Issues brought forward 1. is this opera?

1. Is this work really opera?
1.1 There are several issues brought forward into this project from CJA. Primary of these is the notion that I may be creating opera. This blog, more than anything else, will probably focus on this notion for I am not convinced that this is the case.

1.2 Predominant in this negation is my own personal prejudice of the term opera and my perception of the artform. Perhaps fueling this prejudice is my understanding that my own work is dealing with this see-hearing phenomenon, placing audition before sight - in fact replacing sight with audition - and allowing the drama of the work to come from within. It is this compositional principle that I fail to see in operatic works.

1.3 A preliminary delve into opera discourse and a brief study of the emerging canon of "digital opera" does not illuminate any new evidence to suggest that my governing principles are linked to 'theirs'. There would appear to be 2 strands: i) the musicalisation of the theatrical act, ii) the staging of music. Neither of which describe CJA or ASJ.

1.4 Jelena Novaks paper on post-opera deals with issues that are encapsulated with John Cage's Europera's 1 - 5 - in my opinion the proper funeral for the death of Opera (in the grand sense). But her paper fails to address current issues surrounding digital technology in performance (presence, mixed media, past-present relationships).

2. Gesamtkunstwerk
2.1 Wagner's "universal artwork, synthesis of the arts, comprehensive artwork, all-embracing art form, total work of art, or total artwork" comes closest to addressing my governing principle of interdisicplinarity and wholeness. But dig a little deeper into "The Artwork of the Future" (Wagner 1851) and it becomes clear that "Placing most emphasis on the arts of music and poetry, Wagner aimed to synthesize works in which symphonic music would convey the subtle and deep emotions that words and dramatic action alone could never achieve" (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/U.html#anchor1538384) is still an ocularcentric paradigm more akin to cinema.

2.2 Wagner described in detail his idea of the union of opera and drama (later called music drama despite Wagner's disapproval of the term), in which the individual arts are subordinated to a common purpose (wikipedia). But, again, this is not what I am focusing on - I am subordinating all senses to the aural and the imagined.

2.3 Mary Oliver mentioned that Digital Theatre is Gesamtkunstwerk - what does she mean by that?

2.4 Tracing back to the inception of the form - The word opera means "work" in Italian (it is the plural of Latin opus meaning "work" or "labour") suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing in a staged spectacle. (wikipedia - opera).

"Dafne [Jacopo Peri earliest composition considered opera] was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation". (wikipedia - opera)

3. audio-visual paradox
To paraphrase Damian Cruden: when ever we place anything on stage in a theatre we look at it and judge it to be important - to mean something. Therefore the visual element MUST be carefully composed to focus the eye on the ear. An alternative approach could be found in the joint video-opera project with Joe Duddell [link] :

Monday, 28 September 2009

Initial thoughts on Video element

CV to JD

I think the same 'interdisciplinary' approach needs to be extended to this video element. By that I mean that not only does this element need to operate between the music and image but itself needs to be in-between disciplines: the medium needs to be the 'message' and convey the 'message'.

I.E.: a traditional opera is the incorporation of many artforms threaded together by the story/ narrative: action in dance, speech in song, lights in design. As such our video element should be between more than one or two artforms. Furthermore, the thing itself needs to be more than a filmic representation of something else, say dance on film, and instead be a performer use light, colour, shape etc, in the same way expressionistic film making gives a fourth dimension to 'framed' artworks. (Am thinking Len Lye, or even that section in the film "The Soloist" when he sees colours synanesthetically with the music).

Therefore, I suggest we are not looking for one collaborator but a company. Our video should not be a simulation of something else but be a thing in itself, and as joint composers and artistic directors of this company, it should also reflect our music.

The reason for this thought-burst was Ragnhild's email, were she volunteered her services as a choreographer in Svalbard (her brother teaches at the school and is one of our contacts). This made me think about the nature of our video, and more importantly who we ask to create it.

If we choose to use only a film maker as our visual collaborator we will end up with a film and a live soundtrack - not what we are after. My first suggestion was Thomas Riedlesheimer - after watching 'Tides and River', a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, and hearing about the film he made about Evelyn Glennie, I thought he would be the perfect cinematographer to deal with nature, art in nature, art from nature and the nature of music. He would make a beautiful film; but I wonder if we need a different 'eye' behind the lens - perhaps someone who see's the world with a dancer's eye.

This brings be to the point about interdisciplinary and simulacra. I suggest that embedded within the video are the other disciplines such as the dance of movement, the texture of light and colour, and the materiality of design - to be traditional for the purpose of this explanation. Rather than a (wholly) filmic image of nature, we should be aiming for something more embedded, more abstract at times; something that can operate beyond the eye and stimulate the 'dimensionality' of the see-hearing mind. For example, photography can do this more than film can. Furthermore, I suggest that we all work with a digital editor (someone expert and creative with after effects and final cut pro) to sculpt the work in the final stage, thus freeing up you, and I and our company.

There are lessons to be learned from both Steve Reich’s 'Three Tales' and Philip Glass’s 'Koyaanisqatsi', but I'm affraid to say they indicate an approach to avoid, not that they don't have their place; but I think the thing we are interested in is something much more in-between and embedded.... even if that is difficult to explain or complicated to realise.

4. Are computer games Gesamtkunstwerk?"

All Game Play is Performance/Game Play is All Performance." A manifesto in anticipation of delivering the keynote address for Playful: The State of the Art Game. May 2005. Download.

This manifesto argues that all game play is performance, and there is no gaming without performance. This manifesto claims all digital games in the name of theater. This manifesto contends that gamers create Gesamtkunstwerk. “Install base: Everyone. The entire public. Platform: The world. The entire electronic sphere. If we could make your toaster print something we would. Anything with an electric current running through it. A single story, a single gaming experience, with no boundaries. A game that is life itself.”