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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.
For more information on VOX, please click HERE.
Tuesday, March 18, 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 John King talks about his new work, Dice Thrown, which will premiere at this year's VOX festival in May.
Let's talk about your piece, Dice Thrown. It's described as "a striking aleatoric soundscape built from chance operations." What does that mean, in terms of opera?
It means that each individual part -- all the instruments and all the arias -- are treated independently. (Chance operations were also used for the creation of the pitches, rhythms, and "characteristics" of the musical material.) In terms of the structure, for example, the singer has a set of eight arias or songs. These appear in the work in a different order and for a different duration each time the piece is performed. Then the audience, when hearing the texts, will be given the freedom to construct their own "story," create their own "imagery," and be allowed, with their own individual experiences, to complete the opera for themselves. The sounds that accompany these arias don't impose any specific feeling or mood.
By building upon these chance operations, you allow the players to improvise while following a timeclock for beginnings and endings. In creating a piece this way, won't it be hard to stage?
I am trying to free the sounds from specificity -- specific harmony, specific dramatic intent, etc. I'm also trying to free the words from the imprisonment of a specific meaning, allowing them also to become sounds, independent from a weighted, tied-down meaning. This is one of the elements which first drew me to Mallarmé's prose and poetry -- his sense of the word's sound being equal to, if not more important than, the word's meaning.
The musicians play written material. They're also free to make choices as to where they start and stop playing certain (what I call) "musical characteristics." Some of this is improvised to a point, but it is more accurately termed "structured improvisation." This means the musicians are given "time-windows" to play within. So for example, if they're given a "0:00-1:00" time-window, they can choose to play from "0:20 - 0:50," or to play from "0:15 - 0:30," as long as they're playing within the chance-determined time window in the score. And, in working with other players, once this concept is clear and the understanding of what is fixed and what is freely interpreted is clear, it is easily performed.
As to the piece's ultimate staging, I've worked for more that 20 years with the brilliant, ever-innovative choreographer, Merce Cunningham. In his work, the movement, music, lighting, sets, and costumes all function independently. They only come together and perform simultaneously, as John Cage once said, "for the convenience of the audience." The staging actually takes place in three movable locations: on an abandoned shipwreck near a destroyed city, within a night sky in the midst of constellations, and also within a timepiece without numbers (infinity) where dice rolls replace the marking of time.
You mentioned Mallarmé as part of the inspiration for your choice of text. What struck you about the Mallarmé poem that made you think it would be the right choice for this kind of piece?
When reading early 20th century French poets and writers (Verlaine, Rimbaud, Artaud), I was led to works written by Bertrand, Baudelaire and Mallarmé. When reading Mallarmé, I began with his early work and noticed, even with my poorly pronounced French, a sonic flow -- internal sonic rhymes and ripples that resonated throughout his texts. Then I happened upon, at the back of one collection, his final masterpiece, Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hazard [Dice thrown never will annul chance]. The title runs throughout the poem, in a capitalized, bold font in large type. Other parts of the text are in small, italicized type. In its 12 or so brief pages, the poem uses many fonts, styles, and sizes. There is a great deal of "blank space" scattered throughout the pages -- what Mallarmé thought of as silences. The entire poem, he felt, was a kind of "musical score." It struck me immediately then, that this was a great text source to work with.
Un coup de dés (1897) by Mallarmé
You've collaborated with a lot of dance companies -- New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and Merce Cunningham Dance, to name a few. How do you feel about dance and opera as a collaboration?
I spoke a bit about this in my previous response, but I can say that I have collaborated with a variety of choreographers with different approaches. I've composed and directed two other "experimental" operas which always involved movement of some kind -- usually specific stage locations, blocking, etc. I wrote music for a piece for the Mannheim Ballet with choreographer Kevin O'Day which used a full orchestra, two sopranos, and live electronics. I actually find the most successful partnerships are with people who give their fellow collaborators the fullest freedom to do their work. For my collaborators on "Dice Thrown" -- the set design, video design, movement, costumes, lighting, etc. -- I try to direct through non-direction.
How would you ultimately describe your composition style to audiences? What do you hope audiences will take away from your work?
My compositional style? Nothingness? An absence of style? I try with my compositions to make what I call a "trilogic unity," that is: I integrate and blend (in many different ways, at many different levels) the concepts of composition, improvisation and chance. "Dice Thrown" will be very loud and very soft, very dissonant and very peaceful, very chaotic but with a sense of absolute order. I hope the audience takes away from the experience their own increased sense of individual freedom. There will be no one correct meaning of this work. The audience will bring together the musical, vocal and textual elements from their own individual perspectives and experiences. From freedom of expression flows naturally the freedom of interpretation.
The 2008 VOX festival takes place on May 10th and 11th at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU. Please click HERE for more information.
Thursday, March 6, 2008 | 10:00 AM
This is the second part of a two-part interview with composer Justine F. Chen, one of ten composers whose work is being featured in this year's VOX festival showcase. Please click HERE to access part 1 of this interview. For more information on VOX, please click HERE.
The story of Joan of Arc has been adapted so many times in every possible medium (including opera). Why did you choose to make this character your own? Were you at all worried people might feel it was a retread?Justine F. Chen: A retread. That’s funny.
When I had decided to pursue this topic, I had somehow never seen or read any adaptations of her story. The catalyst was a painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Joan by Jules Bastien-Lepage. I was wandering around the museum with my friend Ricardo who knows all the museums of Manhattan like the back of his hand. He pointed out this particular painting. I am actually not a huge fan of this style of painting -- I'm more of a Picasso Rothko fan, so I would not have seen it otherwise. He said, "Look at this painting. Look at her eyes." And I looked. And I was completely absorbed.
I had been in a bit of a funk before that moment because I had just finished my first opera, and had just graduated, and wasn't sure of the next step; but at that moment, I knew that Joan of Arc would be my next opera subject. I had just undergone a grueling doctoral process, and I felt a kinship with her and her circumstances. It wasn't until later that I knew more of what her life work was. It was more the concept of a solitary figure fighting for what she believed, armed almost exclusively with her faith.
Joan of Arc, by Jules Bastien-Lepage (1879). Says Justine,
"the painting [at The Met] is enormous, and one must look up to see Joan's face.
I was particularly taken with the rapturous look in her eyes
and the shimmering figures in the background."
At the recommendation of City Opera's all-knowing dramaturg Cori Ellison, who I had met because of my VOX 2006 nomination, I started looking at some works -- Jean Anouilh's play The Lark, Carl Dreyer's film The Passion of Joan of Arc, Arthur Honegger's Oratio Dramatique Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher, and the testimonies and court transcripts from her trials.
On my own, I watched about 3 or 4 other movies on Joan of Arc, but they were all quite similar -- telling similar anecdotes, often using the exact same text. Clearly, these were historical anecdotes, but I felt that the verbatim repetition of these same stories did not celebrate her existence or explain how extraordinary she was to everyone around her.
What made Dreyer's film utterly unique and powerful was an extreme focus. He didn't re-enact a series of anecdotes, he showed her specifically through her trial, he focused the story on her faith and suffering throughout the trial.
The cover art for La Passion, a film by Carl Dreyer.
Says Justine, "this was part of my research for writing the libretto.
Dreyer's intense portrayal of Joan's suffering helped me to
pursue and focus on my own story."
I decided to paint a portrait of her through the eyes of others, to meet people who knew her and could talk about her. We would hear from her, but not the traditional anecdotes with the well-worn dialogue. Instead, we would see a Joan with emotions and desires, someone adored, feared, loathed, and used by friends and enemies for their own ambition.
I don't know how people will take my version of Joan's character. My greatest concern is that people will be able to connect the dots and understand the story I'm telling.
Whenever anyone hears I'm working on an opera based on Joan of Arc, I believe they all imagine a heavy biblical epic, like Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, complete with fire and brimstone, there is usually some recoiling involved. Mine is a more delicate and intimate portrait.
As far as my research of other adaptations...I'd also begun reading G. B. Shaw's Saint Joan, but I didn't get very far. Let me preface this by saying I am very fond of Shaw's plays, but while I was reading the lengthy preamble (and I usually love his preambles), I realized that Shaw had a very strong opinion of her character, and I found myself disagreeing with his assessment! So, I thought instead of finishing the preface or his play, I should complete my own research so I can finish creating my own concept of Joan. I also read Brecht's St. Joan of the Stockyards, and I got through that play. It was very politically charged. It was my first Brecht play, so I was quite unprepared for a play functioning so starkly and severely as social commentary. I probably need to take a course or something...
I consciously chose not to name my opera "Joan of Arc" because I was worried that it would be mistaken for a clone opera (like those clone movies). Actually, I have also only heard the Honegger oratorio, I haven't yet heard the Verdi or Rossini Joans. Perhaps when I am closer to finished with my opera, I'll take a look at their libretti and scores.
What would you say to people who are on the fence about trying out "new operas?"
Justine F. Chen: For those who don't know or enjoy opera at all...I've found that opera is perhaps the closest one can get to watching a real-time, live music video or film. The main difference is that sometimes the stress is more music than anything else (visual, dramatic), and sometimes it's difficult to follow the plot, appreciate just the music, or hear the words.
Similar to contemporary music, I've found that many people who don't know classical music like contemporary music more than, say, Beethoven, and it makes sense to me because this is music written by people now living with similar stimuli and influences. It is probably easier to understand and communicate with someone living next door today than it is with someone living 300, 200 or even 100 years ago in a different country. The proximity of time and space make the likelihood of feeling a kinship with the opera of your time greater than with, say, a Handel opera.
And for those who already love opera, say you like Verdi, Wagner, or Mozart... consider that you might be able to meet the Wagners or Mozarts of today. They wrote for the people of their time, and their operas addressed contemporary issues. How much would you pay to get in a time machine so you could talk to them (nevermind the language difference)? Now imagine you can meet up with people who are doing that right now.
The 2008 VOX festival takes place on May 10th and 11th at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU. Please click HERE for more information.
Wednesday, March 5, 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, composer Justine F. Chen talks about her previous work, The Maiden Tower, which premiered with VOX in 2006, and her latest piece, Jeanne.
Tell us about Jeanne. It's described as "a fractured retelling" of the story of Joan of Arc, but what should that mean in a modern-day sense? Who is Jeanne?
Justine F. Chen: I'm a New Yorker, born and bred. I grew up steeped in the classical culture of the city -- starting from a young age, my mother brought me on many trips to the opera, ballet, and symphony concerts as well as smaller recitals. My older sister started piano when I was born, and she began composition when I was about 3, so when I started composing, it wasn't any sort of romantic epiphany, I took it to be one of those skills you acquire because you imagine everyone does it -- like walking or talking.
"Fractured retelling" -- I've always been fascinated with structure in music and in story-telling. Many of my favorite movies are told in a more musical or abstract fashion. The structure of Jeanne revolves around scenes of Joan in prison, doing what I imagine was most natural to her, confessing, or communing with God. In these scenes, we discover why she is imprisoned, and learn of the people with whom she came into contact and their relationship to her on a personal and historical level. [For you movie buffs, you may notice a striking similarity to Amenabar's Abre los ojos.] In addition, each of those prison scenes introduces the next scene by revealing a new character and their context in relation to Joan.
In my research for the opera, I was most intrigued with the transcripts from her trials, especially testimonies from people who came into direct contact with her. Much of the information of the opera's testimony scenes was taken from actual transcripts. We hear an anecdote from her adolescence, we learn about her relationship with her fellow soldiers, and we get testimony from an eyewitness to her final confession and death. I wanted to relieve the audience of the heaviness from these prison scenes, so my solution was to achieve a balance with more objective, lighter interludes.
I got many questions about how I was going to present her story. For awhile, I wanted to abstract the story and leave her and religion out of it. I was encouraged to keep the story intact. My solution was to write the story, and decide later if I wanted to keep Joan in it or not. I've become quite wary of artistic works based on historical figures or events... I didn’t want to ride on the popularity of her name or her story... I wanted it to function in its own self-contained universe.
In this opera, we see the rise and fall of someone who had one incredible and coveted talent -- an innate fluency with her religion. We meet the people who adored her, the people who hated her, and the people who used her for their own purposes, for career-building or gaining power, etc. The story is also kind of a murder mystery... we all know she winds up at the stake, but don't all necessarily know how she got there.
You're a VOX veteran -- another of your pieces, Maiden Tower, was featured in 2006. Have your thoughts on writing opera changed since then?
Justine F. Chen: Wow, I feel like I've learned so much from opera to opera. This is just my second -- and I thought I had a pretty good handle on my first one -- but I definitely took a lot more chances in this one that I'd never considered for my first. For instance, I wonder if I would have even explored this fractured storyline had I not seen the experimentation explored in other VOX operas.
When I went to my first VOX in 2006, I was so impressed with the variety of styles and thoughts about opera, drama, and the music/text relationship. I saw interesting creations with different strengths, and a lot of new ideas, techniques and choices that inspired me.
As far as my own progress, the main criticism I had for myself for my first opera (when I saw it performed at VOX 2006) was that I thought it could use more singing -- that is, more complex vocal lines. Maiden Tower did not show off the vocal abilities of singers, it was almost more like a play. Of course, one of my biggest pet peeves is bad prosody and unintelligible text, and a confusing story line, so those were my greatest concerns for Maiden Tower. All that aside, I guess when I wrote the libretto for Jeanne, I sought to create a format in which I could easily explore the vocal capabilities of my singers in their roles -- hence the fractured structure.
I discovered that I have very strong ideas about what opera should do, how it functions, and what it is. Seeing all these other highly successful experiments and observing my own trials has helped me solidify my own concept of opera.
You like to write your own libretti. Why is that? Why not collaborate with a librettist?
Justine F. Chen: That’s a long story. I had never thought to write my own libretto before I wrote one for my first opera -- something I had only done out of sheer necessity (because of the time crunch, and the wish not to alienate more friends by firing them as librettists).
I actually love collaboration. I've worked a lot with directors and choreographers before -- I love the stimulation and cross-pollenation of ideas, when there is more than one creative mind at work, so the two of us become parents of brand new ideas.
But the more I discussed opera, and in collaborating with writers, the more I realized that I already had a strong concept of how the libretto should be, how it should function -- the language, the density of the plot, how events would unfold, etc. -- I also knew about another important element in the entirety of the opera: what was possible or could be conveyed with the music.
I don't know. I'm still open to working with a librettist. I don't think I'm a particularly good writer, and because I don't have any training, it takes a mighty long time for me to write! I'm still looking for the right person, I guess.
To read Part Two of this conversation, please click HERE.
For more information on VOX, please click HERE.
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