Commissioned by Piano Duo Post and Mulder with financial support from the Fund for the Creation of Music, and dedicated to the conductor Roland Kluttig.

"An overture for an imaginary opera" is how Ayres describes this hyperenergetic piece. When asked what the opera is exactly about, he answers' "I didn't have an actual story in mind whatever is happening it is certainly melodramatic." Ayres tosses chunks of bellicose melodies around like unguided projectiles. It sparks with enthusiasm and evokes images of Don Quixote, who joins battle against the windmills. The disastrousness of the entire undertaking may explain the sobbing and sighing in the middle of the piece: it is the timpanist, who has a megaphone to his lips."

© Saskia Tornqvist