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Wednesday, May 5, 2010 | 7:21 AM
POST 2
Dear Mr. Bernstein,
There are so many things I’d like to say to you. How did you do it all? Your life has become the model for the 21st century artist. Your music is dynamic, lovely. Your passion for education has become the model, and is a benchmark from which we judge a program’s success. (I think you’d be happy with El Sistema, but I digress....)
Your opera Candide was done in 1982 at New York City Opera, and your opera A Quiet Place will be done this Fall, 2010.
This segment of Candide makes me think about how as emerging composers we view success:
Their old teacher reveals his new plan for happiness to the quartet: man must "work from dawn til’ dusk, in the fields, patiently learning to make his garden grow."
Ahhhh....patience. Yes, something I can always learn more about. But it is also the invaluable lesson that life is the sum of all parts, and that steady work equals a full life of art.
This reminds me of a similar statement from Cage in his book Silence:
After a long and arduous journey a
young Japanese man arrived deep in
a forest
where the teacher of his
choice was living in a small house he
had made. When the
student arrived, the teacher
was sweeping up fallen leaves.
Greeting his master,
the young man received no greeting
in return. And to
all his questions, there
were no replies.
Realizing there was nothing he could do
to get the teacher’s attention,
the student went to another part
of the same forest and built
himself a house.
Years later, when he
was sweeping up fallen leaves,
he was enlightened.
He then dropped everything,
ran through the forest
to his teacher, and
said, “Thank you.”
In this same way, I have learned from your life, and from that of many masters.
I am currently writing to you from a plane...back from New York to San Francisco. I am savoring moments from the VOX week, replaying music in my head, and wishing like all good things, that they would never end. But that is New York, at it’s best, instant community, at its hardest, transient souls depositing glory, and then on to new journeys.
Mr. Bernstein, one other thing that strikes me is that most of my colleagues are composers with diverse careers. Each has a will of steel, and has not waited for opportunity. Some are composer/conductors, composer/producers, and others composer/performers. All, to some capacity, are educators. It reminds of over ten years ago, when I co-founded the company I still direct, VisionIntoArt. There was no clear path at the time for what I wanted to do, which was to create a school beyond a school, a place where I could take my career into my own hands, commission artists to play, create, and live across disciplines. Fast-forward ten years, and boy do I feel like I’ve found my place in opera!
The VOX lab/festival was designed to give us a view into all sides of creating an opera.
Steven Mosteller, the assistant conductor assigned to my piece, was attentive, kind, and brilliant at working across styles, from classical, to improvisation and folk. He created parallels that we all found useful, e.g. between Helga’s blues dripped voice, and “expressive flatting” in baroque practice. Most pointers were universal: phrasing, diction, breath, arc....
Lunch with patrons was next. The patrons I am assigned to are energetic lovers of opera. Ken Kaiserman tells us about receiving a MET subscription at his Bar Mitzvah and being hooked ever since. He loves everything but Puccini. (I wince as I had just mentioned that my favorite recent MET production was actually Minghella’s Madame Butterfly--the use of puppetry for Sorrow’s role, and a mirrored ceiling completely entranced me)...Susan Kaiserman’s introduction to opera was Woyzek. These are incredibly intriguing people.
The panels set up prior to each day of the festival allow us to reach out to the new opera audience, which is an open, lively one. My panel is with VOX producer Beth Morrison. She asks wonderful questions; one is specifically about muses. Most certainly, my singers who joined me on stage, are muses for me. Hila Plitmann’s timbre, range and acting push me to write better music...her performances leave me always in bliss, as she delivers soulful and perfectly nuanced interpretations. Helga Davis is a woman with a four octave range, a deeply hued and richly bruised voice that allows audiences in to see her soul. She is personal, and regal. This conversation reminds me of a great book about muses: Francine Prose’s The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired. An interesting tidbit (from Bibliofemme): At the age of eighty (in 1932) Alice Liddell (from Alice in Wonderland) was awarded an honorary doctorate (perhaps the only ever doctorate in musedom) from Columbia University. As far as history was concerned, her inspiration to Charles Dodgson (Carroll) was her life's greatest achievement...Today, we have different perceptions of muses. They are artists in their own right, full personas: take Suzanne Farrell to Balanchine, or Yoko Ono, to Lennon.
Another question from the audience was one I found quite important to any young composer in the audience:
“Is it will, or inspiration that drives a composer?”
Both. But without will, one cannot survive in today’s society. Times are increasingly difficult for artists. The rejections are plentiful, but they are also our learning blocks. The moments of acceptance and joy, such as the one we were about to embark on, are the ones that tell us yes, you are good enough (for now), and then on, to more rejections. This is the life of any artist. The great MacArthur winning artist/composer Trimpin actually shows off a massive file of rejection letters in a recent documentary film made on him!
If only Mr. Bernstein, you could say to us: You are an artist.
to each performer: Do you have any idea how beautiful you each are, breathing life into new art?
-----------------------------
The festival had a buzz, and was filled with an interesting cross-section of producers, patrons, and concert-goers. The films created by Greg Emetaz that go before each opera selection are all hits. If you have not seen them yet, you should!
A few of my personal highlights:
Du Yun’s ZOLLE is inventive, passionate, and as crazy as she is. She uses walkie talkies to manipulate sound and create a distorted image of time and place. Hila Plitmann is masterful as narrator. Hai-Ting Chinn, who I had recently seen in the Wooster Group’s La Didone, was brilliant. Du-Yun coached her movements, which were sparse and essential; the minimal staging was enough to give you a port into her dreamy and eerie world.
Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar is a steady bloom of unfolding passion. I feel like I am reading Eberhardt’s burnt-edged journals on the set of Minghella’s movie, The English Patient.
David T. Little and I both took part in Carnegie Hall’s Professional Training Workshop where Dog Days was first commissioned in 2009. To see it grow is wonderful. His rock edge and masterful writing skills unite pathos and wit to characters that are perfectly etched out by the great librettist Royce Vavrek. They are a team to watch.
Michael Gordon’s Aquanetta boasts unbelievable singers and the spectacular and driven ending aria ends the festival brilliantly. He has such a gift for energetic and perfectly arced works: if you don’t know Potassium for string quartet, listen immediately.
Truth be told, there are to many good moments, and to many great minds to mention.
Summing up the experience, I would really love to address any artist or person reading this who may ask, as I often do, what does it take to pursue a career in the arts?
My high school “Destiny” class teacher Howard Hintze once said, “You must create beauty, because you are capable of it.” (And yes, I took a class called Destiny, and when writing my own--and having recently read and loved Out of Africa I gave myself the same tragic end as its heroine who died at 40-- and now that I am in my 30’s that totally freaks me out!!!)
But, really, what I’d like to say comes perfectly worded by the great Jonathan Safran-Foer in his book, A Convergence of Birds.
Make yourself a world you can believe in.
Live a life that has never been lived, in which everything you experience is yours and only yours.
Adults cry less than children, and have more need to cry...
Thank you to my family and friends who cried during Oceanic Verses. Art should allow us to cry, to feel. It frames our own personal experiences and provides us with protection, a shield, a window. I am after all, a part of all I have met.
Thank you to the NYCO opera family for giving us this platform to express ourselves. At best, art precedes social change; it illuminates and allows people to feel; it can encourage us to think in new ways, to reflect deeply, to evolve. As the great writer, Solzhenitsyn, said at his Harvard address, the only way we can go, is up.
yours in thanks,
Paola Prestini, composer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 | 9:09 AM
Mezzo-Soprano Heather Johnson began her relationship with City Opera in 2004 playing the role of Annina is Verdi's La Traviata. Heather joins us again singing the title role in Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman's Acquanetta at VOX this Friday and Saturday. Heather is no stranger to new opera, creating the role of Soroya in the world premiere of Charles Wuorinen's Haroun and the Sea of Stories at City Opera. Heather answers a few questions about her life in opera in another "Questions with...."Describe VOX
An opportunity for composers to get their work heard
Describe your character
Acquanetta, the 1940s B-movie film star
21st Century Opera is…
Vital!
You should come see Acquanetta because…
It's an amazing combination of textures that are extremely effective
Role you most want to play and why:
Octavian [in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier]- it's a cornerstone of the Mezzo repertoire
Your diva role model is…
Teresa Berganza.
When you are on a date and tell the other person that you are an opera singer, the common reaction is…
"So what? So am I!"
Favorite opera to listen to?
What I'm working on at the moment
Favorite opera to sing?
Carmen
Pre-performance diet?
Nothing, can't eat 3 hours before. During is a different story--usually cucumbers & apples.
If volcanic ash were to keep you from a visit overseas, where would that be?
Sweden
Growing up, did you ever attend a tea party?
Almost everyday between ages 4 and 5.
Album you can’t live without?
Stevie Wonder. All of them
Secret talent (other than singing!)?
Cooking.
Worst costume you ever wore?
A rather unfortunate Suzuki [from Puccini's Madama Butterfly] costume
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
Kate Winslet
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | 1:16 PM
Bass Matthew Curran, a newcomer to VOX, will make his City Opera debut in Revolution of Forms and Acquanetta this Saturday, May 1st at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Matthew was happy to join us for another round of "Questions with...". Take a look!Describe VOX
Opera 2.0 Beta
21st Century Opera is…
The ultimate grab bag of all things music and art.
You should come see Revolutions of Form and Acquanetta because…
It's history in the making.
Role you most want to play and why:
King Phillip in Verdi's Don Carlo. He's a complex character with one of the greatest bass arias ever written
Your diva role model is…
Sam Ramey, the anti-diva.
When you are on a date and tell the other person that you are an opera singer, the common reaction is…
No, you're not!
Favorite opera to listen to?
Impossible to say. Depends on my mood.
Favorite opera to sing?
Whatever I am performing in at the time.
Pre-performance diet?
No specific diet, but usually a pre-performance snack of a banana and an orange or apple.
If volcanic ash were to keep you from a visit overseas, where would that be?
Is this a trick question? Iceland?
Growing up, did you ever attend a tea party?
No, I'm from New Jersey
Album you can’t live without?
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Secret talent (other than singing!)?
Trading the Stock Market
Worst costume you ever wore?
Tight white boxer briefs, a salmon-colored ladies' silk night robe, and a choker in Elektra at Zurich Opera. Go figure!
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
That's easy. McSteamy in that hospital TV show.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | 8:45 AM
*Composer Paola Prestini takes over the blog this week in honor of our VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab with a series of letters she has written to different composers.*
POST I
These letters are addressed to composers that have been commissioned by New York City Opera in the past. These are just some of the composers I would have loved to meet.To date there have been nearly 100 premieres. To join the roster in this small way is beyond exciting. To be an immigrant and bring forward the piece I have written (Oceanic Verses) speaks to the openness of the musical scene happening now in NY, and specifically at this opera house. Where else can you attend a never seen production of Bernstein, next to a Zorn and Feldman monodrama, and hear Mike Patton, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed jam? That the lead vocalist from Faith No More and Mr. Bungle will be beatboxing and scatting on the opera stage means not only that adventure is back “in” and that the future of opera is and will always remain a dramatic setting (however loosely interpreted), but that it will and does belong to the people. George Steel is up to something. His risk taking is worth observing, emulating, and learning from.
Dear Dr. William Grant Still:
What does it feel like to have 22 curtain calls? Now more than ever, your work Troubled Island, set in Haiti, with its racially charged and humanist themes, would be embraced.
Your work is worth revisiting and as soon as I am done with VOX I plan to research it more. I decided to write to you, because today, while teaching an exceptional young Pakistani composer, she brought to my attention a beautiful Haitian poem.
As we dug in, we experienced the beauty of setting language, not only in its marriage to music, but also in that it is a world view. As Merete Mueller points out: When you look up the word “poverty” in the Creole-English dictionary, you see it is also the word for “hollow tin can.” The power of this image is breathtaking, and one that belongs solely to Creole. You can check out the beautiful poem WONGOL POEM, by EMMANUEL EJEN, at Merete Muellers ubelievable site, here:
Your opera opens: In the balmy still of a Haitian night, a mother sings plaintively to her child.
And ends:
Azelia enters...She goes to the corpse and kneels beside the body of the man she loves. She lifts his head and falls sobbing across his body. She alone remained true. She has lived to kiss again the scars on his poor Black back.
I can only imagine how ahead of your time you were. I wish I could hear this piece live.
You’d be happy with news from the program. VOX was started about ten years ago. It is seminal in the field for nurturing new operatic expressions, and each year is diverse in style, and background.
As artists filed in to this years New York City Opera’s VOX orientation, a warm sense of anticipation permeated the air. In a relaxed setting, we mused on the pieces, what the process would be like, and waited for various directors to come in and share pointers.
Like the leaves of a magnolia flower, each work is vibrant and richly hued in its own way. All teams, be it composer/librettist, or composer/filmmaker, has a clear, distinct fragrance. Anthony Davis’ appealingly open personality disarmed many of us who have not had an experience at City Opera. Cori Ellison’s (Dramaturg and Director of Supertitles) photographic memory and quick wit/spark ignited curiosity and a sense of grandeur as she listed (by memory) the countless NYC Opera American premieres. One thing seems clear from reading a bit about City Opera’s history; there seems to be a trend: each Director has infused its staff with a sense of purpose, with a penchant for risk. Many of the Executive Directors have been faced with financial woes, and this year is no different. It is very human to see our experiences as singular when in reality, there is something comforting in life’s pendulum. To see George Steel talk, with his conviction and easy style, not only inspires one in terms of the direction of this specific opera house, but also, comforts one in terms of the role of new music in opera. It seems he understands that each opposing circumstance, be it life or death, love or solitude, conformity or iconoclasticism, are antagonistic but also part of a single reality. (There is a great work by the Mexican poet and author Octavio Paz that speaks of these truths, but superimposed on political theory; it is marvelous : A Labyrinth of Solitude).
In any case, back to the juice. I had a chance to socialize with some of these remarkable people, both from City Opera, and VOX composers. Here are some things that stood out.
-George Steel (General Manager and Artistic Director) and Ed Yim (Director of Artistic Planning) finish each other’s sentences in their talk. There is a strong connection, and the mission is tight. They are talking to a room of composer/producers, and I feel so at home. They talk about programming and all the inner workings of the opera house in one sentence, and we see that it is all connected, as it should be...
-Anthony Davis talks about what it was like to have Malcom X premiered. And, how certain scenes from the movie are actually from his opera!
-Royce Vavrek has been collaborating for almost two years now with David T. Little, writing both DOG DAYS (in progress) and VINKENSPORT, OR THE FINCH OPERA. He says, “More and more I learn what particular type of dramatic text he needs from me in able for him to flourish musically, and more and more we cultivate the marriage of words and music that tell our own (hopefully singular) brand of music theater storytelling. In a nutshell, it's 98% alchemy. VOX is very exciting as it allows for our piece to live off the page. Hearing singers bring the work to life in such a presentation allows us the opportunity to experience the work on its feet, in a three-dimensional space, which is entirely invaluable!”
I see Missy Mazzoli after her first orchestra read and she has that same incredulous look I had after mine: a sense of relief (the musicians are amazing and each conductor is dedicated in the deepest way) mixed with the joy of finally hearing something come to life that has for so long lived solely on a page and in our heads.
-The other night, over opera and a beautiful Manhattan view, Robert Treviño, the conductor to my piece, Oceanic Verses, talks about how he has known his mission in life was to conduct, since he was 15. He tells his story to Helga Davis, vocalist and improviser (who is new to the opera scene). They are on different sides of lifes spectrum, and for a moment, they are on the same journey. They will leave imprints on each others experience, which will inform their lives again, at some other juncture.
-John Beeson (Senior Assistant Conductor) and Cory Lipiello (Artistic Administrator) talk passionately about casting. It is fascinating--all the decisions, and how everyone who passes through their audition process throughout the year goes on a sort of mental roster--they never know who they will need to call on when pieces now a days are so radically different. John talks about picking up a copy of the Pasolini book that composer Du Yun’s piece ZOLLE is based on, and spending months coaching her on Italian. It is evident that the spirit of this lab is to grow, to learn, and to express your voice but to also embrace the learning that can happen when intersecting with people of John’s caliber. (Interestingly, Pasolini’s incredibly diverse career intersected with opera, and Maria Callas in "Medea: Myth and Reason" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGPd411gOYA ) Check it out.
-Beth Morrison, VOX producer, and a true composers advocate, has brought even more connection between composer, singer and staff by having composers in the room from an earlier point in the process. With all these unique styles, collaboration has never been more important...
Speaking of collaboration, one of the innovations I am really excited about is the pairing of contemporary art works with each opera, creating a fresh new vision and relevance, and a unification of the disparate art worlds in NY....
And back to you, Dr. William Grant Still, you’d be happy to see these murals inspired by Troubled Island at the William Still Art Center. It reminds me of this beautiful quote from National Geographic Magazine:
“feet, tired from long journeys, pause to repose and raise the body to the sky, taking in the endless possibilities...”
yours,
Paola Prestini, Composer
Monday, April 26, 2010 | 3:27 PM
Amelia Watkins (or "Mimi" for short) made her New York City Opera debut in this season’s L'Étoile covering the role of Laoula. Amelia will join us again for our VOX Lab this Friday and Saturday in the presentations of With Blood, With Ink and Acquanetta. She was gracious enough to answer a few questions in another round of “Questions with…”Describe VOX
Necessary exposure for new operas supported by a major opera house.
With Blood, With Ink is about…
The incredible life story of an intellectually gifted 17thcentury nun.
Summarize Acquanetta
B-movie horror actress has run-in with mad scientist and ape.
21st Century Opera is…
What opera is from any century; the ultimate culmination of music & storytelling.
You should come see With Blood, With Ink and Acquanetta because…
I’m an ape and 2 nuns!
Role you most want to play and why:
Today: toss-up between Lulu & Zerbinetta. Tomorrow: another story...
Your diva role model is…
Diana Damrau.
When you are on a date and tell the other person that you are an opera singer, the common reaction is…
Them: Really? But you’re… um… really? Me: You mean I’m not a 7 ft tall scary Viking-woman in horns?
Favorite opera to listen to?
I don’t listen to opera that much at home anymore (gasp!). More likely: Kate Bush, Radiohead, Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Favorite opera to sing?
Of late, Queen of the Night in Magic Flute – 2 arias, 2 minute finale and, done! I’m waiting for a new favorite (offers welcome).
Pre-performance diet?
Sandwich of some kind (usually in dressing room) and apples.
If volcanic ash were to keep you from a visit overseas, where would that be?
My parents live in Singapore, so probably there.
Growing up, did you ever attend a tea party?
Attend?! I have hosted countless tea parties for my stuffed animals, and can be found at Alice’s Tea Cup very frequently. Any excuse for scones and clotted cream!
Album you can’t live without?
Who needs to choose an album when you have an iPod? That I can’t live without!
Secret talent (other than singing!)?
Cooking, yodeling, ukulele playing, skiing.
Worst costume you ever wore?
Midsummer Night’s Dream in college: tie-died pajamas with matching headbands. With a sheepskin vest, I could have been in Hair!
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
Any b-movie actress who has a run-in with an ape & a mad scientist.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 | 9:50 AM
Mezzo soprano Ariana Chris has been singing with City Opera since her debut in 2007 as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana and we’re thrilled to have her back next weekend for VOX, City Opera’s lab showcasing the most promising works of contemporary American Opera. She’ll be pulling double-duty, performing in both David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s Dog Days as well as Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar. Ariana took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to answer to some questions for the NYCO Blog…In 10 Words or Less…
Describe VOX.
A showcase with the courage to fund and try new music.
Song from the Uproar is about…
the ultimate feminist.
Summarize Dog Days
"The Day After" meets "Alive"
21st Century Opera is…
Fearless exploration of sounds.
You should come see Dog Days and Song from the Uproar because…
You should come see Dog Days and Song from the Uproar because…
Dog Days is music, the way real people talk. Song from the Uproar because it's beautiful sounds of the desert.
Role you most want to play and why?
Rosina. I’ve done all the parts, just want to put it together!
Your diva role model is…
Your diva role model is…
Maria Callas. I'm Greek, people! I can't escape her!
When you are on a date and tell the other person that you are an opera
singer, the common reaction is…
singer, the common reaction is…
"but… you're not fat!"
Favorite opera to listen to?
Lucia di Lammermoor (sung well)
Favorite opera to sing?
Carmen
Pre-performance diet?
Usually a sandwich I grabbed from Starbucks on the way to the dressing room.
If volcanic ash were to keep you from a visit overseas, where would that be?
Greece. Love it there and have gone almost every year of my life!
Growing up, did you ever attend a tea party?
The plastic Disney kind?
Album you can’t live without?
Britney Spears. Turns off my brain.
Secret talent (other than singing)?
Cooking-- not so secret!
Worst costume you ever wore?
Female Pig in Noah's Arc. Hands down. Tears.
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
Eek! Sandra Bullock? In her classic slapstick.
Friday, February 19, 2010 | 12:51 PM
Lauren Worsham has been quite busy since her City Opera debut as Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide back in 2008. Lauren has paired up with librettist Royce Vavrek (whose opera Dog Days will be featured in this year’s VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab) to form The Coterie, a new company specializing in blending the worlds of musical theater and opera. The Coterie works with composers whose music blurs the lines between standard musical theater and opera with rock, pop and jazz influences.
“I wanted to fill the niche for the in-between”, says Lauren. “Royce and I wanted to create a company with a younger audience, so we looked for music that was caught between the genres.” Lauren says that the composers create pieces based on the style and talents of the singers in the company while also experimenting with fusing these varied genres. “I don’t have formal training in opera, but I am interested in more dramatic and more sophisticated works of musical theater that are falling in line with the direction contemporary opera is taking.”
Lauren and Royce will be showcasing the talents of the their company this Monday February 22nd as they present THE COTERIE UN/PLUGGED, VOLUME ONE: LAUREN WORSHAM AND FRIENDS at the Canal Room. The benefit concert will include new works by Vavrek, Obie Award-winner Kyle Jarrow, Taylor Mac and more. These specially-comissioned works with be performed by Tony nominee Barbara Walsh (Falsettos, Company), Theresa McCarthy (Titanic, Floyd Collins) and Andrew Nolen among others. Lauren says she wanted the concert to appeal to an audience that loved new music but also her friends who didn’t really know opera or musical theater. For both Lauren and Royce, it really came down to showcasing some fantastic artists. Adds Royce: "With The Coterie un/plugged concert series, we hope to present events that showcase vocalists that fit the mission of The Coterie: a hybrid singer that is an equal vocalist and actor that lives in the music theater realm. By asking composers to write specifically for these performers we are able to explore the versatility of these awesome artists and cater to their singular abilities. It's really a win-win situation: composers get to write material for an ideal instrument, and the singers get music that shows them off to the utmost effect."
To purchase tickets to The Coterie un/plugged on Monday, February 22nd at 7:30, click here.
Executive Director Lauren Worsham and Artistic Director Royce Vavrek
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | 9:06 AM
Last weekend NYCO held its Tenth Annual VOX Showcase, with a wide array of contemporary American works. New York City Opera interns Kristina, Dimitri, and Alex give their take on VOX 2009.
All three of us really liked Ted Hearne’s Katrina Ballads, which expressed the harsh realities surrounding the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. This piece was Kristina’s favorite because of its unique use of lyrics pulled verbatim from the media. The words really speak to the audience because they are from that moment in history and show the political and social tension during the event. One of the highlights of this piece was the vignette entitled “You’re doing a great job Brownie,” in which the vocal styling resembled those of a DJ’s mix.
Kristina and Dimitri pose with the "Voxy-y Mama" poster
Dimitri, who’s a huge opera fan, really enjoyed Gordon Beeferman’s The Rat Land. Mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin stole the show as the isolated daughter of a dysfunctional family. Her acting perfectly portrayed the role of a little girl trapped in the midst of an embarrassing birthday party. Singing the role of her autistic brother, Jonathan Makepeace performed an eccentric duet with a Speak-And-Spell toy. Now we see why the VOX programmers revisited the work, which premiered in 2007, and we are all eagerly awaiting a full-length production somewhere in the near future.
Alex loved Car Crash Opera by Michaela Eremiášová and Jairo Duarte-López. It is an eight-minute piece where the music is set to an animated film by Skip Battaglia depicting a car crash. The film wasn’t shown on Saturday, but we could definitely understand how the music would fit. We could easily identify the different characters--from the truck driver, to the impassioned couple, to the mother and child--just by listening to the piece. The singers’ ability to identify with these characters transported the audience into the passenger’s seat.
Alex, Kristina, and Dimitri
We all thoroughly enjoyed VOX this weekend. The Festival not only gives viewers a sneak-peek view of contemporary works, but also showcases some of NYCO’s young talent. We can only hope that some of the operas we saw become produced in the future (yes, that’s how incredible they were). We can’t wait for next year’s festival to see what new works they come up with, and hope to see you there too!
What did you think?
Friday, April 24, 2009 | 11:34 AM
The weather is getting warmer, the birds and flowers are returning to New York, but to the staff of New York City Opera, nothing harkens spring more than the sound of VOX rehearsals.
Once again our rehearsal rooms are booked solid as singers, composers, coaches, and instrumentalists get ready for our 2009 VOX: Showcasing American Composers on May 1st and 2nd at NYU's Skirball Center. For more information, click here.
Jennifer Zetlan, Ariana Chris, and Lielle Berman rehearse Car Crash Opera
Ryan Kinsella and Theodore Chletsos practice their coughing for Car Crash Opera
The orchestra rehearses A Bird in Your Ear
Stephen Schwartz gives notes after a run-through of Séance on a Wet Afternoon
The trombone section takes a break
David Bruce listens as the orchestra rehearses his opera, A Bird in your Ear
Practice makes perfect
Friday, May 16, 2008 | 9:39 AM
VOX, the New York City Opera program dedicated to showcasing new operas from emerging artists and composers, presented its annual concert this past Saturday and Sunday at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Please click HERE for photos from the program, currently in its ninth season at City Opera. Please see below for reviews and articles about the event.
"Since 1999, New York City Opera's lively Vox series has offered concert performances of excerpts from new operas by American composers, like fashion designers previewing a new collection on the runway. Of the 82 works presented at previous Vox concerts, 33 have received full stagings. Last weekend the City Opera Orchestra performed 10 new works, with each excerpt preceded by an insightful video interview with the composer..."
- The New York Times
Please click HERE for the full review
"...ten years later, VOX is still going strong and has produced several notable American operas, most recently Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison's Margaret Garner, which played at City Opera this past season to sold-out houses. Clearly, this is a win-win situation for all concerned..."
- Feast of Music blog, audience review
Please click HERE for the full article
Please click HERE to learn more about VOX.
Monday, May 12, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed by a full orchestra and excellent singers. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are FREE and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
To learn more about this year's VOX composers, please click the links:
Justine F. Chen - Jeanne
Sorrel Hays - Our GiraffeJohn King - Dice Thrown
Veronika Krausas - The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth
David T. Little - Soldier Songs
Robert Manno - Dylan and Caitlin
Steven Potter - The Officers
Cary Ratcliff - Eleni
Scott Davenport Richards - Charlie Crosses The Nation
Alice Shields - Criseyde
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed by a full orchestra and excellent singers. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer Steven Potter talks about his new work, The Officers, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
The Gallarus Oratory in Ireland
Your percussion needs for the show encompass a wide range of everyday objects, including pencil sharpeners, basketballs, and tearing paper. You use a synthesizer to create the sound of a doorbell and phone ringing. What does this do for the environment of the piece?My goal was to create an artifice that closely resembles the banal reality of our everyday lives, or at least everyday life as I've experienced it at one time or another. It's a way of affirming life, recreating on stage stuff that regularly takes up our time. Bits of reality that we take for granted as trivial or unworthy of attention, are regarded here as deserving heightened attention. That said, this material isn't present at every moment of the piece, and harmony and musical gesture actually play a much bigger role than everyday noises, especially in the excerpt to be performed at VOX.
To read the entire post, please click HERE.
To learn more about VOX, please click HERE.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed by a full orchestra and excellent singers. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer Alice Shields talks about her new work, Criseyde, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
Chaucer reciting Troilus and Criseyde
at Corpus Christi College, early 15th
century
Your piece is written in "funky middle English." What is that, exactly?Middle English is of course medieval English, a variety of dialects spoken in England after the Norman invasion. The English spoken before the Norman invasion, Old English or Anglo-Saxon, is truly foreign to modern speakers of English, and has to be studied as a foreign language in every way. Middle English is earliest version of English that we modern English-speaking people can still largely understand when we hear it, although there are significant differences in the way vowels were pronounced. When you look at a page of Chaucer, you see basically a phonetic spelling, where each letter represents an actual sound, unlike our Modern English spelling, in which many words are spelled in ways that no longer match the way we pronounce those words. Middle English is sort of "funky" because it's like when we moderns use special slang spelling that actually represents the sounds of the word when it's spoken, like when someone writes "I luv ya!" or "''cuz" instead of "because." Middle English is "real" in a way that modern English is not: when Chaucer is read aloud, you can actually hear the language largely as Chaucer would have pronounced it. Middle English is funky because it's street-smart and real -- it's the sound of how at least some people 600 years ago actually spoke English, even though in the case of Chaucer it's coming to us through the skill of an astonishing poet.
To read the entire article, please click HERE.
To learn more about VOX, please click HERE.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed by a full orchestra and excellent singers. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer Scott Davenport Richards talks about his new work, Charlie Crosses The Nation, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
Your piece walks that precarious line not just between musical theater and opera but jazz and opera. Certainly, there are precedents of this in American opera, most conspicuously Porgy & Bess, but what drew you to this kind of hybrid writing?
"Precarious line" conjures up the image of a vast chasm on each side of a piece of tennis court tape (at least to me). Ordinarily, I might respond "Precarious? Why should it be precarious?" but recent events surrounding Senator Obama remind me that though the chasm may have shrunk to the size of a drainage ditch, it is still an obstacle. If we are going to tell stories about America and Americans, how can we ignore American musical language? We don't write the librettos in Italian. I thought John Gay put an end to that 280 years ago.
To read the entire article, please click HERE.
To learn more about VOX, please click HERE.
Friday, April 11, 2008 | 12:48 PM
No need to fear new music when it comes to VOX, City Opera's free annual showcase of new American operas. Visually exciting and informative video introductions precede each new work performed at VOX, giving the audience a rare chance to see how an opera is conceived. This video gives you an idea of what to expect.
For more information on VOX, which will present its showcase on May 10th and 11th at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, please click HERE.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed by a full orchestra and excellent singers. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer Cary Ratcliff talks about his new work, Eleni, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
Eleni with her son, Nicholas Gage
You and Robert Koch have collaborated once before on a one-act opera on the topic of Ellis Island. You've tackled another large topic for your next opera, Eleni. What type of subjects attract the two of you in creating opera? Bob Koch conceived our opera, Ellis Island, from a wealth of circa 1910 accounts that he wove into a story of immigrants' first steps into becoming American; of being pushed to find commonality both in what they left behind -- sometimes near-unspeakable experiences -- and in the hope for a better life. Eleni is a similar story of just one family's experience trying to leave for the new world -- with deadly obstacles in their way. Though Eleni's children found the "hoped-for" lives in America, for years they spoke to no one of their horrific past. When Nick finally began telling others, he began to understand himself, and his life's task: to become a writer, and to tell the story of why his mother hadn't followed them as she had promised.
To read the entire article, please click HERE.
To learn more about VOX, please click HERE.
Friday, April 4, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed with a full orchestra and excellent artists. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer Veronika Krausas talks about her new work, The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
There are a lot of adaptations of Macbeth, including two operatic settings. Did these other settings influence you as you were writing this opera?
photo still from Kurosawa's Throne of Blood
That's one of the things with great stories -- they've all been done before but still continue to strike the imagination and really get the creative juices flowing. I specifically didn't want to re-listen to any of the operatic works (Verdi's especially) and instead I turned to different art forms (like film and image) for inspiration.Tom Pettit (librettist) and I watched Polanski's Macbeth and Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (which is the Macbeth story set in feudal Japan). It was Kurosawa's version that greatly inspired us, especially for the characters of the witches and Lady M. Throughout the film, Lady M is portrayed almost like a statue, and I remember at one point, she was trying to convince her husband to kill the king, and she was sitting on the floor with her head bowed (subservient to her husband). He wavered, she made the smallest movement of looking up and moving her eyes, and that provided the 'final blow' to convince him to do it. It was powerful and horrifying. The portrayal of the witches in Kurosawa's film is also brilliant -- there is one that is like a ghost spinning yarn -- a true representation of fate! Once they finish spinning the thread, it is cut.
There are a lot of dark Shakespearean characters to choose from. Why Lady Macbeth?
Originally, we had planned to do the whole story as an opera but due to time restrictions we cut it down to focus just on Lady M and the witches. When I approached Tom about collaborating on an opera, he was just in the process of re-reading Macbeth for the zillionth time and suggested it.
Rose-Lynn Fisher's Regent of Abandoned Tears
Another strong element in the play is this idea of alienation from society and from self. One image that I found very powerful was Rose-Lynn Fisher's painting, Regent of Abandoned Tears. Although the image is of a man, the idea of such abandon and stark alienation really comes through in her piece.This is not only a chamber opera in terms of its smaller orchestra, but it's also a shorter piece, lasting 22 minutes. Are you after a certain level intimacy with this piece in particular, or do you feel more at home with this scale of work?
There were practical as well as aesthetic reasons for this choice. Practically, less musicians are always less expensive to produce. However, aesthetically, this intimate setting brings the listener closer to the inner workings of Lady M's plotting and struggles.
Do you plan on adapting any more Shakespeare? What can audiences expect next from you?
I am working on plans to produce Lady M in Los Angeles with three acrobats to mirror the witches as crows! I've always loved crows -- not for their nastier nature, but rather for their beauty -- they are an amazing shade of black/blue and, like any bird, their flight looks so effortless and seamless. Once on the ground, they have a lovely and quite comical way of hopping around. Their cawing is also very interesting; unlike annoying magpies, crows make a wonderful and powerful sound.
In the conception stages of this opera, we had always intended to mirror the witches with three crows -- the crows being acrobats. I think in any story of Arthurian legend or fantasy, etc., you usually have crows representing the witches or wizards. A few years ago, I found out that the reason for this is because crows are the most common bird internationally -- they are ubiquitous to almost all cultures and environments and thus were seen as the perfect transformation of witches and wizards; they wouldn't be out of place and would blend into their environments. (Obviously, a peacock in the middle of England in the 11th century would have been a little bit of a give-away.)Since this opera is relatively short, it'll be combined with several of Henze's guitar works from Royal Winter Music, each based on a famous Shakespearean monologue. The pieces will be presented with corresponding monologues that will lead into the opera.
Other plans include two more opera projects -- both in the early planning stages. One is with the Canadian writer Andre Alexis and the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Canada. The other is for Janet Fitch's novel, Paint It Black. She's also the author of White Oleander. It's a great story that contrasts the classical and punk music scenes in Los Angeles in the 1980's. It surrounds the suicide of a young man and the two women involved with him -- his mother and his girlfriend. The librettist is Kate Gale (a former VOX librettist).
What do you hope audiences get out of The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth?
Ultimately that they enjoy the opera... but what does 'enjoy' really mean? As a listener you would get engrossed in Lady Macbeth's journey -- you'd feel her jealously and thirst for power, you'd tremble at her fear of seeing the murdered king, and you'd loose your mind as she goes insane. If it works, the audience will be a mess by the end! Perhaps sympathy versus empathy with the character will be fine -- a much less dangerous situation in the theater after the concert!
The other main component of the opera is the witches -- the "Greek Chorus" of the work. They really present a neutral narrative of what's happening but they also have a little bit of fun conjuring their spells and boiling their 'hell-broth.' If you tap your foot to their conjuring and stirring, then that would be great too!
Ultimately that they enjoy the opera... but what does 'enjoy' really mean? As a listener you would get engrossed in Lady Macbeth's journey -- you'd feel her jealously and thirst for power, you'd tremble at her fear of seeing the murdered king, and you'd loose your mind as she goes insane. If it works, the audience will be a mess by the end! Perhaps sympathy versus empathy with the character will be fine -- a much less dangerous situation in the theater after the concert!
The other main component of the opera is the witches -- the "Greek Chorus" of the work. They really present a neutral narrative of what's happening but they also have a little bit of fun conjuring their spells and boiling their 'hell-broth.' If you tap your foot to their conjuring and stirring, then that would be great too!
To learn more about VOX, please click HERE.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed with a full orchestra and excellent artists. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer Robert Manno talks about his new work, Dylan and Caitlyn, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
You have quite a history with opera as a performer, and although you've written more than 40 compositions for other instrumental combinations, Dylan & Caitlyn is the first opera you've written. Is there a reason you've waited so long to focus your talent on creating an opera?
Oh yes! I have steered away from large orchestral pieces as well as opera, simply because of the difficulty of getting them performed. I also wanted to wait until I felt completely ready to undertake such an insane challenge!
However, I knew in my early thirties that eventually I just had to write an opera. So I started researching many topics that interested me. Among them were Hesse's Siddhartha (that's really Phillip Glass territory), Dylan Thomas's film script to The Doctor and the Devils (got quite a bit along with re-doing the script, but then realized it was just too gruesome for what I wanted to do musically), The Picture of Dorian Gray (too... well... whatever), the life of E. E. Cummings (not dramatically convincing), the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay (now there's a good story to play on the stage, especially with the controversy surrounding her death), and countless other possibilities.
I also knew that I would not be able to compose an opera without the free time to do so (i.e. I had to leave the Met Chorus), and I knew I needed a great librettist.
Why did Dylan Thomas' story stand out to you as the right one for your first opera?
As I researched the various possibilities, I kept coming back to Dylan Thomas, who -- along with Rilke and Cummings -- are my "desert island" poets.
But it was the re-reading of John Malcolm Brinnin's Dylan Thomas in America about eight years ago which turned the switch on for me. I had quite a few books by and about Dylan and quite a bit of Thomas memorabilia. (I had even clipped out and saved Caitlyn Thomas' 1994 obituary from the New York Times.) So I went down to the Strand Bookstore and bought up everything they had on Dylan (that I didn't already own) and started reading it all.
During 2000-2001 (my last year in the MET Chorus), I drafted a rough outline of various scenes from the opera. From a web search, I found that there was to be a "Dylan Thomas Festival" in Swansea, Wales, in the fall of 2001, and that Dylan and Caitlyn's daughter, Aeronwy Thomas, would be attending and speaking. I was put in touch with her by the trustees of the Thomas Estate.
photo: Bernard Mitchell
from left: Robert Manno, Aeronwy Thomas, and Gwynne Edwards
Then, I sent her a commercial CD of my music, which includes a 1973 setting of "Fern Hill" for baritone and chamber ensemble, and told her about my idea for an opera about her parents. She wrote back and agreed to meet with me at the Festival. We talked quite a bit in Swansea in the fall of 2001, and Aeronwy was most helpful to me in putting the story of her parent's life in perspective.I went home excited and drafted a scene by scene synopsis of the opera. Then the search for a librettist began. I tried a number of possible persons, but I was unable to come up with someone whom I felt was up to the task and willing to undertake something of this magnitude -- with no certain possibility of remuneration of any kind. In short, I couldn't find anyone as crazy as myself to get involved in something so uncertain.
This opera is described as "a lyrical account of the last year in the life of Dylan Thomas and his volatile relationship with his wife, Caitlyn." How did you and Gwynne Edwards choose and narrow down material for this piece which is entirely based on biographical material, letters, and documented conversation?
First, I should tell you how I met Gwynne Edwards.
By the fall of 2006, I had grown discouraged, thinking that I might never write this opera. Through the periodic Dylan Thomas Centre email postings, I kept seeing the name "Gwynne Edwards" as having written a number of plays about Dylan and Caitlyn Thomas. So I tracked Gwynne down online and sent him some CDs of my music along with the scene by scene opera synopsis. He, in turn, mailed me copies of his plays. Then, to my good fortune, he agreed to be the librettist, and between September 2006 and March 2007, we did the entire libretto by email. Since Gwynne had the synopsis, he was able to flesh out each scene with dialogue, some of which appears in his earlier biographical plays about Dylan and Caitlyn. Gwynne's brilliant libretto is entirely factual, even though the time frame for some of what happens in each scene had to be transposed for dramatic purposes.
Amazingly enough, we met for the first time last October in Wales, long after the libretto had been finished.
We are thrilled to have Emily Pulley singing the role of Caitlyn at the VOX presentation on Sunday, May 11. Is the part specifically written for her?
You're not the only one who's thrilled to have Emily singing the role of Caitlin! Yes, absolutely; The part is definitely written for her. I met Emily at the Met in the mid-nineties and I greatly admired her singing. In 1999, she gave the premiere (and recorded) my 1987 setting of Rilke's Stiller Freund at Merkin Hall with violinist Raymond Gniewek and pianist John Churchwell. The next year, also with John Churchwell at Merkin, she gloriously sang my 1975 song cycle, Portrait of Millay, on five Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnets.
Just last summer, Emily was the featured guest artist with the Windham Chamber Music Festival Orchestra (with me conducting.) She sang Mozart's "Ch'io Mi Scordi Di Te" with pianist Simone Dinnerstein, Grieg's "Solveig's Wiegenlied" (in Norwegian!), the "Jewel Song" from Faust, and encored with "O Mio Babbino Caro." What great singing, especially in "Babbino Caro," where she sounded like the young Freni!
Emily Pulley with Robert Manno
Dylan and Caitlyn is very much a work in progress. What do you hope to get out of the VOX performances on your path towards completing the opera?
Well... [sigh] I guess the ultimate hope would be a commission to finish the piece. Of course, I will finish it regardless. However, there's nothing like a commission to get the creative juices flowing fast! But, baring that, feedback from the audience and from the musicians (constructive criticism, pros and cons, etc) would be a great help to me.
It's going to be great to be back at the State Theater for the first orchestral read-thru on April 29th. I was a member of the New York City Opera Chorus from 1967-77, and this will be a great homecoming that I could never have imagined 30 years ago!
To learn more about VOX, please click HERE.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed with a full orchestra and excellent artists. On May 10th and 11th, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, composer David T. Little talks about his new work, Soldier Songs, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
You have a background in rock n' roll but have been gaining increasing attention for your work in classical music. Does a distinction of genres factor into the way you conceive of a piece?
I don't think so, actually. At least, not now. I mean, music is music, and more specifically, my music is my music. It is the way it needs to be, and it comes largely from my subconscious, I think. I really see no distinction between genres, or silly classifications like "high art" and "low art" -- all that modernist holdover nonsense. This open attitude is very common among many of my colleagues these days, especially those in the so-called "indie classical"camp. So whether it's for a rock band or orchestra, it's still going to be me, and it's still going to come from the same set of influences. For example, it is as common for me to bring Stravinskian ideas to a rock band rehearsal as it is for me to quote The Cure in an inner voice of a "classical" ensemble work. It's all the same to me. It's all the music that I love.
That said, when I wrote Soldier Songs, I was not so confident. I was still reeling from the darker parts of academia -- perhaps self-imposed -- which suggested that this sort of mixture was just not okay. Thus, when I began composing Soldier Songs, I made the pre-compositional decision to let myself use any genre if it worked dramatically, and if it was a style I truly knew and loved. (I wouldn't have written a Salsa number, for example, because I don't know that music well enough, and that sort of fake-it-'til-you-make-it character piece reminds me too much of works like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the likes of which I try to avoid whenever possible.) I just allowed myself to remain open to the true influence of the music I really love. As a result, I discovered a lot of genres of music that really are very "me," that I had in me, but which I hadn't ever really explored as part of my "compositional voice." A lot of the work, then, becomes about the collision of my influences, in a way. One great example of this is in the first song, "Real American Hero," in which one might hear the influence of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel doing battle with the 90s death metal band, Cannibal Corpse. (How many pieces do you know that mix those influences?!)
A little more on rock music: I would say that my experience playing rock music -- I'm a drummer -- has had a significant influence on my composition, but at a level deeper than that of genre. Playing rock music can (should) be very intense, especially the sort of music I gravitate toward as a player, which comes largely out of the punk and metal traditions. One might even say that this music is about intensity.
David's childhood friend, Michael Lear, in Iraq.
Photo is titled, "Old Friends with large weapons."
How has it been expanding the orchestration for Soldier Songs from your original vision involving your chamber ensemble [called Newspeak] to the much larger forces of the New York City Opera orchestra?
It's been great! And very exhausting! (That's a lot of notes...and a lot of pages of score!) Really though, it's been fun. In the original version, for the traditional Pierrot instrumentation, I found myself adding instruments to create an expanded sound palette. For example, I added a synthesizer to the piano part so that I could closely approximate low strings. But now I have low strings! I also added an electronic component to the chamber version, which was intended to reinforce the low end of an otherwise trebly ensemble and I added other instruments, like electric guitar. While I don't have electric guitar in the orchestra -- we probably couldn't get the right sound anyway, since it was largely a result of how we recorded it -- I have a whole brass section that I didn't have before! And power chords actually transfer pretty well from guitar to brass if you voice them right.
I should clarify, though, that Soldier Songs was written for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and not for Newspeak. That said, Newspeak will be performing the New York premiere of the chamber version this coming fall, with Beth Morrison Projects. Deep down, I really do wish I could rewrite the whole thing for Newspeak, and include guitar and drum-set and such, but man, I just don't have that kind of time these days. The next opera will be specifically written for Newspeak, so that will be great.
Tell us about the process behind this piece. What initially drew you to the soldier's experience, and how did you choose the interviews upon which this piece is based?
A few years ago, I started collecting old photographs. My whole house is full of them; photos from the late 1800s, up through the 1930s. One -- of an Electrolux Salesman-of-the-Year Dinner -- is as recent as 1961. I have a great group photo from the 1936 New Jersey Parent-Teacher Association Convention in Atlantic City. It's crazy! Everyone looks so serious!I often think about the people in the photos. Who they were; what horrible or wonderful things they saw; how their pictures came to eventually be discarded so that I could buy them at an old flea market, etc. These questions reach really deep places for me. They eventually touch on our own mortality. I think these questions are similar to those that I asked in approaching this piece.
Although initially, I have to confess, the inspiration for the piece all came from a much less noble image; that of a boy running into a room with a toy gun and shouting "Die! Die! Die!" as he shot his parents with the gun. (I now realize that this image came straight out of the Todd Solondz film, Happiness.) This image led me to similar questions I ask of my photos, but in the other direction: Who is this boy? What will he see? What will he do? Most importantly, given all of the theoretical answers to these questions: "What have we as a culture done to create and/or influence this?" In other words -- and perhaps this is a bit reductive, but I'll go with it -- how do we as a culture make soldiers?
The interviews basically chose me. When you hear these stories, especially in a reproducible form, you have no choice but to want to play them for others; to share the wisdom they hold with everyone you know, and with those you don't.
How did the libretto for Soldier Songs come about? Why did you choose to write it yourself?
I write a lot of my own text. In fact, I haven't used another writer's text for almost five years. For some composers, it seems, this is a bad idea. Maybe it is for me, too, but so far I think it has worked out. I first set my own poetry in 2004, when I was writing Songs of Love, Death, Friends, and Government, which is really a set of dramatic studies.
In a more strictly musical sense, I can't help but think that when I write text I think musically. I mean, poetry is musical after all, right? So why wouldn't I, a composer, write text musically?
The libretto for Soldier Songs took shape over the course of a year or so, while I was writing other pieces. I would generally think of an issue that I felt needed to be addressed, and would start from there. So, for example: war toys, video games, chess, loss, the draft, etc. These were each then made the source of a character-based poetic sketch. Some of these are based on my own experiences -- Old Friends With Large Weapons -- which explores my reaction to seeing photos of high school friends who were at that time serving in Iraq and Afghanistan; some of whom still are. Others focused on the experiences of other people who had served -- like my friends Amber Ferenz and Justen Bennett, or countless members of my family; grandfathers, uncles, etc.
David's uncle, Gene Little, in Vietnam, 1971
Around this time, I had lunch with one of my uncles, Gene Little, who, at my prodding, told me a lot of stories about his time in Vietnam. Hearing his story made me realize -- or at least decide --that I had no right to write about war when I had no direct experience with it; more specifically, it would be inappropriate, in this context, to dramatize it. From this, I decided that I needed to seek out other veterans, and make the piece more about their stories than about my own opinions.I proceeded to interview a number of veterans who had served in WWII, Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, as well as two who were in Cold War and Pre-9/11 intelligence, and from their stories culled the libretto.
However, I think the absence of text is also a topic worth discussing. For me, text-less melodies still hold the meaning of the text that inspired them. In the context of a composition that is in large part about different types of loss -- from the loss of life to the loss of innocence -- this gesture holds great poetic significance to me.
Other than the clear relevance to our own political situation, what do you hope an audience gets out of this May's presentation of excerpts from Soldier Songs?
Well, first let me say that Soldier Songs isn't about Iraq, or any war in particular. It's not about Laos, or Vietnam, or Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia, etc. Certainly it is not a far leap to make the connection from Soldier Songs to our current foreign policy situation, but Soldier Songs isn't really about any of that. Rather, Soldier Songs is about, quite simply, people and war: what war does to man, why man seems to need or want or crave war. These questions are actually really simple. So simple, in fact, that it seems most people out there haven't ever thought about asking them. They just seems too simple, I guess. But when you get inside the questions, one finds that the answers are utterly enormous, extremely heavy, and to be frank, quite depressing. Perhaps this is why no one asks.
While I was writing Soldier Songs, I came across a passage of Walt Whitman which really helped me, that I'll close with. Listening to all of these tragic stories told by people I love -- I knew I had to keep going. Whitman helped me to believe that this piece needed to be written; that these questions needed to be asked. The quote reads:
There are those who teach only the sweet lessons of peace and safety;But I teach lessons of war and death to those I love,That they readily meet invasions, when they come.-- Walt Whitman, Lessons
For more information on VOX, please click HERE.
Monday, March 24, 2008 | 10:00 AM
New York City Opera's VOX program offers emerging composers and librettists the opportunity to see their works performed with a full orchestra and excellent artists. On May 10 and 11, 2008, VOX will present excerpts from ten new works by American composers in a 2-day festival presided over by City Opera music director George Manahan. All performances are free and open to the public. For ticket reservations, visit www.vox-nyco.com.
This week, VOX composer Sorrel Hays talks about her new opera, Our Giraffe, a historical fable about the first giraffe in Paris.
Why did you choose to write music for a giraffe -- an animal which makes no sound?
At first, Zarafa did not sing. I composed her story with other characters, mainly Ahmed (her keeper), telling us about her. However, a second-person point of view is a terrible way to write a whole opera. I am a transactional kind of person, and I wanted the opera's characters to interact -- and the audience to experience that interaction. (Even though that interaction is, by design of our human state, always seen through human eyes, and heard through human ears.)
Charles Flowers [the work's librettist] wrote in Ahmed's first major aria about Prism Portals that we see the whole world through the prism of our perspectives: the scientist sees Zarafa through facts of weight, height, water consumption, and sleep habits; Minette sees Zarafa through her being also of the female sex and therefore bound by society's structures regarding women; the King sees Zarafa as perhaps the key or the answer to it all -- why we exist -- which, for a king such as Charles in post-revolutionary France, must have been a quixotic position with a need for primary answers.
"The Runaway Duo" came into being after Charles and I discussed the need for Minette to have more life in the opera, and for a bond to be established between the two prominent females -- human and giraffe. And composer's impulse took over -- the giraffe began singing. Who is to know that the giraffe does not sing in her head? Maybe I am just making some of that singing audible?How are you planning to stage a piece in which the main character is a giraffe?
There are many ways this could be accomplished: a puppet or marionette, or a singer in a costume of whimsy, or even a video or a singer off-stage. My choice is for a singer dressed in some costume of fantastical design to accentuate the historical fable... with perhaps some discrete video incorporated to augment dream sequences and flashbacks to Africa.
You've worked a lot with electronic and experimental music, but your music for Our Giraffe is more traditionally lyrical. What made you decide to tell your story this way?
The story could be told in many ways. However, its whimsy, its passion, its sweet-though-sometimes-tragic search for the meaning of the universe through reason and science, could be told much more effectively through lyricism than through some of the acerbic and distancing qualities of electronic sound. I have created a number of other dramatic pieces using electroacoustics -- collage, heavy mixes -- and many of them have incorporated the lyrical with the arcane and hi-tech. This time around, I felt the libretto demanded tradition as the musical base, plus some extended vocal technique; use of the traditional allows for the possibility of parody and irony for certain scenes and characters, such as Dr. Monteur and the Mountebank.
Friends showered me and the librettist with books, photos, and sculptures of giraffes. Charles Flowers found a memorial medallion from 1841 when King Charles died. He found it in a little shop indowntown Troy, NY, and Charles knew who it was. (My friends didn't, as King Charles was one of the lesser known and shorter-reigning kings of France.) My favorite is a comical, ceramic giraffe painted with fruits. That sculpture has helped me sustain the feeling of whimsy (when I inclined to the melancholy of Zarafa's predicament.) One look at fruity giraffe and laughter came back.
My librettist is fond of saying, "First the words, then the music!" In this case, he is right -- except for one scene, "Runaway Duo"-- because the story is what grabbed me -- the historical facts, plus Charles' undoubtedly romantic take on them. Charles is a fabulous word spinner and was able to take the already engaging facts of Zarafa's journey to France in the 1820s, her bond with her keeper, her long life in Paris, and spin then a fable of love affairs, relationships, poignant consequences of political change in France, and its resonance in the lives of Zarafa and those around her. First, I loved the giraffe, and then I loved the human characters he gave words to. His rhyme schemes very often inspired me, so his words played a large role in how the music evolved in Our Giraffe.
With my last opera, The Bee Opera, I began with the music, the hums and buzzes and imaginary language of honey bees that I conjured out of my experiences as a beekeeper. I also experimented with electronically enhanced, recorded hive sounds. The Bee Opera is a comic opera, so I was able to incorporate imaginary language easily without upsetting the dramatic balance. With Our Giraffe, I had to be careful not to step on the delicate toes of a romantic drama, which has tragic aspects. In "Runaway Duo," when I finally decided to let 'er rip with Zarafa singing, I drew upon the experiences with my invented bee language (which soprano Beth Griffith -- Countersue Bee -- helped me refine) and I thought of music first, language second. As a consequence, "Runaway Duo" is a standout piece of extended vocal technique, in juxtaposition to and with the ariatic Minette. Zarafa has to sing/hum with mouth closed into the upper register, not an easy thing to do. It gives a flavor and difference to the vocal music at a crucial point in the opera. Minette and Zarafa, each in her own musical language, achieve a rapport which flavors the remainder of the opera. Symbolic perhaps of the rapport we come to have with animals of all kinds when we pay close attention to them and listen.
Do you consider this a political story?
Yes, although not primarily. As with any clash of societal norms and different cultures, (Catholicism vs. Islam, aristocracy and middle class vs. tribal peoples, science vs. the "natural," patriarchy vs. equality of sexes,) a political message will be present and is present in Our Giraffe. For me, the more interesting take on politics here are the "politics" of the human race and the natural world. Do we have the right to consider that we know best, or assume power over all the natural world of animals and plants? The fact is, we do have the power to a certain extent -- but the consequences are so often other than what we can foresee, and so often we do not even try to foresee them. BAD mistake.
Presently (this March) I am in a mountain house in the deep Georgia woods. Across the lake from me is a high hill covered with trees. This morning, I watched the trees fall like match sticks, as monster machines plowed them over or sliced through their lower trunks, thinning them for harvest, for chips to send to China. It is a "managed" forest, harvested about every twelve to fifteen years. Monoculture in forests has made the pine beetles very happy, and other pests that thrive when only one kind of tree is planted. This February, filming in the Giraffe House at the Bronx Zoo, I watched the 5 giraffes munch hay and ogle us, and occasionally wander twenty feet -- ambling -- as running in the enclosure was not possible. Too cold to go outside. What would they have been doing on the African plain? Munching acacia leaves, ambling, ogling whatever, escaping from lions -- but also racing like mad occasionally across the vast distances... What do they think, these Bronx giraffes? I do not know. Like Dr. Monteur, someday we may know; we have many facts at our disposal already but there will be more!
What do you hope to learn about your own piece from the experience with VOX?
Hearing a new singer interpret my music is always a revelation, particularly when it is a brand new opera. Each performing artist brings her and his own special take and imprint and style to a character and the vocal lines. I always learn something from a good interpreter. The VOX experience will give me new insights -- show where I might tweak the timings, or where I should allow more breathing for the dramatic or vocal developments, or how I should alter the orchestrations, perhaps... Plus, I get the very real pleasure of hearing a fine orchestra and a fine group of singers present my music to a discerning opera audience -- New Yorkers. I like to see how listeners and viewers react to my music. Undoubtedly, Zarafa will cast her gentle dark eyes of curiosity our way and enjoy us enjoying her story.
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