Thursday, at Bourgie Hall, Musique 3 Femmes, Le Vivier and Sixtrum will join forces to offer Fables and legends. Opera todaythree lyrical stories of around forty minutes each commissioned from three pairs of composers and librettists casting their personal views on our world.
Have you ever imagined that a raccoon could change the course of your life? Yet this is what happens to Erin, the heroine of Raccoon Opera by Rebecca Gray, composer and singer, who reserved the role of the animal for herself. “The raccoon represents a bit of capitalist society in relation to the housing crisis, the heroine experiencing this crisis very badly, with an owner who harasses her,” explains Kristin Hoff, artistic director of Musique 3 Femmes.
Winter and summer
Raccoon Opera is with I’m a girl’s daughter by Analía Llugdar and Niben and Pebonone of the three legends of opera Nanatasis by Alejandra Odgers, one of the parts of Fables and legendsa title chosen to soften the apparent aridity of the Musiques 3 Femmes Today’s Opera project.
Thursday evening is the culmination of 21 months of work. “Musiques 3 Femmes, an opera company, of which I am interim artistic director, has existed for six years, and every two years we launch a competition for new operas. Twelve operas have been commissioned and developed since 2018. In 2022, we commissioned these three operas in the context of a $50,000 prize supported by Mécénat Musica donors which made it possible to launch the process and research other financing. »
Composers and librettists submit their applications jointly and are selected after interviews. The title of the show Fables and legends sticks as close as possible to Niben and Pebon by Alejandra Odgers, with a book by storyteller Nicole O’Bomsawin. It is an Abenaki legend in which the young hero, Kl8sk8mba, goes to meet Niben (summer), the only one who can save the Abenaki people from endless winter, embodied by the ice creature. Pebon.
This legend will have as its sound framework a flute and four percussion instruments, hence the collaboration with the Sixtrum Ensemble. “We spoke with Sixtrum early in the process because we needed a team of four percussionists. Sixtrum therefore became co-producer of the piece. He provides the instruments and rehearsal premises. This helps us a lot, while Raccoon Opera requires a prepared piano, which leads to difficulty in terms of rehearsal locations. »
To recognize
The third work, the composition by Analía Llugdar on a libretto by Emné Nasereddine, fits perfectly with the name of the company, since it features three women, Téta, Fadwa and Emné, respectively grandmother, mother and daughter , played by a single singer. “Their tenderness, their struggles and their memories intertwine in a poetic tale anchored in profound loss, exile and the indelible mark of war. The rules of time and place are broken here,” writes Kristin Hoff.
“Unlike romantic operas, these are stories that we can connect to today, in 2024, stories that are relevant. But the choice of artists was not made to fit within a theme,” assures the artistic director at Duty.
The major challenge of the projects for this 2024 vintage was, according to Kristin Hoff, to transform into a booklet I’m a girl’s daughter And Nanatasis (from which the shutter is taken Niben and Pebon presented Thursday), “pre-existing works that had to be modified to have something new with characters on stage”.
At the same time, she is very proud of her collaboration with Professor Troy Hourie, from the University of Guelph, who is directing the opera Nanatasisinvolving its students in the visual design, projections and puppets used in a show whose “orchestra” will be made up of percussion placed in a circle.