Solaris (Fujikura)
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| Original title: | Solaris |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Dai Fujikura |
| Libretto : | Saburo Teshigawara |
| Premiere: | 5th March 2015 |
| Place of premiere: | Théâtre des Champs-Élysées , Paris |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | In a space station in orbit of the planet Solaris |
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Solaris is an opera by the Japanese-British composer Dai Fujikura from 2015 based on the novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem (1961). After the operas by Michael Obst (1996) and Detlev Glanert ( Solaris , 2012) it is the third setting of the material.
action
The opera describes three days on a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. Scientist Kris Kelvin was sent to investigate strange incidents in the flying laboratory. Shortly after his arrival, he meets his colleague Snaut, who looks confused and warns of “visitors”. The second scientist, Gibarian, is dead, but has left a video message in which he also announces to Kelvin that he will meet strangers.
On the second day, Kelvin meets his wife Hari, who died ten years ago. It seems to be completely inconspicuous on the outside, but Snaut calls it a projection, made of the ocean on the planet Solaris, which materializes the (unresolved) memories of the people. Fearful of loneliness, Hari is injured when Kelvin tries to forcibly lock her out. The wounds heal on their own in a flash. Snaut has developed a method to destroy these "visitors", especially since someone is haunting him. Hari is irritated when she overhears the scientists and learns that she is only a "copy". Kris Kelvin tries to calm her down.
On the third day, his birthday, Snaut insults Kelvin and Hari. The dead Gibarian appears. Hari tries in vain to kill himself. She insists on being informed about her origin and the meaning of her existence. Kelvin finds no answers to this.
In the epilogue Snaut succeeds in deleting Hari's “ neutrino tissue” and thus eliminating her. In a suicide note, she confesses to Kelvin that it was her free will to disappear. Kelvin decides to leave the space station and dive into the ocean on Solaris.
During the three days Kris Kelvin repeatedly wrestled with his inner voice, his conscience .
Orchestral line-up
- Woodwinds : flute , piccolo , oboe , E flat clarinet , B flat clarinet , bassoon
- Brass : horn (mute), trumpet in Bb (mute), trombone
- Timpani , percussion : two hanging cymbals , tam-tam , conga , two large drums , vibraphone
- Celesta
- Strings : two violins , viola , violoncello , double bass (all with plectrum )
- Live electronics
Work history
Although Dai Fujikura, who was born in Osaka and who emigrated to Great Britain on the recommendation of his parents at the age of 15, appreciates the Soviet Solaris film by Andrei Tarkowski , he says he was more oriented towards Lem's novel: “My opera does not refer to the book on the film ”. Before composing the opera, Fujikura had already been inspired by Solaris for his trombone concerto Vast Ocean and his smaller-staffed K's Ocean for trombone and electronics: “For me, Solaris is not a science fiction story. Rather, it is a story about the depths of the human psyche . The action takes place in space so that it can be reduced to the essentials. ” Saburo Teshigawara, the director and choreographer of the Paris premiere, wrote the libretto for Solaris in Japanese; the composer translated the draft into English with the writer Harry Ross and showed it delighted with the project: “I worked on Solaris for a year and a half, and I have to say that I had a lot of fun. In the end I was even a little sad because I had to leave the world of Solaris, in which I had lived for so long. ”Although he was initially“ a bit worried ”, he felt“ great from the first to the last bar "And writing, dramatizing, telling stories, setting the pace, mood and atmosphere as" wonderful enrichment ".
Together with acoustic designer and composer Gilbert Nouno, Fujikura developed the live electronics for four months at the IRCAM Institute in Paris. In doing so, he made it a point not to set the timing exactly for any use. The electronics should "run along" the entire length of the opera and be played back as desired, leaving room for improvisations. At the premiere, the composer personally controlled the mixer and resolved to proceed differently for each performance.
reception
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised the “stimulating multimedia opera”, but criticized the lack of a “concise, clearly recognizable handwriting” in the voices. The premiere opened “remarkable perspectives” for the music theater, but it was “questionable” whether the opera would be viable without the librettist Saburo Teshigawara, who danced with it himself. The Financial Times recognized “memorable and soulful” moments in the score, but criticized it for being too dependent on the live electronics and with “queasy harmony ” and “persistent screeching” in the outdated style of the outdated avant-garde .
After the German premiere in Augsburg, the Neue Musikzeitung was reserved: “All of this may have been thought through and written down - yet the work lacks a quickly accessible, immediately haunting theatrical effect. Because what the composer has heard over and over again during the creative process only sounds once to the viewer. Horror and above all love should be audible in the scenic moment. That's missing. ”The Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation criticized“ extravagant dialogues ”:“ There is almost non-stop singing, the music almost gasps, it has so little free space, and the surtitle system is also heavily used. Unlike fellow composer Detlev Glanert in Solaris 2012, Fujikura has not given any thought to what this intelligent planet Solaris might sound like. Instead, the Japanese concentrates entirely on the inner world of the astronaut Kris Kelvin, who is busily talking to himself. "
Performances
- 2015: Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris / Ópera de Lille / Ópera de Lausanne, production Saburo Teshigawara, conductor Erik Nielsen
- 2018: Theater Augsburg, staging Dirk Schmeding , conductor Lancelot Fuhry (German premiere)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview: Dai Fujikura on umpgclassical.com, accessed on May 22, 2018.
- ↑ a b Dai Fujikura: New Opera at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on ricordi.com, accessed on May 22, 2018.
- ↑ Meet the Artist …… Dai Fujikura, composer on crosseyedpianist.com, July 2, 2015, accessed on May 22, 2018.
- ↑ Peter Hagmann: Am I me? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 27, 2015, accessed on May 22, 2018.
- ^ Solaris, Théâtre des Champs-Elyseés, Paris - review. In: Financial Times (subscription required).
- ↑ Wolf-Dieter Peter: No solution in space theater - German premiere of Dai Fujikura's "Solaris" in Augsburg. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , May 19, 2018, accessed on May 22, 2018.
- ↑ Thawed conscience: "Solaris" at the Augsburg Theater. In: br24.de, May 19, 2018, accessed on May 22, 2018.