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US Premiere of Gavin Bryars' The Paper Nautilus at Long Beach Opera

Aug. 30, 2012

US Premiere of Gavin Bryars' <em>The Paper Nautilus</em> at Long Beach Opera

Gavin Bryars’ epic ode to oceanic wonder, The Paper Nautilus, receives its US premiere in three unique performances produced by Long Beach Opera. These performances, which take place on September 7, 8, and 9 at the Aquarium of the Pacific, serve as the launch of the LBO’s new Outer Limits Series. Soprano Ashley Knight and mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell are the featured vocalists in each performance directed by Andreas Mitisek and conducted by Benjamin Makino.

The Paper Nautilus was commissioned in 2006 by Theatre Cryptic with support from the Scottish Arts Council and the PRS Foundation. Scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, two pianos, and percussion, this 70 minute work in 11 scenes provides a shimmering setting of texts by Marie Curie, Ethel Adnan, Jackie Kay, and Pope Leo XIII in addition to several Biblical excerpts.

The Paper Nautilus is the result of a collaboration between Gavin Bryars and the visionary theatre director Cathie Boyd and her Theatre Cryptic. The work is based on an earlier cantata, Effarine (1984), which grew out of a collaboration with another visionary of the theatre, Robert Wilson, and which draws on material related either to the sea, or to the sense of scientific wonder. The television series Blue Planet inspired further research, and in order to take the work beyond the three extant sections of the cantata, Theatre Cryptic commissioned new poems from Jackie Kay, taking ideas from these resources. The composer also added short Biblical texts in Latin and English.

The instrumentation of the work comes from that of the original cantata, which was itself conditioned by the fact that it was to be a companion piece for Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, but with two instead of four pianos. The two voices sing alternate sections, though often coming together to form duets or with one accompanying the other. At the end they sing quietly in unison as the instrumental ensemble moves through the coda, ending with the very literal use of the water gong in the last bars.

For more information on Gavin Bryars, please visit his composer profile at www.schott-music.com.

Visit www.longbeachopera.org to learn more on the production.

Gavin Bryars
The Paper Nautilus (2006)
for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 pianos, percussion
libretto fashioned and translated by Gavin Bryars based on texts by Jackie Kay, Etel Adnan, Marie Curie, Leo XIII, and from the Bible
6perc(glsp, vib, crot, 2mar, bass mar, steel drum, tub bells, 2tri, 4sus cym, 2sizz cym, ride cym, 7gongs [plus water tank], 2tam-t, 2bell tree, 3mark tree, cabaça, chocolo, 2b.d, 4timp, maracs)-2pno
80’

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