Ne(x)tworks - Opera Projects

WoolfSong, an opera-in-progress, explores the creative process as it is revealed by a solitary figure, the writer Virginia Woolf, and the characters she brings forth from her mind. As they materialize, she sketches and redefines them, with each stroke delving deeper into the labyrinth of their psyches. Woolf wrote that she heard her work first as music and then put it into words. I take her words and filter them back through my mind into music.

In the sample, Woolf does battle with the voices that interfere with her work, invading the clear space of her mind. She struggles to converse with the voices, then move past them to begin to outline a character, an idea. Fragments of a melody emerge, first in her voice, then taken up by the violin, as the character emerges from the initial sketch and flesh is put onto the bones. The scene takes on color and dimension as the other instruments enter, providing harmonic support and emotional context.

I envision the twinning or doubling of players to embody characters, a musician to articulate the musical information, a dancer, actor or singer to expose the mood, reveal the essence, rotating the prism to visualize the character who is, in turn, an aspect of the creator, the artist.

WoolfSong, an opera in progress Joan La Barbara	Woman in the Dunes Kenji Bunch
WoolfSong, an opera-in-progress, explores the creative process as it is revealed by a solitary figure, the writer Virginia Woolf, and the characters she brings forth from her mind. As they materialize, she sketches and redefines them, with each stroke delving deeper into the labyrinth of their psyches. Woolf wrote that she heard her work first as music and then put it into words. I take her words and filter them back through my mind into music. In the sample, Woolf does battle with the voices that interfere with her work, invading the clear space of her mind. She struggles to converse with the voices, then move past them to begin to outline a character, an idea. Fragments of a melody emerge, first in her voice, then taken up by the violin, as the character emerges from the initial sketch and flesh is put onto the bones. The scene takes on color and dimension as the other instruments enter, providing harmonic support and emotional context. I envision the twinning or doubling of players to embody characters, a musician to articulate the musical information, a dancer, actor or singer to expose the mood, reveal the essence, rotating the prism to visualize the character who is, in turn, an aspect of the creator, the artist.	Woman in the Dunes is an experimental one-act opera based on Kobo Abe's classic existentialist parable of the same name. Inspired by the striking contradictions of Abe's abstract yet vivid imagery and text that is at turns comic, bleak, romantic, tragic, and hopeful, the work is a blend of both traditional and avant-garde vocal techniques, freely improvisational and strictly minimalist textures, an economy of movement and staging and yet an extremity of emotional expression. With a libretto by writer/singer/actor William Youmans and performances by groundbreaking vocalist Joan LaBarbara and innovative music group Ne(x)tworks, this work is a collaborative event that will suggest a new definition for the term opera while drawing on the rich tradition of the genre as well as each performer's unique musical background. Read Alex Ross' New Yorker review of the April 2006 premiere of Woman in the Dunes at ISSUE Project Room.
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