CALIBAN DREAMS
a monster opera
written by Amanda Moody
composed by Clark Suprynowicz
direction & dramaturgy by Melissa Weaver
conducted by Jonathan Khuner
excerpts performed by John Duykers and Amanda Moody
featured singers: Connie Doolan, Isabelle Metwalli and Aurelio Biscarra
and … The Piedmont Girls Choir, with Choir Master Robert Geary;
“Away, away, into the sea
The reel unwinds most merrily.
I’ll play him out, I promise thee -
This little fish will set us free.”
Ariel, Caliban Dreams
“To love thy master is a dangerous thing,
For love is too familiar -
Strange to slave as it is to a king,
Yet hate is stranger company.”
Ariel & Caliban, Caliban Dreams
OUR STORY
The characters of Caliban and Ariel are among William Shakespeare’s most beloved creations. Their complex relations with their sorcerer master, Prospero, and Caliban’s miscarried plot to overthrow him, are at the heart of The Tempest. Yet, in Shakespeare’s play, Ariel and Caliban haven’t a single scene where they converse directly. In Caliban Dreams we bring them together. From Caliban’s desire for freedom is born a fantasy of murderous vengeance on Prospero. Ariel also wants to be free of Prospero’s powers, yet she perceives that liberty achieved through murder is no mitzvah. Breaking Prospero’s thrall requires subtlety, and she worries, rightly, that Caliban may not be up to the task. Disguised variously as Prospero, Sycorax and Miranda, Ariel intercepts Caliban’s picarasque travels, hoping to mollify his explosive temper, and bring them to freedom without violence. In all, neither Ariel’s nor Caliban’s best laid plans can withstand the forces of Chaos embodied in a meddlesome girls choir of sprites, and a darker trio of dancer/singers, The Furies, who have an agenda of their own.
CALIBAN DREAMS and WORLD EVENTS
It is a terrible thing to write a piece that looks at bloody revenge, then to find it played out in your own backyard. 9/11 took place shortly after the first workshop of Caliban Dreams in 2001. The libretto was then half-finished. The parallels were hard to ignore.
There seems no doubt now that the apprehension of America as an imperial force was in the minds of those who carried out their vendetta in New York and Washington on 9/11. In this connection, the parallel to Shakespeare's story, and thereby to our own, couldn't be more pertinent - or more tragic. Prospero's power over Ariel and Caliban and his occupation of their land is clearly, in Prospero's mind, a case of beneficent patronage: if Prospero weren't to impose order there would be chaos and disaster - or so he believes. A familiar argument, it is not persuasive to either Caliban or Ariel. They want their freedom and their island back.
In our story, a tipping point is reached when Caliban succeeds in donning his Master's cloak and assuming (albeit, ineptly) his powers. The transformation is convincing enough that the island’s spirit powers – leading a bloody coupe - demand to know if he really is Prospero. Caliban has done all he can to take the place of his Master. There is no good answer, and certainly no safe one, when he is asked to consider if he is truly, now, the object of both his hatred and his longing.
THE MUSIC
Composer C. Suprynowicz writes:
The opera employs elements of Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music, as befits an island floating in a magic, equatorial region. The musical language is not blatantly folkloric, but those references are there. I am employing percussion instruments such as the berimbau, the quica, the mbira, used for color as well as for the motoric qualities they are known for (in the jazz world we say "the groove.") Yet there are also large arcs of harmonic movement, there is counterpoint, episodic structure, theme and development, all consistent with a world invaded by a European Duke (and very helpful for anyone knitting together a large piece like this). There is considerable underscoring, which is to say that the story is propelled at times by spoken text as well as by song. Composed for tenor, soprano, treble chorus and chamber orchestra, the music of Caliban Dreams joins the syncopation and kinetic qualities of indigenous musics with the harmonic and structural daring of contemporary classical music.
For more information about Mr. Suprynowicz, go to www.famousbrandmusic.com
The part of Caliban was written for internationally reknown tenor, John Duykers. For more information about Mr. Duykers, go to http://members.aol.com/opsingers/duykers.html
PERFORMANCES
Caliban Dreams was commissioned by the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. It was presented in a concert reading on Saturday evening, May 10, 2003 at the Magic Theater in San Francisco as part of the Z Space/Magic Theatre New Works Initiative.
FUNDING
Caliban Dreams has received funding from the Magic/Z New Works Initiative (major funding from the James Irvine Foundation and the Columbia Foundation), the Copying Assistance Program of the American Music Center, a Community Partnership Grant from the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of American Composers Forum, and individual donors who believe in the transforming power of the performing arts.
| to love thy master | ||
| approaching the cave | ||
| i want to be known |