Space Opera (Opera)

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Opera dates
Title: Space Opera
Shape: Opera in two acts and sixteen scenes
Original language: English
Music: Aleksander Nowak
Libretto : Georgi Gospodinow , Angela Rodel, Magdalena Pytlak
Premiere: March 14, 2015
Place of premiere: Teatr Wielki , Poznan
Playing time: approx. 1 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: On earth, in a spaceship, on Mars
people

Space Opera is an opera in two acts and sixteen scenes by Aleksander Nowak (music) with a libretto by Georgi Gospodinow . The text was translated from Bulgarian into English by Angela Rodel. The world premiere took place on March 14, 2015 in Teatr Wielki in Poznan.

action

The opera is about the flight of a couple of astronauts to Mars, which is watched live from Earth by a large audience like Big Brother . Another main role is dedicated to a fly on board the space capsule.

first act

Scene 1. Prologue to the first act. A chorus of fruit flies recalls the various animals that flew into space before humans, including fruit flies in 1946, monkeys in 1949 and the dog Laika in 1957.

Scene 2. The last night on earth. The astronaut couple Adam and Eve's flight to Mars is planned for the next day. They will be on the road for 500 days and have to leave their dog Laika behind. Eve regrets they don't have children. Suddenly the producer who overheard her jumps into the room and reminds her that the whole world will be watching the departure.

Scene 3. Numbers. Countdown. Rocket launch. As the choir does the countdown, Adam and Eve remember their childhood. The rocket starts.

Scene 4. Producer's aria. The producer steps on stage like a television star and praises the show: Seven billion viewers will be able to watch the most expensive television production of all time live for 500 days. The crowd applauds. The astronauts were not informed, however, that the cameras will run continuously, as with Big Brother .

Scene 5. In the capsule. Before going to bed, Eve can't shake the feeling that she is being watched. Adam assures her that he turned off the camera. They fall asleep in a hug.

Scene 6. Aria of the ignored fly. A fly came on board the spaceship unnoticed. She is proud of the achievements of her kind: flies have lived on earth much longer than humans. Nevertheless, they have settled in with them. Although they are ruthlessly persecuted and killed by the people, they are their oldest friends.

Scene 7. Eve and the fly. Eve is astonished to discover the fly. Adam jokes about it - maybe it's a Mars fly. Then he wants to get rid of her. But Eve likes the buzz that reminds her of home.

Scene 8. On earth. The producer and the audience are very excited about the astronauts' conversations: Is there an alien on board? The cameras don't show anything unusual. Maybe the astronauts are hallucinating. The producer calls the astronauts to find out more. Eve calms him down - but then wonders why people on earth know about it.

Scene 9. Loneliness in the cosmos. On the 157th day the loneliness of the space travelers becomes noticeable. Eve is starting to feel like a lab rat. For Adam, however, the journey is the fulfillment of a dream that requires sacrifice. The audience on earth sympathetically comments on the conversation. The fly is amazed at people's contradicting feelings. As the couple's argument threatens to escalate, Eve suddenly notices the camera constantly rolling, and Adam admits he knew about it. Eve gets up and turns her off.

Second act

Scene 10. Prologue to the second act. In the absence of live images, the producer now shows recordings of the historical bitch Laika in the Soviet space capsule. Laika comments on her suffering during the flight herself. The producer joins her song.

Scene 11. Back on earth. The audience worries about the astronauts, of whom there is still no sign of life. It remembers the many failed space flights. But maybe something is wrong on Earth, as the rich are pushing into space to leave. The excitement grows until everyone finally leaves the stage. The producer, on the other hand, only thinks about his ratings.

Scene 12. On the spaceship. Reconciliation. Adam and Eve are at odds. The fly is wondering what it can do about it. She splits up and whispers the two to forgive each other.

Scene 13. Mars. The spaceship is approaching Mars. While Adam enthusiastically points out that there may have been life here, Eve sees Mars as just a deadly rusty planet.

Scene 14. Departure of the fly. The fly leaves the capsule first. She says that flies originally come from Mars and is looking forward to their actual home. Humans have been looking for aliens for so long without realizing that they have long been living among them. You and the astronauts quote from the Bible of the flies : "And in the beginning God created Mars ..."

Scene 15. Love in the cosmos. Eve and Adam realize that love is the answer to the question of life. Adam thinks that gravity is more important, but love is also "a kind of gravity". Eve informs him that she is pregnant. It takes just under nine months to return to Earth. So it will be the first "cosmic baby". Eve decides to turn the camera back on.

Scene 16. Epilogue - Martian Desert. Souls mourn the animals sent into space in the earlier experiments and wish them to rest in peace. A Bedouin recalls that the early desert wanderers often took breaks to give their souls time to catch up with them. Eve, Adam and the fly end the opera with the words: "Wait for our souls!"

layout

Reviewer Karyl Charna Lynn gave a detailed description of Nowak's musical style on her website, The Opera Critic . According to this, it is an “amalgam” of the most varied of musical styles, ranging from Greek choirs to Hollywood soundtracks. There are echoes of Gregorian chant , the music of Philip Glass , Wagner quotes such as the opening chords of Rheingold , elements of American swing and jazz and a lot of drums. The vocal lines of the main roles Adam and Eve are mainly designed as recitative . Most carefully worked out is the role of the fly, sung by a soprano and a countertenor at the same time, which contains “pseudo coloratura ” and elements of bel canto . The producer's role is "barked in a speaking voice". According to Lynn, the opera was successful on an entertainment level, but failed on an emotional level, partly because of the "cerebrally complex libretto".

Work history

The Space Opera by Polish composer Aleksander Nowak (born 1979) was commissioned by Teatr Wielki from Poznan .

The libretto comes from the internationally renowned Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinow . The original Bulgarian text was translated into English for the opera by Angela Rodel and Magdalena Pytlak.

The world premiere took place on March 14, 2015 at the start of the opera conference “Modern opera in the face of technical, economic and cultural change” (March 15–17, 2015) at Teatr Wielki. The conference ended with a revival of Bruno Coli's chamber opera The Angel of the Odd from the previous year.

Marek Moś was the musical director of the orchestra and choir of the Poznan Opera . The stage and decorations were by Ewelina Pietrowiak, the costumes by Katarzyna Nesteruk and the video projections by Piotr Szabliński. Magdalena Wachowska (Eve), Bartłomiej Misiuda (Adam), Martyna Cymerman and Tomasz Raczkiewicz (fly, Laika) and Andrzej Ogórkiewicz (producer, Bedouin) sang.

A video recording of the Poznan performance was made available on the Internet in 2017 as part of the Opera Platform .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Karyl Charna Lynn: Space Opera - World Premiere by Aleksander Nowak and Georgi Gospodinov. Performance review on The Opera Critic , accessed February 12, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Worldcat data set for the opera program in the Nukat university catalog, accessed on May 15, 2019.
  3. ^ Modern Opera and Musical Theater Cultural, economic and technological changes. Information about the Poznan Opera Conference at opera-europa.org (English), accessed on February 12, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Karin Coper: Time for questions. Report on the Poznan Opera Conference in the Opera Network, accessed on February 12, 2017.