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OVERVIEW
Title: Elsewhereless
Composer: Rodney Sharman
Librettist: Atom Egoyan
Commissioned By: Vancouver New Music
Language: English
Producer: Vancouver New Music Association and Tapestry Opera
Run Time: 70
Roles:
Role | Voice Type | Range ? | Character Description |
---|---|---|---|
Antoine | middle | G#3-Bb4 | The Ambassador |
Beth | middle-high | A3-F#5 | A young diplomat |
Eugene | middle-low | A2-D#4 | The Ambassador’s partner |
Malcolm | low | E2-C#4 | The Residence housekeeper |
Andrew | middle-low | B2-E4 | Beth's husband |
SYNOPSIS
“Nothing is as comforting as captivity.”
Beth, a young diplomat, and her husband Andrew are stationed at a Canadian Embassy in Africa. They are troubled by news of political upheaval, forced migrations and indiscriminate slaughter. They invite Antoine Nero, the Ambassador, to dinner to try to convince him to close the Embassy. For reasons of his own, the Ambassador refuses. Beth and Andrew learn that Malcolm, the Residence housekeeper, was also housekeeper to the Ambassador and his partner ten years earlier when the country was a sleepy diplomatic backwater. At that time Malcolm’s dream was to attend a university elsewhere and then to return to his country to play a major role in its golden future. His dream was encouraged by the Ambassador’s partner Eugene, who befriends, instructs and eventually traps Malcolm in a complex triangle of loyalty and betrayal. The opera escalates to its bloody climax at the dinner party intended to persuade the Ambassador to depart. Malcolm, the impotent silent watcher, finally steps into his destined role. “There exists between the person I am and the person I want to be, a vast space filled with terror.”
MUSIC DESCRIPTION
SCORES FOR PURCHASE
Arias & Excerpts:
Malcolm describes his sense of suspension in time and space as we hear gunshots outside.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Malcolm | low | Bb2-B3 |
Beth and Andrew are getting ready for bed. Malcolm enters suddenly, claiming that someone will be there soon and leaves as suddenly as he arrived.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Beth | middle-high | B3-C5 |
Andrew | middle-low | B2-G#3 |
Malcolm | low | F#2-C#4 |
Some years prior, Eugene and Antoine enter the residence, Malcolm, their new houseboy (who does not speak much English) helps them unpack. Antoine and Eugene ask Malcolm if he is married, and he replies that he wants Eugene to be his girlfriend. Malcolm asks Eugene to teach him words.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Eugene | middle-low | A2-D#4 |
Antoine | middle | E3-D4 |
Malcolm | low | E2-C#4 |
Beth reads Andrew a memo from a political figure denying the murder of innocent people and claiming that suspensions of civil liberties are essential. Beth and Andrew go downstairs for dinner, where Malcolm has prepared them a live monkey.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Beth | middle-high | B3-E5 |
Andrew | middle-low | B2-Db4 |
Malcolm | low | F2-Bb3 |
Malcolm tells Eugene and Antoine that he wants to go to university and asks for a letter of recommendation. Antoine tells him that he should stay in the house with the people who love him.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Eugene | silent-spoken | silent |
Antoine | middle | C3-Bb4 |
Malcolm | low | F2-D3 |
Beth and Andrew are moving into the residence. They begin a conversation with Malcolm similar to that of Eugene and Antoine in scene 2. Malcolm explains that he once had scholarships to university because of a good recommendation letter.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Beth | middle-high | A3-E5 |
Andrew | middle-low | B2-G3 |
Malcolm | low | F#2-G3 |
Malcolm and Eugene are dancing, but we quickly learn that they are practicing English. Malcolm asks if Antoine has written the letter of recommendation yet. Eugene tells him he is not ready yet. Malcolm grows frustrated.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Malcolm | low | G2-C4 |
Eugene | middle-low | Bb2-D4 |
The action continues from scene 3. Beth and Andrew are waiting for their guest, Duncan, but Antoine arrives instead and cuts into the live monkey's skullcap without hesitation. He recounts how he almost wrote Malcolm a letter of recommendation.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Malcolm | low | A2-E3 |
Beth | middle-high | D4-B4 |
Andrew | silent-spoken | silent |
Antoine | middle | C#3-A5 |
Malcolm works on his university application; Eugene is sick. Antoine arrives telling them he has been promoted to ambassador, but that they will remain in the country they are currently stationed in.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Malcolm | low | Bb2-Db4 |
Eugene | middle-low | G2-Bb3 |
Antoine | middle | C#3-A5 |
The political situation is worsening, and Andrew and Beth decide to invite Antoine, the ambassador, over for drinks. Violence errupts in the streets as Malcolm has gone out to the garden. He returns holding the body of a child.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Andrew | middle-low | Ab2-D#4 |
Beth | middle-high | C4-E5 |
Malcolm | low | C3-D4 |
Eugene is dying. He has left some of his and Antoine's things for Malcolm, but Malcolm is growing angrier at Antoine who still will not write him a letter of recommendation.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Eugene | middle-low | Bb2-C4 |
Antoine | middle | C4-Bb4 |
Malcolm | low | Bb2-D4 |
Beth and Andrew demand Antoine that they be allowed to leave. He will keep them there forever because he wants to see them all become heroes and redeem his initial banishment with Eugene. Antoine grabs the dead monkey and begins to dance with it. A bullet explodes through the window, hitting Antoine and he falls to the ground.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Beth | middle-high | D#4-F#5 |
Andrew | middle-low | D3-E4 |
Antoine | middle | E3-G#4 |
Malcolm | silent-spoken | silent |
Upstairs, Malcolm reads another memo from Antoine. Beth rushes in to tell him that it's time to leave. Andrew and Beth leave the house, but Malcolm remains in the house, still surrounded by violence.
Character | Voice Type | Range ? |
---|---|---|
Malcolm | low | G#2-C#4 |
Beth | middle-high | C#4-D#5 |
Andrew | middle-low | B2-E3 |
PREMIERE PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Premiere Production: April 23, 1998 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto ON as part of DuMaurier Worldstage
Producers: Vancouver New Music Association and Tapestry Opera
Cast:
Role | Name |
---|---|
Antoine | Benoit Boutet |
Beth | Fides Krucker |
Eugene | Willy Miles-Grenzberg |
Malcom | Marcus Nance |
Andrew | Curtis Sullivan |
Role | Name |
---|---|
Music Director | Wayne Strongman |
Director | Atom Egoyan |
Set, Film and Costume Design | Phillip Barker |
Lighting Design | Paul Mathiesen |
CREATION
DEVELOPMENT
The creative team’s fictional story idea for Elsewhereless pre-dated the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but the event overtook the production. Phillip Barker included footage from the Rwandan Civil War in several scenes. For its 20th Anniversary season, Tapestry Opera teamed up with Vancouver New Music Society, in association with the National Arts Centre, to present Elsewhereless. It was truly an amazing premiere production with 35 performances of the new opera in three cities. Subsequently, excerpts have been performed internationally: Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam), Ensemble Orphée (Rome), and Aventa (Victoria) as well as at VNMS’s 40th Anniversary celebrations in 2013.
QUOTATIONS FROM CREATIVE TEAM
Elsewhereless moves back and forth in time over the course of ten years. Over these ten years - represented in twelve scenes - five characters are observed as they learn a language, fall in love, create elaborate fantasies and witness a country fall apart in an orgy of genocide and massacre. This is a story about colonialism and self-determination - in relationships, states and states of mind.
I couldn’t think of a more thrilling proposition. While music had always played a huge role in my films, when I was offered the chance to write a libretto and direct a chamber opera for Tapestry Music in the mid-90s I was excited to explore this format. I had been exposed to opera through Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, having played the doctor in a university production of the play by Georg Büchner (called Woyzeck). I came to realize that many of my favourite operas were based on plays, including Richard Strauss’ Salome (based on a play by Oscar Wilde), so when the brilliant composer Rodney Sharman and I began to explore ideas for a collaboration, we settled on a play I had written for Tarragon Theatre many years before.
It was an ambitious plan, since the play moved back and forth through time over several scenes. The subject matter was also very challenging, dealing with a history of genocide and diplomacy in an unnamed African country. When I had written the play in the eighties, the country was imaginary, but when Elsewhereless was presented in 1998 it became obvious that it would be interpreted through the prism of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. In our production design, we even used images from Rwanda, as well as video war footage from that humanitarian catastrophe.
In the end, I’m not sure if a contemporary opera was the right way to deal with urgent political issues, especially when the libretto was as formally adventurous as the one we were working with. I’ve come to understand that librettos should be as accessible as possible, especially when they are set to new and challenging musical language. We were blessed with having over thirty presentations of Elsewhereless in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, and we were able to add more detail and contour as we went along. It even received a positive review from Le Monde, and we were so honoured that a journalist had travelled all the way from Paris to see the production.
I was so thankful for the support I received from Tapestry Opera throughout the process, and working with Rodney Sharman – we had collaborated on a vocal piece called "Phantom Screen" many years before – was such a pleasure. We are currently working on another opera together, and of course I’ve since directed several other operas since, with a new production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice in the near future. But my experience with Elsewhereless was my formative contact with this extraordinary art form, and I’m grateful for the opportunity I had in presenting this work.
- Atom Egoyan
QUOTATIONS FROM MEDIA
"...a rich exploration of the mind..."
"Elsewhereless breaks new ground on many fronts; from music to visual aesthetic it is the embodiment of contemporary opera and art."
- The Peak
"... floats on an often discordant and highly evocative musical bed, embroidered with rare, dark vocal melodies by its talented cast. With strong musical direction from Wayne Strongman, it is musically a challenging but never impenetrable experience."
- Toronto Sun
“… it is Sharman’s exquisite score, alternately spare and sensual, that ultimately pulls the elements together into more universal emotional territory. The tender, erotic waltz theme that accompanies Malcolm’s dance lesson with Eugene […] is a finely wrought and psychologically telling moment…”
- Maclean's
MEDIA
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