them at The Lancaster Jazz Festival on 19 September 2015.