Experiments in Opera: Matthew Welch’s Borges and the Other

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I attended Experiments in Opera‘s inaugural festival at le Poisson Rouge on January 16. Of particular interest to me was Matthew Welch‘s Borges and the Other excerpts, which I’d heard performed once before a couple years ago; you can see my review of that event on my other blog, kleineKultur. You can see a full video of the excerpts from the LPR show (Scenes 1 and 3 from Act I) above.

A little background: this piece is the second in a series of short operas by Matthew that center around Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. The first opera (premiered in 2007) featured two mezzo-sopranos portraying an older and younger Borges meeting in a dream space. This second opera finds a 70-year-old Borges (Jeffrey Gavett) and a 19-year-old Borges (James Rogers) meeting “in a circumstance of fantasy,” as Matthew puts it. 1969 Cambridge on a bench beside the Charles river for the former, 1918 Geneva on a bench a few steps from the Rhone for the latter.

The adagio tempo and undulating motion of the ensemble in Scene 1, combined with the quivering notes from the vibraphone, paint a picture both of water and an hypnotic, fantasy state. As they discuss the strangeness of their encounter, the older Borges counsels the younger that “our obligation is to accept the dream,” while the younger replies “but what if the dream should last?”

Scene 3 features a faster, more agitated tempo, and younger and older Borges singing sinuous lines in harmony, discussing each other’s work in an equally critical manner. This scene, as with Scene 1, ends with a sort of jig in 3/4 time, which serves to abruptly jerk one out of the fantasy.

Check out a full production of Borges and the Other at EiO’s spring festival May 10-11 at Roulette.

 

Follow up: Saariaho’s Plath Dreams

Last year I posted an interview with Ekmeles director Jeffrey Gavett, which included a clip of a recording made by Ekmeles of the first movement of Kaija Saariaho’s From the Grammar of Dreams. A reader promptly emailed me to ask why I hadn’t gone into any detail about the Saariaho piece, as it was a challenging listen for her. Well, here’s my very belated response to that reader!

Background info: Kaija Saariaho is an internationally acclaimed Finnish composer, born in 1952; you can get a quick rundown of her life and work on her wiki page. From what I can gather on Google–and please, readers, correct me if I get something wrong here–From the Grammar of Dreams began as a five movement work for two sopranos, written in 1988 (you can see a page of the score here). It has since developed into a sort of mini-opera, with the original five movement work at the heart of a larger work that also involves instruments and electronics (see this track listing for example).

Back to the original 1988 work. The texts come from Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar as well as her poem Paralytic; Saariaho has fragmented these texts and distributed the fragments between the two soprano lines in an arcane manner.

Yes, Meg, but why does it sound like that? my reader seems to ask. Well, without having studied the score, I can say from listening to Grammar that it seems like Saariaho is channeling the troubled mind of her author, Sylvia Plath, in two ways: 1. Fragmentation: I especially like that she’s not only fragmented the text, but she’s fragmented the voice itself by splitting the text between two different sopranos, and 2. Extended Techniques: Saariaho is exploring the capabilities of the human voice beyond what is traditionally considered “singing.” My guess is that Saariaho, as a composer, wanted to challenge herself and the performers to come up with some unique sounds, and that the Plath texts served as a kind of springboard for this challenge. The extended vocal techniques Saariaho uses in this piece definitely bring to my mind the oppressive psychoses that Esther endures in Bell Jar.

Enough of my speculation, what do you think? Here’s the clip again:

By the way, you can hear Ekmeles perform live at NYU on Feb. 4  They are definitely worth the trip.

 

Music at First – Kathleen Supové and James Moore

Music at First started back up again September 2, with its first-ever benefit concert, graciously given by pianist Kathleen Supové and guitarist James Moore, who paired up for their debut as A Musical Sacrifice. Check out my video clips from the concert above, and, as always, be sure to wear headphones so as to get all the nuance-y goodness out of the fine pieces they played.

From the delicate Lou Harrison transcriptions played by James to Lainie Fefferman’s dramatic, trill-based “Barnacles”–love the sound of Kathleen banging on the low strings–to the bombastic opening of John Zorn’s “Piece XIV” from Sebastopol, the concert was a satisfying mix of new music sounds from both established and younger contemporary composers. This also included whisper-quiet selections from Larry Polansky’s Songs and Toods and Lisa R. Coons’ jagged “A Quiet Struggle”–which had James dragging childrens’ chopsticks between fretboard and strings.

Perhaps the most striking piece on the program was Marita Bolles’ “Buddha Girl,” which blended portions of an interview with a woman who lost her daughter in the 9/11 attacks with atmospheric piano and electronics accompaniment. Beautifully performed by Kathleen, the result was painfully moving.

Debuting as A Musical Sacrifice, James and Kathleen alternated interviewing each other about their solo selections, as well as asking for a stray-object-sacrifice from the audience (I put a wine cork in the basket). They ended the concert as a duo with Nick Didkovsky’s “She Closes Her Sister With Heavy Bones,” an angular, charged piece that had prepared piano and guitar weaving in and out of synch with each other in a kind of spiky dance.

 

Morningside Opera at Jimmy’s No. 43

Morningside Opera is fast becoming NYC’s most innovative company for the interpretation of Baroque vocal music (see my review of their Handel concert earlier this year). I recently caught them in the act at a sold-out show at Jimmy’s No. 43, an East Village bar/venue. The work was The Judgment of Paris–check out Steve Smith‘s excellent overview of the piece in his New York Times review of this performance–in which Paris holds a pageant to determine whether Athena, Juno, or Venus is most deserving of the top prize, in this case a gilded banana. The company took Paris’ line “When each is undress’d I’ll judge of the best, for ’tis not a face that will carry the prize” and ran with it: about halfway through the show each of the goddesses stripped down to lingerie and attempted to seduce a befuddled and excited Paris.

As always with MO, the singing, acting, and staging were superb, all of which are crucial when performing in spaces that don’t typically host operatic events and are therefore lean on extravagant sets.  Throughout the concert I felt like I was experiencing this particular opera in the perfect setting, where the humor and innuendo could be uninhibitedly appreciated.

And you’re in luck! Morningside Opera will be giving a special repeat performance of Judgment at Jimmy’s No. 43 on Tuesday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m. This will be followed by their second “Diva Search” in which attendees can sing their favorite arias karaoke-style.

 

Music at First – Margaret Lancaster and Eric km Clark’s Deprivation Choir [VIDEO]

Some belated thoughts on the May 2oth Music at First show: Margaret Lancaster (featured above in a video by Jon Williams) used the multifaceted space and her training as an actor and dancer to create a riveting performance.  Communicating a furtive, skittish persona, Margaret started her set up in the organ loft for the first two pieces (by Paul Steenhuisen and Corey Dargel; I unfortunately missed these do to door duties!), and then scampered down to the front of the church, still in character, into a chair explosion of her own making. From here she performed Arthur Kampela’s hyperkinetic “Happy Days,” in which she squeaked and squealed in between lightning-fast melody fragments on the flute and piccolo.

Moving to the middle of the stage area, she performed Paula Matthusen’s “Forgiveness Anthems,” and Wil Smith’s “Black Book,” both for flute and electronic track. In Paula’s piece, the flute line lived inside a semi-pitched electronic world, sounding at times underwater. Wil’s subtly expressive piece laid down a bed of ominous dial tones over which Margaret played, some of the flute’s tones seeming to splinter off into the track and sustain, the piece conveying the many and varied emotions associated with dialing certain phone numbers. Margaret finished her set behind the lectern, appropriately performing JacobTV’s “Jesus Is Coming,” arranged for Lancaster by Milica Paranosic for flute and electronics, which had Margaret playing along with pre-recorded flute tracks (of herself playing) and “found” recordings of baby laughs and histrionic preachers. JacobTV’s clever aligning of the flute line with the found recordings in rhythmic unison created a kind of heterophonous effect, in which the flute seemed to be playing the “melody” of the preacher’s expostulations and the baby’s hiccups.

I had the privilege of singing in Eric km Clark‘s piece, rosebud: Deprivation Music No. 10—Music at First’s first ever commission—which was quite a unique performance experience for me. The piece was divided into two big sections: in the first section, the singers received pre-recorded instructions (sometimes also following a score) and sang accordingly, and in the second section, the recording of the first section was mixed and played over the speakers while the singers were free to walk around the room, and “optional organist” Wil Smith played on the organ.

In the first minute and a half of the video above, which was shot by Music at First staffer Ruben Etienne, you see eight singers wearing blindfolds and headphones, creating the core material of the playback. In the rest of the video, you see my recording of a part of the second section, wandering around the space to hear different facets of the newly created piece and visit Wil up in the organ loft. Though the vocal part was pretty challenging (some of the notes were really high!), interpretation was encouraged, which was a very liberating feeling for someone whose day-job involves always playing the “right” notes (I’m also an organist), a feeling intensified by the fact that we in the choir were pointedly discouraged from interacting with each other or the audience via the use of the blindfolds and headphones, which was not as unsettling as I though it would be!

Music at First will begin its Fall season in September.

 

Music at First – Mellissa Hughes and Lorna Dune

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Very belatedly, I’m here to tell you about two amazing performances I saw on March 25 at Wil Smith‘s Music at First series in Brooklyn (you can watch video clips from both sets above).

First up was soprano Mellissa Hughes, starting off with “i carry your heart” by Ted Hearne, a dark and angular piece based on a text by e. e. cummings. This was  followed by Eric Shanfield‘s buoyant Off the Deep End, (text by Matthea Harvey) in which Mellissa’s voice leapt in sweet high notes over the rocky accompaniment. Gabriel Kahane‘s Craigslist Lieder evoked quite a few laughs from the audience as Mellissa sang unintentionally humorous craigslist posts set to ironic music (check out stellar pianist Timo Andres singing backup in “Two years ago, my sister and I…”). For the next two pieces Mellissa sang along to a track, first in the ethereal, electronica-vibed Silver Threads by Jacob Cooper, and then in the beautifully pathos-laden Last Words from Texas by Corey Dargel (stream Corey singing this piece on his NYT profile), based on the last words spoken by executed offenders in Texas. The speeding up and slowing down of the track in “Date of execution May 13 2010″  seemed to evoke the offender’s terrified heartbeat, while the track in “Date of execution May 4 2006″ was tragically serene.  ”Date of execution February 11 2004″ found Mellissa singing the last words (“Jesus is Lord”) in an ascending stratospheric line. For the last piece, I [XX] by Matt Marks, with texts by Royce Vavrek, Mellissa was joined by the Brooklyn Brass Quintet. The brass tones seamlessly backed the vocal line, as Mellissa sang suggestively humorous lyrics (the titles of the movements were “I Didn’t,” “I Tasted,” and “I Pretended”) that made me blush (no really).  Overall, the set was an excellent mix of dark and light, and showcased Mellissa’s captivating versatility both as singer and performer.

In a complete mood shift, Lorna Dune (aka Lorna Krier) performed her set, Selected Saccharine Songs without Words, surrounded by synthesizers up in the organ loft with the lights out, the only illumination coming from projected images on the ceiling (provided by video artist Jon Williams).  Seated in the balconies, the audience could dimly make out the shape of Lorna as she hovered over an array of technology to create sweeping sounds that seemed to fill the entire sanctuary.  The music was (as the title suggests) sweet, but in a genuine way, optimistic melodies and robust atmospheres ballooning out and gently carrying the audience off into its fantasy. Lorna was joined for the last piece by two members of Dream Massage (Stephen Griesgraber and Peter Pearson) and Eleonore Oppenheim on bass.

Be sure to check out the next Music at First show, on May 20th, featuring Margaret Lancaster and Eric km Clark’s Deprivation Choir!

 

Music at First Series – David Friend and Corey Dargel

I’ve been helping out with the excellent Music at First Series this year, which is run and curated by my good friend, composer Wil Smith, and features the newest music and freshest talent that NYC has to offer in the way of experimental music.  Held at First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn Heights (where Wil is also the organist), I was able to shoot some short video clips of both of the sets from the first performance of 2011, which you can see above (warning! the clip contains some strong language).

Pianist David Friend stunned with radical pieces and perfectly controlled energy.  The first piece on his set was Aorta, by fellow Transit member Daniel Wohl (I unfortunately didn’t get any video clips of this meditative piece, but I urge you to listen to it on Daniel’s website).  Next up was the churning Sensitive Spot by Kate Moore, which featured live David playing along with several pre-recorded Davids, all playing the same track.  Probably the most shocking piece on the set was JacobTV‘s Cities Change the Songs of Birds, in which sound-bytes of homeless and drug-addicted women from NYC talking about their lives are mercilessly played over a piano part that skillfully merges with the spoken word and transforms the women’s pain and bitterness into something astonishingly beautiful.  David’s belief in the message of this piece was palpable in his passionate performance.  Next up was the world premiere of Angélica Negrón‘s the peculiar purple pieman of porcupine peak for piano, electronics and desk bells, followed by Christopher Marianetti‘s I think it would be beating a dead dog if we do anything but present this statement, which had David playing an athletic piano part while also rhythmically speaking the title of the piece.

For the second set, singer and composer Corey Dargel charmed the audience with his six-song art/pop cycle, Hold Yourself Together, with Wil on synthesizers and James Moore on guitars.  This was the third time I’d heard this cycle, and I have to say I love it more each time I hear it.  The lyrics are witty and sad in the vein of Morrissey, and the music is so one-of-a-kind that it’s hard to capture in one word.  How about “artfully-structured catchy-pretty”?

Stay tuned for a review of yesterday’s Music at First concert, which featured soprano Mellissa Hughes and synthesizer-player Lorna Dune.  Upcoming MaF performances:

April 8th – Janus Trio and Mantra Percussion

May 20th – Margaret Lancaster and Eric km Clark‘s Deprivation Choir

 

Avant Music Festival “John Cage: An Evolution”

I caught the first half of an all-John Cage concert last weekend, which was part of this year’s Avant Music Festival.  Appropriately, the night started off with the audience participating in the chance determination of the lighting designs to be used during Cage’s Song Books, via the use of coin-tossing and consultation of the I Ching.

First on the program were two early piano works from 1948, performed by Vicky Chow with delicate restraint and a velvety touch (Dream is the first clip in the video above; a clip of In a Landscape follows at 0:47).   Next on the program was a performance of Song Books by contemporary vocal ensemble Ekmeles, which occurred simultaneously with a performance of Music for Piano 4-19 (played by Vicky), and Indeterminacy, read by Randy Gibson.  While Randy read out various—often humorous—anecdotes and stories written by Cage, Vicky plucked and meditated over the piano, and the three singers from Ekmeles (Christie Finn, Jeffrey Gavett and Megan Schubert) sung short bursts of song and performed other actions, like writing a letter, or drinking a shot of whiskey with a microphone at throat to amplify the gulping sound (clips of the performance begin at 1:28 in the video).

Perhaps just as interesting as the panoply of activity happening onstage were the inadvertent moments when all the performances seemed to sync up: Vicky would pluck a note just as Megan would begin to sing on the same note; Randy would pause mid-sentence and Christie would sing something that seemed to complete his thought.  Each of the singers took on a different persona for the duration of the piece, with Jeff taking on perhaps the most humorous persona, performing the different vocal affects indicated by Cage with bravado, and coming onstage towards the end of the performance with one skate on.  All in all, the performance came off as a surprisingly engaging bit of music theater (so to speak).

You can hear Ekmeles in a performance of Chris Cerrone’s opera Invisible Cities on May 13th and 14th at the Italian Academy at Columbia University.

 

Trio KAVAK – “Music Out of Emptiness”

Having never heard my friend Amelia perform live before, I was excited to hear Trio KAVAK play, as part of the Ear Heart Music series, last Thursday at The Tank.  This was also my first time experiencing the combination of flute, viola, and harp, and I was struck by how smoothly those timbres fit together.  Trio KAVAK played beautifully, executing all manner of extended techniques and tricky stratospheric unison-playing with poise.  The concert opened with Toru Takemitsu’s colorfully diffuse “And then I knew ’twas wind” [you can hear clips from the concert in the video above].  Next came the US premiere of Simon Holt’s reconditely dramatic The other side of silence [1:28 in the video].  Throughout its three movements, the registral extremes of the instruments were explored, and gradually the trio became a duo (viola and harp), and finally a vigorous solo (viola).  During the intermission, three of the night’s composers took the stage for a brief discussion, where Simon explained, “If the listener is with you, you can do almost anything.  You don’t always have to throw information at them.”

Next came “Question,” by Trio KAVAK’s own Victor Lowrie [3:23 in the video], a rhythmic piece in which Victor strummed his viola like a guitar, while Amelia Lukas (flute) and Kathryn Andrews (harp) played ethereal melodic fragments that breezed in and out of the minimalist viola texture.   Last on the program was Andrew McKenna Lee’s “the dark out of nighttime” [4:30 in the video], whose title comes from a Bob Dylan song.  Andrew joined the trio on guitar to create a kaleidoscopic soundscape.

See a full-length video of the first movement of the Simon Holt piece here.

 

Morningside Opera’s “Atra, or, the Remembered Love”

Say hello to the bright young artists from Morningside Opera, who presented their fourth production last weekend at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in Manhattan.  A pasticcio of Handel arias, Atra, ossia, l’amore ricordato (Atra, or, the Remembered Love) was collaboratively put together by the members of MO, resulting in a plot that centers around a love-triangle: Atra and her ex-girlfriend, Amelia, reconnect in the wake of Amelia’s marriage to her new girlfriend, T., while Atra’s husband, Rocco, dryly watches the drama unfold between the three women (watch a short clip of the opera here).

Combining powerful voices with cogent acting, the quartet of singers brought off the  plot seamlessly, backed by a lively orchestra that made effective use of period instruments like the theorbo and violone.  Though the story itself is not a happy one—Atra lures Amelia away from her new wife only to desert her after a one-night stand—the production had its humorous moments, as in the live projection of a Gmail message being written (and rewritten) by Amelia, asking Atra to speak at her wedding.  Ultimately, Atra taps into the heart of relationship trauma, using songs of joyous infatuation and stormy jealousy written by Baroque drama king G.F. Handel, and even giving visual representation of the inner turmoil of the characters with the use of dancers dressed in black.