Event

Elliott Sharp: Port Bou

ISSUE Project Room is pleased to present the premiere of Port Bou, a new opera by celebrated composer and performer Elliott Sharp. In two performances, Thursday October 16th and Friday October 17th at 8pm, this new commission depicts the final moments of philosopher Walter Benjamin's life in Port-Bou at the French-Spanish border as he flees Nazi-occupied France. From his studies of Benjamin's texts and letters, Sharp has created a dramatic interpretation of Benjamin's internal reality on his last day, drawing reference to the hugely influential author's key works including "The Work Of Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction", "The Task of the Translator", and "The Arcades Project".

The opera stars the extraordinary bass/baritone Nicholas Isherwood, with pianist Jenny Lin and accordionist William Schimmel, and prerecorded electro-acoustic backgrounds by Sharp. Video projections by Janene Higgins provide the set and staging, as well as subtext and commentary. Port Bou operates in the compositional language Sharp has developed and explored in such compositions as the orchestral works On Corlear's Hook, Calling, SyndaKit, and Proof Of Erdos and in his previous operas Binibon and Em/Pyre: recombinant streams; chaining and looping of musical "molecules"; chaotic structures resolving to resonant rhythmic patterns; timbral counterpoint; melodies (both micro- and macro-) based on the natural overtone series, acoustic principles of the combining of sounds in a form of "acoustic additive synthesis"; and use of extended techniques to create new virtual instruments.

MORE: http://issueprojectroom.org/event/elliott-sharp-port-bou