Opera in the Twentieth Century – Part IV – Electroacoustic Opera

Well, this was, without a doubt, the hardest section to put together. A lot of trickiness in determining what exactly is an “electroacoustic” opera. Certain factors seem to make things more or less electroacoustic. Stockhausen is renowned for his EA opera Donnerstag aus Licht but in reality Machover and Shields operas are more truly electroacoustic. Stockhausen’s work, nevertheless is extremely important in terms of musical innovation. Very difficult to determine what is “good” or “canonic” here given the close proximity to the composition dates. Anyway, thanks for listening (or reading, if you’re looking at this on the net) to my ramblings!)

Kenneth Doren: Your High Imperial privately released recording

Your High Imperial has a duration of seventeen minutes with music composed by Kenneth Doren who also developed the concept. The libretto developed by Christina Willings forms disparate sexual and political text inspired by the biblical Songs of Solomon, George Bernard Shaw’s The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Sacialsicm and Capitalism and the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer) which served as a guidebook for inquisitors during the inquisition during the Middle Ages. This is a digital video opera based on the compositions of J.S. Bach’s organ music and Giuseppe Tartini’s The Devil’s Sonata form the digitally recomposed music that is transcribed for a brass quintet and two violins for a live rendition. Two opera singers, Christina Willings and Maman (a man in drag) perform the libretto in a number of different costumes and settings. Opera singers are combined edited with a video performance of Bizet’s symbolic Carmen to create a visual and musical collage while also being intellectually slippery. The opera create a visually pulsing new musing on the selected text while penetrating traditional musical and theatrical methods with the use of technology.

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Donnerstag aus Licht Deutsche Gramophon 423 379-2

Scene Two Act Three, the Shadow Play

Stockhausen’s unorthodox compositional style, his unorthodox statements following the 9/11. I mean, everything about Stockhausen is a bit unorthodox. Many people claim he is completely bonkers! I don’t know, nor do I particularly care! Stockhausen, is without a doubt one of the most innovative composers of the twentieth century. His “light” cycle of opera’s are still not completed but if and when or even if they never are, they will be spoken of with a profound sense of awe for some time. I’m not even going to attempt to tell you about the libretto for this opera. It’s too complex for me to

Alice Shields: Apocalypse: An Electronic Opera CRI CD 647

“Organ Screaming”