NOTES FROM THE CONDUCTOR Leslie Dala
SOUND TO COLOUR: AN EXPLORATION OF SYNESTHESIA, THROUGH PAINTING, BY CIELE BEAU. Artist Ciele Beau translates sheet music into colour, using her synesthetic responses to a piece of music. When Ciele hears music and tone she sees and feels colour. What you’re seeing is a piece of music translated into colour and in musical time. Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway in the brain leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.
Orfeo ed Euridice | Aria: “Che farò senza Euridice” | Vocal melody translated: Orfeo/Orpheus
When Gluck composed Orfeo in 1762, opera had become very much the cult of the celebrity performer where singers, particularly star castrati, had free reign with vocal lines, adding embellishments and lengthy cadenzas, which had very little to do with what was on the printed page. Gluck, perhaps inspired by Rousseau’s theories of “naturalness”, wanted to restore simplicity and emotional truth, and to deconstruct the current approach to writing operas with da-capo arias (arias with an A section, contrasting B section, and inevitable reprise of the A section with embellishments) for which Handel had become quite famous. In fact, Gluck met Handel in London in 1745, at which time Handel remarked about Gluck, “he knows no more about counterpoint than Waltz, my cook!”
Whatever Handel might have thought of Gluck, Orfeo turned out to be a revolutionary opera. We find in Orfeo a more direct and simplistic approach to setting text, a closer relationship between recitative and arias, and more cohesion in scenes where one musical number flows naturally into another creating an unprecedented continuity and a greater unification of drama and music. Also, the weaving together of dance and song is a key component of the piece and the central focus of this production as envisioned and realized by Director and Choreographer Idan Cohen. The impact of this classic masterpiece cannot be overstated, as Gluck went on to become a huge influence on composers such as Mozart, Berlioz, Weber, and even Wagner.
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