Ana Sokolovic, the flesh of the opera

Ana is vitality incarnate. Her intellectual acuity is as striking as her laughter: this woman is a source of renewable energy.

Catherine Perrin
special collaboration

I met her shortly after her arrival in Canada, in 1992: it is from here that her career took off, it is here that she married a friend of mine, Jean Lesage, a composer like her.

Her native Serbia inhabits Ana’s creation.

His opera Swadba (Marriage) tells in seven scenes all the friendly ritual that precedes a wedding. After its creation in Toronto in 2011, Swadba has been played a hundred times, among others in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Montreal, Aix-en-Provence, and as far as Perm, in Russia. Shura Baryshnikov, the daughter of the famous dancer and actress Jessica Lange, has just produced a film version for the Boston Lyric Opera.

Étrangement, ce n’est pas par l’opéra qu’Ana est arrivée… à l’opéra !

Enfant, son énergie débordante a été canalisée par le ballet classique, puis a explosé dans le théâtre jeunesse, pratiqué à haut niveau dans son pays d’origine, la Serbie.

Jeune comédienne, elle a tâté de la mise en scène, a composé de la musique pour certaines pièces, comblée par « le bonheur d’inventer des histoires sur scène avec [s]friends,” she said.

At the same time, she did a lot of piano, then made the choice of composition.

After arriving in Canada, a short vocal piece caught the attention of the Toronto company Queen of Puddings, who quickly commissioned her first opera, The Midnight Courtestablished in 2005.

The opera, revived the following year at Covent Garden in London, marked a major turning point in Ana Sokolovic’s young career, but above all was a revelation for her: “During this work, I understood that all my loves came together: I relived the pleasure of inventing a story by bringing together all the forces possible to do so. I felt one of the great joys of my life. Putting a story to music, making it magical and beautiful, is a universal human desire. »

Tea Midnight Court marked a first collaboration with English actor and librettist Paul Bentley (whom you may know as the High Septon of Game Of Thrones). She reconnected with him The Old Foolshis most recent opera, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company and scheduled to be released within a year.

Rethinking opera

Four successful operas, many award-winning compositions at the Junos and elsewhere, and here she is now at the head of a brand new Canada Chair in “research and creation” in contemporary opera, at the University of Montreal, where Ana teaches composing since 2006.

This is the institution’s first “research and creation” type chair. I ask the composer what is meant by this label: “A search provoked by the creation itself. »

An example ? “My opera Swadba is in Serbian and has no dialogue: I instinctively developed a non-traditional narration, to tell the story of a wedding that is getting ready. The opera is sung unaccompanied by six female voices. Ana tells me that one of the first critics, although very positive, saw fit to specify: “… but this is not opera”.

This is a vast question raised: what is opera in the 21st century?^and century? Ana is on fire: “How do you present a work that speaks to everyone, not just classical opera lovers? How to be relevant, as Baroque opera was with its delirious extravagance, or Italian verismo with its touching realism? It is certain that technology can contribute, the combination with the screen, among others, but it is not the only answer. »

This chair will consolidate already fruitful collaborative work with the Opéra de Montréal, as well as with other departments of the Université de Montréal: “Opera is by definition teamwork. It’s great to have input from colleagues who teach art history, film studies, design or planning. »

Between the responsibilities of a pedagogue and the management of an international career, how does Ana find the time to compose (three orders occupy her at the moment)? “It remains my priority, what guides me and leads me. I manage to sneak brief moments of composition through the rest, and also to create space, a real rupture, when necessary. In fact, I compose all the time! I’m pretty quick to put it down on paper, but it’s the last shift. The above is a long reflection, carried out as much by traveling, by teaching, by conversations, or simply by listening to my environment. »

In his close environment, there is the sound of the violin of his daughter Eva, who is finishing a baccalaureate cycle at the Conservatoire de Montréal. I ask her about this remarkable young woman of 20, whom I met a few days after her birth, but since lost sight of. “It was she who chose to continue in music. We offered it to her, but it was she who made her way, with her curiosity, her determination. She enjoys working with others, she has a great character. “Yes, a bit much the portrait of his mother!