{"id":17766,"date":"2014-05-01T21:02:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T01:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=17766"},"modified":"2014-05-14T21:10:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T01:10:56","slug":"ueno-opera-to-premiere-in-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=17766","title":{"rendered":"Ueno Opera to Premiere in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"GalloCover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em>I recently spoke with my friend Ken Ueno, a composer on the faculty at UC Berkeley, about the upcoming premiere of his opera\u00a0Gallo.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>It will be presented by Guerrilla Opera in May in Boston. Below are excerpts from our chat.<\/em><\/p>\n

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CC: How did you come to decide to compose an opera?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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KU: Theater has always interested me. I used to mimic the skits of my favorite comedians, the Drifters, on Japanese television. (I remember I got kicked out of a French-speaking kindergarten class in Switzerland doing one of those skits \u2013 I was just trying to make friends!) As I kid, whenever my family and I visited New York or London, we took in all the shows \u2013 musicals, plays. (I took tap dancing classes.) And later in life, I discovered Samuel Beckett, who remains one of my biggest heroes. As I got into composing concert works, much of my music still embodies some sort of theatrical component.\u00a0 And over the past 10 years, as I have been performing as a vocalist more and more, I have been feeling that a natural development would be to do a theater work with voice. What made that desire concrete was when Guerilla Opera reached out to me and invited me to collaborate.<\/p>\n

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What is the significance of the title?<\/em><\/p>\n

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The central concern of the piece is man\u2019s relationship to the landscape, how we shape the landscape, as well as how the landscape shapes us. A question of ontology.\u00a0 The central scene, which was the first thing I conceived, is an aria for a countertenor in a rooster costume dressed as an 18th<\/sup>\u00a0century dandy. I thought it would make a nice balance between the humorous and the intellectual to have the said rooster soliloquize, wax profanely, about ontology (there\u2019s highfaluting Voltaire, Shakespeare and Heiner M\u00fcller in there), while singing in chickenese with subtitles. It\u2019s ridiculous. And that\u2019s part of the commentary on ontology. It\u2019s easy to complain about the world, or dream of something, but it takes courage to actually realize, actually make the ridiculous thing. In that creative realization, there is hope \u2013 that\u2019s when we can transform the world, rather than have the world constrain us. People will always criticize everything, so we can\u2019t be afraid of it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a rooster \u2013 chicken or \u201cbeing chicken\u201d is a common vernacular for being afraid, of course. I also thought of Max Ernst\u2019s (a leading 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century German painter) alter ego, Loplop, a birdlike figure that he included in many works to stand as his alter ego. In a sense, we are all Loplop, we are all the rooster of ontology, we all face life and death and crises of identity.<\/p>\n

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A large part of the concept of the piece was planned during my residency at Civitella Ranieri.\u00a0 There, each night, when we had dinner, we were served wine in clay pitchers shaped like roosters. \u201cGallo\u201d is Italian for rooster. It dawned on me towards the end of my time there that the piece should be called \u201cGallo.\u201d<\/p>\n

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How did you decide to write your own libretto?<\/em><\/p>\n

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As I conceived of the idea and the sounds (including the vocal sounds), it felt natural that I would do it. I understand that many composers get the idea to do an opera then go looking for an appropriate text to set. The evolution of this project didn\u2019t unfold that way. I was also not interested in a traditional narrative. There was also another personal need. Over the last several years, as a creative artist, I have been feeling a desire to step beyond just writing music.\u00a0 Of course, composing remains the thing I most self-identify with, but I also enjoy making visual art and writing poetry. The secret is that I have been writing poetry ever since I was a kid, though I\u2019ve been shy about sharing it. So, this scary thing (scary to me, as I\u2019m as yet not as used to it as I am about writing music) about writing my own words and getting it out there felt like the right personal risk to take at this time. One has to get in the habit of taking risks, being courageous.<\/p>\n

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Did you consider singing in the piece as well?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Not for this project.\u00a0 Guerilla Opera expressed an interest in a piece mainly for their core members.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy with that, since they are such talented, committed performers.\u00a0 Besides, I am conceiving of other projects in which I can sing.<\/p>\n

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The two principals are a countertenor and a soprano. What are their characters like and why did you select these particular voices?<\/em><\/p>\n

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The countertenor is the rooster.\u00a0 Since much of the text he contemplates is rooted in the philosophical discussions of the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0century, a countertenor voice seemed appropriate. Also, having worked with the Hilliard Ensemble over a number of years, David James\u2019 singing has been a big influence on me. The soprano is the shopper\/mother figure and was conceived for the particular talents of Aliana de la Guardia, one of the directors of Guerilla Opera, and an amazing talent.<\/p>\n

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What’s with the Cheerios? What about the other pop culture references?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Inspired by Beckett\u2019s\u00a0Happy Days<\/i>, I wanted the set to be a landscape, a character.\u00a0 The set, then, is an installation.\u00a0 I wanted a beach-like feel, a repository of memories, family vacations, Cheerios, as compared to other cereals, look more beach-like. It also makes a better canvas for video projections. Cheerios are childhood comfort food.\u00a0 It\u2019s the childhood cereal that\u2019s good for you.<\/p>\n

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The text is full of pop references, besides the literary (the aforementioned Voltaire, Shakespeare, M\u00fcller as well as Joyce and Carroll).\u00a0 Many references are about consumer culture.\u00a0 Others are references to songs \u2013 Janis Joplin, Beastie Boys, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix.\u00a0 They occurred to me as I was writing the text.\u00a0 \u201cMercedes Benz,\u201d when I was writing about consumer culture. Beastie Boys, when I was writing about the difference between semantic sounds and asemic sounds (the \u201cill communication\u201d). Van Morrison about breathing.\u00a0 And Hendrix\u2019s \u201cmajestic and superior cackling hen,Your people I do not understand.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s a surprise ending that references a meta-ending of all meta-endings.\u00a0 All these things are just how I speak \u2013 a mishmash of all the things I\u2019ve read, seen, and thought about. I hope it\u2019s entertaining for the audience.\u00a0 Most of it you don\u2019t have to \u201cget\u201d a local reference to get the whole picture. Fredric Jameson, the philosopher, says that one of the conditions of postmodernism is that time is flattened into a space. The Cheerios and the cultural references articulate that space in\u00a0Gallo<\/i>. Music is also flattened into a space \u2013 the baroque, the contemporary, a lullaby are all there too.<\/p>\n

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Do you have some other projects in process? What’s next?<\/em><\/p>\n

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I have an installation opening at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum the first week of May. Then, a new string quartet for Mivos premiering at Darmstadt, an evening-long work for Community Music Works for the rededication of the Dainichi Buddha at the RISD Museum, a piece for the Paul Dresher Ensemble with Amy X Neuberg for Cal Performances, a violin concerto for Graeme Jennings and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and a few other exciting things upcoming!<\/p>\n

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When\/where are the premiere performances of Gallo?<\/em><\/p>\n

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The premiere performances will be at\u00a0the Zack Box Theater at The Boston Conservatory
\n8 The Fenway, Boston, MA, on these dates:<\/p>\n

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May 22 \u2013 24, 2014\u00a0(at\u00a08pm)
\nMay 29 & 30, 2014\u00a0(at\u00a08pm)
\nMay 31, 2914 (at\u00a02pm)<\/p>\n

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