Chamber Opera Research Articles

Between Two Worlds: the Image of a Dybbuk on the Modern Opera Stage

The article is devoted to the theme of the artistic embodiment of the Hebrew legend of the dybbuk on the modern opera stage. The legends about the restless soul of a sinner, “stuck” between two worlds — the world of the living and the world of the dead — are reflected in the works of famous Jewish writers of the turn of the 19th—20th centuries. They received their first vivid refraction in drama in the play “Between Two Worlds (Dybbuk)” (1915) by the outstanding folklorist and ethnographer Semyon Akimovich Ansky. The story of the dybbuk, heard by Anton during folklore expeditions in Volhynia and Podolia, is reinterpreted by the playwright, “overgrown” with complex literary and philosophical connotations. The dramatic play is literally saturated with music: songs, dances, prayers and Hasidic melodies, one of which — “Mipney ma” in the genre of nigun — becomes the leitmotif of the work. The masterpiece of Ansky, reflecting the specifics of the everyday, cultural and religious life of the Hasidic community of the early twentieth century, gave rise to an extensive body of musical and theatrical works — more than ten over the last century (operas by L. Rocca, D. Tamkin, ballet by L. Bernstein, etc.). The article discusses the multimedia chamber opera “Dybbuk. Between Two Worlds” (2007) by the Israeli-American composer Ofer Ben-Amots through the prism of a dialogue with the original source. Previously, Ben-Amots’s musical work had not been studied in Russian art criticism, which predetermined the novelty of the chosen topic. The musician interprets the main ideas of Ansky’s dramatic play in his own way, presenting the image of the dybbuk as an allegory of the “borderline” existence between two worlds, turns to the traditional musical culture of Judaism (conducts the nigun “Mipney Ma” as the leitmotif of the opera, brings to the fore the timbres of the violin and clarinet, uses special techniques of sound production on these instruments associated with music playing in Klezmer chapels, stylizes the folklore of Jewish towns).

ПРЕМЬЕРА, КОТОРАЯ СОСТОЯЛАСЬ ЧЕРЕЗ ПОЛСТОЛЕТИЯ (опера С. М. Слонимского «Мастер и Маргарита» на сцене Самарского театра оперы и балета имени Д. Д. Шостаковича)

In October 2023, the premiere of S. M. Slonimsky’s chamber opera “The Master and Margarita” took place at the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre named after D. D. Shostakovich, which became a significant event for Russian musical theatre. Completed in 1972, the opera was performed at the Leningrad House of Composers, but in a reduced form, and was rejected by cultural officials. The concert production of the opera by M. Yurovsky in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1989, could not fully satisfy the composer, as well as the Hamburg production of 2000, which was in German. Only half a century later, the opera “The Master and Margarita” saw the light of the theatrical footlights in its original version. The three premiere days in Samara demonstrated the public’s interest in S. M. Slonimsky’s work. It was also important that the core of the performers consisted of young singers, who took part in the production along with venerable vocalists. The musical director of the theatre and conductor Evgeny Khokhlov, as well as the director Yu. Alexandrov had to gradually immerse themselves in the musical text of the opera, repeatedly playing the score in order to unravel the meaning embedded in it by the composer.

National tradition as an innovation factor in Guo Wenjing’s chamber opera “Wolf Cub Village”

Statement of the problem. The modern stage of development of Chinese musical theater is associated with a significant role in creative experiment, the search for new artistic means. These processes have gone down in history as an artistic direction under the name “new wave”. It emerged in 1976 as a confrontation with the aftermath of the cultural revolution. It combines trends in the revival of national Chinese traditions and the introduction of modern compositional writing methods. In the works of representatives of this direction, a deep understanding of the uniqueness of the aesthetics of ancient Chinese music, the originality of its rhythm and timbre richness is restored. These features are vividly embodied in the Opera “Wolf Cub Village” by Guo Wenjing (郭文景, born in 1956). The theme of the transformation of traditional Chinese musical art in modern times under the conditions of Western influences and the formation of new Chinese music raises by Chinese researchers in one way or another. But the issue of national tradition as a factor of innovation is considered tangentially. Thus, the subject of the article, which reveals the features of the implementation of the traditional chamber opera “Wolf Cub Village” by Guo Wenjing, is looking up-to-date. Recent research and publications. An Luxin in the dissertation “Research of Guo Wenjing’s musical creativity” (2012) traces the stylistic features of Guo Wenjing’s work and analyzes many of his works, but the reason of significant amount of material studied, the composer’s opera heritage is highlighted in generalized way. Guo Wenjing’s own article (2016) as well as materials published in his book “Noise” (2009), are a valuable source of information about the composer’s idea of the opera. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to identify the mechanisms of innovations in the implementation of the national Chinese tradition in Guo Wenjing’s chamber opera “Wolf Cub Village”. The study used methods developed in modern musicology, in particular, theoretical, historical and cultural analysis, as well as the method of theoretical generalization. For the first time, the embodiment of the national tradition in the opera work by the contemporary Chinese composer is considered as a factor of artistic innovations. Research results and conclusion. Guo Wenjing’s appeal to the national traditions of Chinese music is associated with the two way orientation of the “new wave” flow that emerged in Chinese professional composing music. We are talking about transforming deep Chinese national traditions along with the use of modern compositional techniques. It is proved that in European opera this approach becomes an artistically effective means of updating the modern musical language. As a result of the study, Guo Wenjing’s opera “Wolf Cub Village” revealed a number of innovations, the source of which was the Chinese verbal language and traditional music. These include: a) the invention of new methods of vocal and declamatory articulation of the Chinese language, the expansion of the range of vocal and performing techniques, the creation of a special style of singing that combines European bel canto and intense high declamatory singing of the Chinese traditional opera; b) the use of features of the sound and semantics of instrumental accompaniment of traditional Chinese opera and the formation of a new poly-national composition of the orchestra; c) the introduction of characters into the opera that saturate the plot with figurative intonations of Chinese folklore; d) the use of metro-tempo models (banshi) of Chinese traditional opera. By introducing the elements of Chinese traditional music into the opera, the composer expanded the instrumental and vocal timbre palettes, enriched the work with a bright national flavor and significantly diversified the techniques of musical expressiveness of Western-style opera.

"In the Studio" with William Kentridge

Abstract Abstract This interview attempts to explore both the individual and collective creative processes of the prolific and world-renowned multiple media visual and performance artist, William Kentridge. It takes place in Paris where the artist has under 30 minutes to engage in a dialogue before the very first performance of his Chamber opera, Sybil, in a theatre new to the troupe. The conversation takes place backstage in the green room, but the dialogue is engaged in a complicit and playful manner, drawing on common backgrounds and histories to cut corners and spare formalities.The result is a new angle on what “Studioness” has become for the artist, although he had never really considered it that way. Exploring the inward-looking and outward-reaching movements within studio practice, the author seeks to enlarge the notion of studio to include remote and virtual practices in the reflection. The impact of, and response to, the COVID-19 lockdown period is central to the discussion.

Technologies of Augmented Reality in the Opera: Application Analysis

The author showed interest in scientific research on how extended reality technologies are applied in modern opera art. This study identified and characterized the types of technologies, including extended, virtual, and mixed reality. Examples of the use of such technologies by opera companies are given. The author of the article, while working on the "NocturneVR" project based on M. Lysenko's chamber opera "Nocturne", was able to analyze the above technologies based on personal practice. He discovered the practical and theoretical possibilities of development and transformation of individual components of opera art, which can be provoked by the progress of technology and public demand. In this context, there is a need to analyze opera from the point of view of an interdisciplinary approach that involves the practical application of technology. The adaptability of opera art in the context of the development of technology has been studied. The concept of opera is presented from the point of view of the audience experience, which takes into account the specific type of attention of the viewer. This concept is justified as a methodology of conscious work with time in a philosophical sense. The thesis is put forward that similar interdisciplinary studies on the analysis of both opera art and the phenomenon of extended reality technologies are useful and necessary for the practical implementation of digital theater projects. In this understanding, there is a rationale for the consistent development and mutual enrichment of both creative and technical tools of practicing artists. The directions of possible further scientific investigations are outlined with an emphasis on their usefulness in the practical implementation of artistic projects.

Migration and Opera Old and New

This article uses Eva Noer Kondrup’s chamber opera Den Rejsende (Copenhagen 2018) to examine the challenges and opportunities provoked by the operatic form when attempting to create socially responsible theatre. Focusing on how opera reflects and contributes to contemporary discourse on migration, it examines how opera’s unusual performance and reception demands differentiate it from, for example, spoken verbatim theatre. The article first considers the most common way opera companies today engage with migration – through productions of existing operas – in which socially responsible decisions are primarily in the hands of directors and designers and relate mostly to interpretation, and it explores some of the risks and opportunities of engaging with migration in recent revivals of repertoire works. It then analyses how questions of social responsibility in new operas extend to structural issues that are the field of the composer and librettist. The article examines Kondrup’s decisions as librettist-composer of Den Rejsende, demonstrating the potential for opera to use non-realist operatic techniques to engage with some of the issues with which spoken verbatim theatre has wrestled, including questions of authority, authenticity and authorship, and of empathy, engagement, and identification. The production, performed by two Swedish singers from non-refugee backgrounds in multiple roles, favoured distanciation techniques over “authenticity effects” and avoided tensions between giving voice to and speaking for contemporary refugees that can arise in spoken verbatim theatre. While the libretto contained found text, this was from historical refugee situations, and from the words of Inger Støjberg in her role as Danish Minister for Immigration, Integration and Housing. By throwing a spotlight on the words of an elected representative, Den Rejsende indicated an area in which audience members of what is often thought of as an affective theatrical form might have some influence in effecting practical change.

Engaging with Religious History and Theological Concepts through Music Composition: Ave generosa and The Song of Margery Kempe

This article explores the intersections among music composition, religious history and spiritual texts, with their attendant concepts. It focuses on two works with medieval sources—the concert piece Ave generosa (1996) and the chamber opera The Song of Margery Kempe (2008)—which were featured in the online Gallery of the conferences in 2021 and 2022, respectively, of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT). Through the lenses of semiotics and intertextuality, it explores the ways by which theological concepts and spiritual contexts can be evoked and ‘translated’ into musical sound, both instrumental and vocal. A sampling of the literature on medieval monasticism and St Hildegard of Bingen, whose corpus forms the source of Ave generosa, supports a musical exegesis of its ‘spiritual programme’. In the case of The Song of Margery Kempe, recent scholarship on the text frames examples of the multiplication of meanings provided by dramatisation and musical setting. Art in general and music composition in particular are presented as a commentary, or gloss, on both religious history and enduring spiritual themes, and a different way of thinking about religion and spirituality.

PARALLELS AND DIVERGENCES: THREE CASE STUDIES IN THE MUSIC OF MICHAEL HERSCH

AbstractThis article focuses on three recent works by the American composer Michael Hersch: the script of storms (2018), for soprano and orchestra, the chamber opera Poppaea (2019) and the 11-hour trilogy of works that have the overall title sew me into a shroud of leaves (2001–16). A discussion of aspects of these three scores will consider Hersch's deployment of a stylistically consistent musical language, his involvement with the work of the writers Fawsi Karim and Christopher Middleton and his articulation of often substantial spans of time.

Music Reviews

This music review covers new (2022) song and aria publications. These include operatic arias excerpted from the chamber opera, Uncovered, by American composer Lori Laitman; a two volume collection of operatic arias by American composer Stephen Paulus; the song, “Partridge Sky”, by Chinese composer Fang Man; and a collection of encore songs created by 20th century comedienne Anna Russell, in a new edition by American pianist and editor, Dace Gisclard.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC(AL) THEATRE IN LATVIA: PROBLEM OF DEFINITIONS AND FORMATS

The article aims to discuss the existing problem in contemporary art criticism, when previous genre definitions and descriptions do not match to current phenomena in question. The contemporary music(al) theatre productions tend to by diverse and often produced as hybrids, interdisciplinary projects that do not allow a single method of analysis characteristic to one of the combined artistic disciplines. The three examples provided are defined by their authors as a contemporary chamber opera, a contemporary musical and opera-film, showing the diversity of music(al) theatre genres emerging today in new form. The author concludes that the hybridization of genres and the devised creation method implies the questioning of former analytical instruments and discourses in order to develop the criticism of performing arts along with the research subject.

From Medieval Romance to Contemporary Opera: Philosophy, Allegory, Eros

From Medieval Romance to Contemporary Opera: Philosophy, Allegory, Eros

Антиномии драматургии - драматургия антиномий: особенности художественной концепции оперы Георга Фридриха Хааса «Адольф Вёльфли»

The paper analyses the dramaturgic decision and artistic conception of the mono-opera “Adolf Wölfli” by Georg Friedrich Haas through the lens of antinomies, essential elements of its musical-scenic language. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the researchers for the first time provide a comprehensive musicological analysis of the chamber opera of this outstanding representative of the European post-avant-garde. “Adolf Wölfli” is for the first time examined against the background of cultural paradigms and aesthetic conceptions of the postmodernity. The conclusion is made that the opera is based on the antinomies realized by a set of artistic means (instrumental theatre, libretto, musical language), the interaction of which creates a special type of dramaturgy of antinomies representing the key features of the postmodernity aesthetics.

(Trans)fusions of Conrad’s darkness: Selected adaptations of Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness, due to its semantic complexity, interpretative openness and universal thematic interests, has been frequently intersemiotically adapted in a variety of media, encompassing radio broadcast, films, opera, graphic narratives and video games, as well as rewritten in the form of interlingual translations and refracted, with refractions including reviews and critical assessments, but also textual versions radically different from the source text. This article considers selected reinterpretations of Conrad’s text and comments briefly on how in each case the adaptation illustrates a fusion of Conrad’s vision with that of the adapter, hence (trans)fusion, and how this may give a new life to the source text via interpretative shifts. The article presents case studies: the film adaptation – Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Tarik O’Regan’s one-act chamber opera (both the United Kingdom in 2011 and the US staging in 2015), the graphic narrative by Catherine Anyango and David Zane Mairowitz (2010) and Jacek Dukaj’s Polish language version Serce ciemności (2017). This selection is governed by the variety of media and by the dissimilar approaches of the adapters to their source text. What is evident based on these variants is the role of the adapter as a creative participant in the process of transmitting the ideas of the original text, often updating them to make them relevant to new recipients of various cultural backgrounds. Additionally, reinterpretations and recontextualizations of the novella result directly from adaptive strategies specific to a given medium.

The Shackled King

Reviewed by: The Shackled King Jennifer Moss Waghorn The Shackled King Presented by John Casken and Counterpoise as a pre-recorded broadcast via YouTube for the online conference Shakespeare and Music: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives, hosted by the Universities of Manchester and Huddersfield, and the Royal Music Association (private performance; world premiere). 10–11 December 2020. Written and composed by John Casken, using extracts from William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Audio and video footage edited by Patrick Allen. Instrumental ensemble Counterpoise directed by Barry Millington. Studio space provided by the English National Opera. With Sir John Tomlinson (bass; King Lear), Rozanna Madylus (mezzo-soprano; Cordelia/Goneril/Regan/Fool), and the Counterpoint ensemble: Fenella Humphreys (violin), Deborah Calland (trumpet), Kyle Horch (saxophone), and Yshani Perinpanayagam (piano). Sometimes the most vivid renderings of chaos and uncontrollable emotion through art come from absolute precision—from expression distilled to a razor-sharp edge. In The Shackled King, composer John Casken took the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear and did exactly this, drawing on the formidable ensemble skills of Sir John Tomlinson, Rozanna Madylus, and Counterpoise. Casken’s “chamber opera” focused absolutely on Lear and Cordelia, exploring Lear’s various shackles: his struggles with madness, his responsibility and grief for the fractured relationship with Cordelia, and ultimately their literal imprisonment and her death. Except for brief appearances by the Fool, Goneril, and Regan, everything else was stripped away, including Kent’s involvement and the Gloucester subplot; the production was an intense fifty minutes long. Sections of text from King Lear were underscored or set to music out of sequence, providing concentrated episodic snapshots of moments throughout the play, but framed within and always returning to the prison environment shared by Lear and Cordelia by the final scene. Originally intended for live performance, The Shackled King was rapidly rehearsed and adapted for performance to camera following social [End Page 313] distancing guidelines. It was filmed in a rehearsal studio space using two chairs and a table for a set, and with minimal costuming, which involved single signifiers (a hat or blanket) to denote Madylus’s rapid character changes. Movement was limited and stylized within the stripped-back stage space. A great deal was done with very little, and this minimalism meant that everything was primarily shaped and expressed through instrumental music, song, and speech. Rhythm and pitch placement afforded by the standard written language of musical notation allows for greater precision than a speech-only play text; Casken went further, developing a sliding scale of spoken to sung text with Counterpoise. This ranged from speech performed freely within temporal “boxes,” through to rhythmic or pitched speech, sprechgesang and recitative styles, and fully sung words. While such a precise performance vocabulary could be constrictive in less expert hands, the effect in The Shackled King was to marry the language and verse rhythms of Lear to a rich palette of sounds from a small and relatively unusual combination of instruments (violin, trumpet, saxophone, and piano), sculpting the sounds of disorder and chaos with almost invisibly exact note placements. I was surprised and extremely impressed to discover that the four instrumentalists and two singers had performed without a conductor or musical director leading them through the cues and tempo changes, which were pin-sharp. The ensemble was small but versatile in the soundscapes it produced; it was most effective in moments of contrast between expressions of characters or mood, such as the representations of the three sisters when asked to express their filial love. Goneril’s magisterial, soaring sung speech was accompanied by uneasy violin glissando and trumpet, creating a disorientating feeling of empty space within the music. Regan’s sounded more like siren song, accompanied by voluptuous saxophone and reaching a climactic discord on “your dear highness’ love.” Cordelia was accompanied first by stabs on the piano, accentuating her stark “nothing,” before a higher sustained trumpet and violin refrain over a sweeter sung passage, feeling more sincere in its expression of sentiment through more comfortingly regular rhythms. Percussion was also used intermittently. The Fool was accompanied by a harsh rattle, and dry claves were played at the start of every section as the piece returned to the prison...

ЛЕОНИД ДЕСЯТНИКОВ. КАМЕРНАЯ ОПЕРА «БЕДНАЯ ЛИЗА» (История создания. Либретто и литературный первоисточник)

The article tells us about chamber opera "Poor Liza" by L. Desyatnikov, which is based on the novel by N. Karamzin. Also a brief description of the composer's works is given. The history of the creation and releases of the "Poor Lisa" is reviewed. The typical features of the chamber opera genre are revealed. The genre specifics of the work are analyzed from the dramatical point of view with the help of a comparative analysis (textual) of the literary source and the text of the libretto.

Вокальное наследие А.С. Даргомыжского в аспекте музыкально-исполнительской и педагогической практики композитора

The necessity of studying the stylistic features of A.S. Dargomyzhsky’s vocal creativity is substantiated to understand the relationship between music and words in works for voice and pi-ano, as the actual content of the process of developing competencies necessary for the pedagogical and concertmaster activities of graduates of a music and pedagogical university. The necessity of using the pedagogical component in the study of the concertmaster activity of composers, authors of chamber vocal and opera works has been proved. The main performing techniques of A.S. Dargomyzhsky, developing the principles of representatives of the Russian vocal school, are analyzed. We show the general and distinctive features in the methods of vocal teachers of other national schools: Italian, French, German. An understanding of the role of the creative union of singers and accompanists in the embodiment of the artistic content of musical works is formed. A.S. Dargomyzhsky’s innovative interpretation of traditional vocal genres led to the subordination of the means of musical expression to the main goal – to reveal the meaningful storyline of songs and romances. A parallel is drawn with the formation of performing and pedagogical principles in modern musical culture. The conclusion is made about the dominant role of artistic content in the performing interpretation of musical compositions, as the priority of the activities of musicians-teachers and performers of our time.

Maria Zaitun: The Journey from a Novel to Razak Abdul Aziz’s Opera

The aim of this article is to analyze Western and Asian cross-cultural trends in music on the example of compositions by Razak Abdul Aziz (Abdul Aziz Razak) and Maria Zaitun’s opera. The main idea of Maria Zaitun’s opera is to explore the aesthetic cross-cultural issues and musical elements, as well as to redefine the role of the modern composer in the multiracial society of the 21st century. As a Malaysian composer, Razak is particularly interested in combining together various different musical practices in order to create composition combining contemporary techniques with his own personal style. Razak obtained his idea from a few short novels by Fatimah Busu titled “Perkembalian Seorang Maria Zaitun,” which was then transformed into an operatic work titled “Maria Zaitun’s Opera,” a chamber opera for 8 singers with 6 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double-basses, harps, 2 pianos, celesta, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba and a set of drums. Additional percussion instruments include triangle, temple bell, bell tree, finger cymbals, hand cymbals, suspended cymbals, Malay gongs, tam-tam, glass chime, sand blocks, slapstick, wood block, temple blocks gedung, snare drum, tambourine, tom-toms and bass drum. There are eight types of choral sonorities: namely, 1st soprano, 2nd soprano, 3rd soprano, 1st alto, 2nd alto, 1st tenor, 2nd tenor and bass. Razak made a study of every page contained in Fatima Busu’s short novels in order to choose which sentences from the number are to be included into the libretto of his work. Keywords: Razak Abdul Aziz, Fatimah Busu, Short Novels “Perkembalian Seorang Maria Zaitun,” cross-cultural issues, libretto.

Kamerna opera Kšištofa Nitela i muzičko pozorište Agnješke Stulginske - primeri novog sinkretističkog medija u savremenoj poljskoj muzici

This essay analyses and interprets the scores, recordings, and media used in Knittel and King's The Heart Piece - Double Opera (1999) and Stulgińska's Three Women for three women and ten instruments (2017), two semi-improvised Polish operas using performance art and interaction between sound, text, choreography, lighting, theatrical form and electronic medium. In Stuglińska's modern music theatre, the listener follows different sound sources and the setting: choreography, performers' and speakers' arrangement on stage, props and lighting, whose intensity dictates the form. The Heart Piece chamber opera is a two - Polish and American - composers' take on Müller's play Herzstück, with separate movements in their native languages. Music and text create an interactive setting, and their notation and semantics make music both seen and heard. These works use the concept of hybridization and, in Wolf's terminology, intracompositional intermediality, where different means of expression create an intermedial discourse, a complementary whole and a new syncretistic medium.

Encountering Music: Songs Seen, Felt, and Heard

The aesthetics of accessibility, where considerations of access shape both the creation and presentation of a production, are a driving force in Canadian Deaf and disability theatre. In this article, we reflect on sound, music, access, and audism in Songs My Mother Never Sung Me, a bilingual American Sign Language (ASL) and sung English chamber opera written and composed by Dave Clarke and produced by Concrete Theatre at SOUND OFF: A Deaf Theatre Festival in 2019. This fictionalized memoir is based on Clarke’s experience as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) and explores the complex relationship of a hearing boy and his Deaf mom. In this piece, music and sound are not only aural elements, but are also tactile vibration, visual projection, and rhythmic ASL. This convergence of the senses expands conceptions of sound and music to comment on the inequality of Deaf and hearing access in the world beyond theatre production as audience position and ASL comprehension gave audiences differing access to the tactile vibration and ASL.

Категория «время» в камерной опере «Пасынок судьбы» Г.Г. Вдовина

Категория «время» в камерной опере «Пасынок судьбы» Г.Г. Вдовина