Thursday, March 30, 2006

Amin Maloof And Kaija Saariaho's New Paris Opera World Premiere 'Adriana Mater' Is Set In A Country At War ...

TONIGHT'S WORLD PREMIERE POSTPONED

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“Adriana Mater is set in a country at war. Although none is specified by name, one might think of any province in the Balkans during the last years of the 20th-century. Adriana, a jovial and passionate young woman, is the victim of a rape. Her aggressor is not an enemy combatant, but a man from her own community. The unborn child has inherited both the victim’s blood and the torturer’s, and Adriana anxiously wonders whether her son will be Abel or Cain. This anxiety haunts her throughout her pregnancy and during the childhood of her son, Yonas. The moment of truth comes when Yonas, grown into a young man, learns that his father — his mother’s aggressor, who had fled — is back now that the war is over.”

Librettist Amin Maloof on his libretto for Kaija Saariaho's new opera set to receive its world premiere performances, tonight, at the Opera National de Paris; conducted by Eka Pekka Salonen and directed by Peter Sellars. The principal roles are sung by mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon and bass-baritone Stephen Milling. Adriana Mater receives its US premiere in the summer of 2008.

Saariaho, Maalouf, and Sellars continue their collaborative efforts with the oratorio, La Passion de Simone, which will be presented at Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival in Fall 2006, and later in Los Angeles and New York City. Described as a “musical path in 15 stations,” the work explores the story of French philosopher Simone Weil through a work of remembrance: 15 “stations of the cross” in her difficult life, and features Dawn Upshaw as soloist."

www.schirmer.com

http://www.operadeparis.fr/
















Belgrade, Serbia burning after NATO air raid. Young NATO bombing victim from Kraljevo, central Serbia, May 3, 1999.

Photo credits: KIM Info-Service, Serbian Orthodox Church www.kosovo.com

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