Gormenghast (opera) that "Gormenghast is, both in spirit and form, grand opera. But elements and characteristics of musical, the rock concert, and modern dance theatre play equally important roles within it". At a meeting of the UK's Mervyn Peake Society in 1995, Schmidt played three excerpts from the opera-in-progress, recorded on audio cassette—the music for the castle kitchen scene, a duet sung by the twins Cora and Clarice, and Steerpike's drunken song as he climbs to the top of the castle. The music for the castle kitchen had been recorded in his own kitchen using saucepans, plates, spoons, and forks as the
Mervyn Peake contract to depict various factory subjects and was also asked to submit a large painting showing RAF pilots being debriefed. Some of these paintings are on permanent display in Manchester Art Gallery whilst other examples are in the Imperial War Museum collection. The five years between 1943 and 1948 were some of the most productive of his career. He finished "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" and completed some of his most acclaimed illustrations for books by other authors, including Lewis Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark" (for which he was reportedly paid only £5) and "Alice in Wonderland", Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The