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Victoria Borisova-Ollas' Open Ground in US Premiere by El Paso Symphony

Apr. 01, 2008

Victoria Borisova-Ollas' Open Ground receives its US premiere this month by Maestra Sarah Ioannides and the El Paso Symphony Orchestra on April 11 and 12 in El Paso's Plaza Theatre. Inspired by Salmon Rushdie's novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Open Ground that saw its world premiere with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2006. The composer elaborates on her inspiration from Rushdie's novel:
This book is one of Rushdie's most significant and complex novels where the fictitious reality goes side by side with real historic events. The collisions between the two worlds often have a most devastating effect on the fate of all characters involved. One of them, a legendary rock singer Vina Apsara, disappears under mysterious circumstances while an earthquake is raging in Mexico. I have found an emotional inspiration in the first chapter of the book containing the description of the earthquake. The title for the piece is my own though. Open Ground is an expression referring to the ground beneath our feet, the reality in which we exist at the moment, how real and stable it actually is.

Borisova-Ollas recently completed an 80-minute work The Ground Beneath Her Feet in collaboration with librettist Ed Kemp and filmmaker Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas). The work, for orchestra, mezzo-soprano, baritone and narrator, accompanies a specially created silent film featuring the same characters from Rushdie's novel. The Ground Beneath Her Feet was premiered at the Manchester International Festival in June 2007.

For more information on the music of Victoria Borisova-Ollas, please visit www.universaledition.com.

To learn more on the El Paso Symphony Orchestra's performances, please go to www.epso.org.

Victoria Borisova-Ollas
Open Ground (2006)
for orchestra
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10'

The Ground Beneath Her Feet (2007)
libretto by Ed Kemp
silent film by Mike Figgis
3333-4331-timp.4perc-pno.hp-elec gtr-elec bs-str
80'

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