"Death with Interruptions"
"SAN FRANCISCO ODC Theatre • Thursday, March 19, 2015 8PM
SAN FRANCISCO ODC Theatre • Saturday, March 21, 2015 8PM
ODC Theater 3153 17th St, San Francisco Buy Tickets
Additional free performance of Death with Interruptions only: 12:15pm, Monday, March 16, 2015 at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus
Franz Schubert · Andante con moto from String Quartet No.14 in D Minor, D.810, “Death and the Maiden”
Kurt Rohde · Death with Interruptions adapted by Thomas Laqueur from the novel by José Saramago, presented in collaboration with Volti SF · WORLD PREMIERE
Left Coast presents a new dramatic musical work based on Nobel Prize winner José Saramago's novel Death with Interruptions. With music composed by Kurt Rohde and a libretto by the distinguished UC Berkeley historian Thomas Laqueur, the story recounts what happens when death, who lives in an unnamed Iberian country with her taciturn scythe, falls in love with the principal cellist of a local orchestra and fails to claim his life.
Death with Interruptions, the first LCCE opera production, is written for three solo singers (death, cellist, and scythe/dog/narrator); a chamber ensemble of solo cello, piano, percussion, offstage string quartet, and electronics; and a chamber choir of 16 voices. Soprano Nikki Einfeld, performing the role of death, is joined by baritone Daniel Cilli, tenor Joe Dan Harper, and noted Bay Area vocal ensemble Volti San Francisco, along with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble musicians featuring cellist Leighton Fong. Matilda Hofman will conduct; the director is Majel Connery.
The program opens with a contrasting take on the imagined embodiment of death––Franz Schubert's famous Andante con moto from String Quartet No.14 in D Minor, D.810, Death and the Maiden.
Opera running time: 90 minutes
Q&A with audience and artists after the final performance!
SPECIAL EVENTS
In conjunction with the opera's premiere, UC Berkeley's Dorren B. Townsend Center for the Humanities will host two discussions with noted scholars and artists. These talks are free of charge and all are welcome to attend. For detailed updates check the Townsend Center websites.
The Art and Craft of Translation
Wednesday, March 18, 5-7pm
Location on the UC Berkeley Campus, TBA
The longtime translator of José Saramago's work, Margaret Jull Costa, joins in a discussion with other noted translators: Paula Varsano (Chinese), Dennis Washburn (Japanese), and Robert Alter (Hebrew).
Making an Opera
Thursday, March 19, 12-2 pm
The Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley
Mary Ann Smart (UC Berkeley, Music) leads a discussion about the new opera, Death With Interruptions, with librettist Thomas Laqueur, composer Kurt Rohde, director Majel Connery and Shalom Goldman (co-librettist of the Philip Glass opera Akhnaten).“
“In this re-imagined tale of the Orpheus myth, it is death that rises to the land of the living, passing through the music of mankind, becoming more and more human as she fulfills her journey,” explains composer Kurt Rohde. “As desire takes hold, death decides to love, which means she has to become human and relinquish her authority. Things get messy when living the lives we do, subconsciously operating on the premise that death will take us someday, suddenly we get a new book of rules to work with and no one knows exactly what to do next. Not even death.”
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