Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – PROTOTYPE 2024: Immersing audiences in out-of-the box experiences and beguiling new soundscapes

• By drediman
• January 23, 2024
• No Comments

If you’re a fan of adventurous opera and music theater, you’ll likely be familiar with Prototype, an annual festival which for over a decade has produced an accomplished collection of important new works. Presented by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE, the festival has fully embraced risk-taking, often to eye-opening effect – and this January’s edition was no different (the two-week festival concluded last weekend). Read on for my thoughts on four of this year’s eclectic offerings, each of which immersed audiences in out-of-the-box experiences and beguiling new soundscapes.

TERCE: A PRACTICAL BREVIARY
By Heather Christian
The Space at Irondale

Over the last decade or so, Heather Christian has been responsible for some of the most unique and beguilling pieces of music theater that I’ve come across (e.g., Animal Wisdom, Oratorio for Living Things). That trend continues with Terce: A Practical Breviary (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), one of the centerpieces of this January’s Prototype. As a follow-up to Prime, the hourlong work is another re-defining entry in Christian’s loose riff on the breviary, a daily monastic mass devoutly entered into at certain hours of the day. Traditionally a contemplation of the Holy Spirit, Christian’s Terce recasts the 9:00 AM mass as a celebration of the Divine Feminine – particularly as embodied by caregivers and homemakers. Staged by Keenan Tyler Oliphant in-the-round at the atmospheric “Space” at Irondale and performed with heartfelt emotion by an all-female chorus and band (including Christian herself, as magnetic as ever), the lovingly handcrafted piece is a communal experience that hits audience members with the visceral force of a true religious experience. At the heart of it all is Christian’s distinctive and intoxicating score – a gorgeously eclectic, deeply felt composition that feels intrinsically rooted in human spirituality. I emerged from the happening illuminated, spilling out onto the frigid streets of Brooklyn restored and hopeful.

ADORATION
By Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek (based on the film by Atom Egoyan)
The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture

Perhaps the most conventional of the Prototype offerings I attended this year was the operatic adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s 2008 Canadian film Adoration (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED). Featuring music by Mary Kouyoumdjian and a libretto Royce Vavrek, the world premiere opera tells the story of an orphaned high school student who juxtaposes his personal trauma onto a terrorist attack, resulting in an excavation of the circumstances surrounding his parent’s death. Although the description is certainly fascinating, the opera ultimately fails to deliver the dramatic punch promised by its premise. Indeed, the work has the inverse effect of becoming less dramatically resonant as the plot unfolds and its mysteries solved (there were also video interludes, a la Dear Evan Hansen, that fell flat). Although the production features some slick multimedia tricks and a fancy rotating set, the staging by director Laine Rettmer was ultimately too busy for its own good, detracting instead of enhancing the drama. Despite my misgivings about the work itself, the opera was nonetheless wonderfully performed by a vocally capable cast and an excellent chamber ensemble, both acquitting themselves admirably in their rendition of Kouyoumdjian’s emotive if somewhat unmemorable sore.

CHORNOBYLDORF
By Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

Then over at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, there was Chornobyldorf (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a new contemporary opera imported from the Ukraine. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the ambitious work depicts a traveling troupe attempting to recreate live performances from a lost civilization (as such, the piece registers as an artful version of the television series Station Eleven or Anne Washburn’s play Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, both terrific). The music by Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko (the duo also directs) is a singular creation – a jarring, often times thrillingly aggressive composition that’s at once alien and familiar. Be warned, the opera can be assaultive, even bordering on outright deafening (being handed earplugs upon entering should have been a hint of what’s to come). Grygoriv and Razumeiko’s hypnotic staging – structured as a progression of “seven novels” – is comprised of a steady and purposeful parade of ravishing, phantasmagorical stage pictures. Since seeing Chornobyldorf last weekend, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, which is the sign of great art.

MALINXE
By Autumn Chacon and Laura Ortman
The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place

Continuing down Chornobyldorf‘s assaultive path is the new mini-opera Malinxe (RECOMMENDED), which played for a single performance last weekend (because of the frigid weather, the performance was smartly moved from its original outdoor setting to the indoor Winter Garden at Brookfield Place). In essence, the piece is a moody operatic re-telling of the myth of La Llorona (“the weeping woman”), a melancholy, unsettled water spirit who drowns victims while warning them of the destructive power of water. The music by Laura Ortman – scored for electronic violin – is discordant and distorted, reflecting the spirit’s turbulent state of being. Thankfully, Malinxe doesn’t outstay its welcome. With a running time of only 30 minutes, the compact piece – which features libretto and direction by Autumn Chacon – makes the wise decision to pursue more of a tone poem aesthetic over a more traditional plot-driven libretto. Combined with the ritualistic, pared-down quality of Chacon’s staging, the result is a hallucinatory trip that’s as pungent as it is formalistically fascinating.