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Zürich 1916 - 1998
Opera Production
World Premiere
Music by Christopher
Butterfield; concept and libretto by John Bentley
Mays
Gertrude Stein said about
the twentieth century
"something that happened once and it is very
interesting".
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This music drama is not
history, nor even about something that happened
once. It is full of subterfuges and evasions,
itching powder, stink bonbs, periphrases, booby
traps. It is music as literature, as painting ,
as architecture; music that takes the side of
contamination and impurity, refusing to
discriminate. It is music that has a hard time
remembering when it is and where it is. Neither
the music nor the play itself is about
self-expression. It is about the coincidences of
life, the discovery, through art, of what is
happening now.
It is what is
happening now, here-to the composer and
librettist, the singers and dancers,
choreographers and prucers and beholders. It is
what is happening to any soul who seeks to dwell
creatively, in liberty and mercy, on the troubled
ground of our century's ending.
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| The
opera's libretto, originally titled Project
for an Opera of the Twentieth Century G.S.:
something that happened once and it is very
interesting, was begun by John Bentley Mays
in a Leningrad hotel in 1984. "The best
operas always tell simple, romantic stories which
have sad and wonderful endings, drawing us into
life and into some truth of the world. So it was
that I decided to write this opera about Zurich
Dada, which is our century's main revolution in
the word and in desire, and the one that
mattered," Bentley Mays explains. |
| In 1985 composer Christopher
Butterfield began the collaboration with Bentley
Mays. He wrote the music over several years
without a commission or a deadline but with the
support of The Canada Council for the Arts -
ideal circumstances for letting the creative
process flow. Commenting on the opera's score he
says "Musically the twentieth century is the
most varied century to date and you will find
this diversity reflected in the opera's
music". |
| As
for the opera's story, Keith Turnbull, artistic
director/ executive producer, Theatre Arts, and
stage director for the production says, "One
would expect the combination of John Bentley Mays
and Christopher Butterfield to produce the
extraordinary - and it has. The opera starts off
in the tiny Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich with the
first Dadaist (Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan
Tzara, Richard Huelsenbeck) then vaults through
the formative years of the century with V. I.
Lenin, Stalin, Thomas Edison, the Tzar Nicholas
II, the Tsarina, and the Tsarevich. Add to this
Miss Ranovalla of Singapore, Stromboli the human
torch and the rest of La Troupe Flamingo and you
have a potent and eclectic cocktail."
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| In
1993, in collaboration with Autumn Leaf
Performance and with a project grant from Opera
America's Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Opera for a
New America fund, the piece was given a workshop
reading as part of Banff's New Work Development
program. The development and production of new
work has been a Banff Centre priority for 15
years; however, it is only in the past two years
that the high profile summer Banff Arts Festival
has been producing world premieres. Z¸rich
1916 is the third summer premiere following Jackie
O by Michael Daugherty and Wayne Koestenbaum
(a co-production with Houston Grand Opera) and Kafka's
Chimp by John Metcalf and Mark Morris.
Turnbull continues "We are now beginning to
attract audiences who want to be part of the
creation experience. The presence of the
composers, librettists, directors, and designers
and their participation in colloquia, pre-show
chats, and other opportunities for direct
interaction have done much to diminish
perceptions of 'inaccessibility'."
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PERFORMERS: Stacie
Robinson - soprano; Michael Colvin - tenor; Lori Klassen
- mezzo soprano; Shaunaid Amette - contralto; Tracey
Scher - mezzo soprano; Nanette Canfield - soprano; Eric
Shaw - tenor; Daniel May - bass; Michael Maniaci - male
soprano.
DANCERS: Kirsten
Andersen, Darren Bonin, Jennifer Dahl, Laurence Lemieux,
Robin Poitras, Ron Stewart.
PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES
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THE ORCHESTRA: Owen
Underhill - conductor; Maya de Forest - violin; Darryl
Strain - violin; Ralitza Tcholakova - violin; Antoine
Tamestit - viola; Peter Pavlovsky - double bass; Isabelle
Lenoir - flute/piccolo; Peter Stoll - clarinet/base
clarinet; Marc Feldman - bassoon/contra bassoon; Peter
Lutek - alto saxophone; Xavier Faure - French horn;
Merrie Klazek - trumpet; David Zambon - tuba; Nicholas
Coulter - percussion; Richard Sacks - percussion; John
Gzowski - guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar; Susan
Ball - piano, harpsichord, harmonium; Estelle Lemire -
ondes Martenot.
ORCHESTRA BIOGRAPHIES
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THE PUPPETEERS: Sadhana
Ali, Elsa Lee Arbuckle, Sylvie Bonin, Jacqui H. Harthin,
and Cindy Kelly
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CREATIVE TEAM: Christopher
Butterfield - composer; John Bentley Mays - concept and
libretto; Owen Underhill - music director; Keith Turnbull
- stage director; Bill Coleman - choreographer; David
Gaucher - stage designer; Mary Kerr - costume designer;
StÈphane Mongeau - lighting designer.
CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
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Developmental
support for Zürich 1916 received from:
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Autumn
Leaf Performance
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Return to yearly index
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: Theatre: History: Opera: Zurich 1916 - 1998
Production