When you think of opera, you might instantly imagine grand opera houses, fancy costumes, debonair audiences, romantic Italian arias, Mozart, Wagner, Puccini...
Well, last weekend I went to a very different kind of opera. It was called 'The Whisper Opera', and it was told completely in whispers! The concept was so interesting that I want to recount it here.
The Whisper Opera is based fundamentally on the challenges of human communication. The composer, David Lang, wished to create a piece that was opposite to what we are used to - his idea was that we have a vast amount of perfectly recorded music available to us at our fingertips, on the internet, all the time. As he wrote of his Whisper Opera, 'what if a piece were so quiet and so intimate and so personal to the performers that you needed to be right next them or you would hear almost nothing?' Because of this kind of work then, it would be impossible to record it, therefore the experience of hearing this opera would always be a live one, and rely completely on the communication between performers and audience. I find this to be a really amazing idea, especially as, in these times, live music is so incredibly important. David Lang actually wrote in his score that this work was never to be recorded.
The first issue that a work like this would create was that of staging. Because it was to be so quiet, it was crucial that the audience be as close to the performers as possible, so that they could have a chance of hearing the words and sounds. This was achieved in a very interesting way. The stage was in a square shape and single rows of audience fit into the square at various symmetrical angles. If you imagine that the square was divided into four quarters, each quarter fit 2 rows of audience from each of it's two outer sides. In between each quarter of the square hung these net curtains which served to divide the stage up into each quarter section. I suppose this meant that the audience was a much smaller one than for a 'normal' opera or concert (there were only about 8 people per row and 8 rows in total), but then again this reflects the personal communication between them and the performers, which, with any more people, would not have been possible.
There were five performers in the opera; soprano, flute, clarinet, cello and percussion. Each instrumentalist took one quarter section of the stage, and the soprano moved around the entire stage. All the performers would also switch sections and instruments from time to time. Each performer was dressed quite plainly - no elaborate costumes here - and wore no shoes. The performers also got very close to the edge of the stage, right in front of the audience so that, if I reached out, I could definitely touch them. I noticed that as they performed, they made eye contact with each and every member of their section of audience; I think this was quite an unnerving thing for some of the audience as it is definitely unusual! But I think it worked because there was a direct link between you and the performer and you felt totally involved. It also helped you to hear better what they were whispering, when they looked at you (the instrumentalists whispered words as well as played sounds).
The opera is divided into for movements, each one titled with an unfinished question:
1. "when I am alone I always"
2. "they said I was crazy but"
3. "when I think of you I think of"
4. "it's not my fault that I am so"
David Lang actually used google to answer these questions, and used real words written by real people on the internet as the libretto of the opera! You hear phrases like 'I make others laugh but when I'm alone I cry', 'all that we've been through', 'sunny days, the greatest gift'. The sounds of the instruments also act like whispers - they are very beautiful, creating harmonies which set the mood for each movement and the text of the soprano's part.
The effect of the whispers is really amazing - it is impossible to hear everything, or to get a full sense of the story of the text. Instead you catch words and phrases here and there, coming from the performer in your section of the stage, and also those carried by the other performers in other sections. I would say that this could be a good and a bad thing. On one hand this is something new and different, perhaps giving every member of the audience a different perception and different experience of the opera, as everyone hears something different. On the other hand, perhaps it could have been a more personal experience if the text had been more coherent, in the form of one continuous story, rather than lots of disjointed phrases.
The concept of The Whisper Opera is definitely interesting, and it is very worth seeing and doing. As a work in itself it is hugely creative, and the performers do a terrific job, bringing a lot of personality to the work. I know myself that playing music quietly is a lot more difficult than playing loudly - you have to take so much more care and it involves a lot more control, to get your message across. I can imagine, therefore, how difficult it must be to perform a whole opera so quietly and I take my hat off to them. I am always interested to find and learn new ideas and I definitely recommend going to see it if you get the chance!
Labels: Music
