Nigredo Hotel

OVERVIEW

Title: Nigredo Hotel
Composer: Nic Gotham
Librettist: Ann-Marie MacDonald
Commissioned By:

Tapestry Opera

Language: English
Producer:

Tapestry Opera and Tarragon Theatre

Run Time:

Roles:

Role	Voice Type	Range ?	Character Description
Sophie	high	A3-C6	A monstrous concierge who runs the hotel
Raymond	middle-low	A2-A4	A neurosurgeon, a man of science who has lost his soul

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Orchestration: Clarinet in Bb/Bass Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, Double Bass/Electric Bass Guitar

SYNOPSIS

A ‘Hitchcock-style thriller’ for baritone and soprano, Nigredo Hotel is “the story of a neurosurgeon, a man of science, who has lost his soul. One night he thinks he has hit a child on the road and hides out in a decrepit, Hitchcockian motel run by a monstrous concierge called Sophie. The terrifying crone — his anima — locks him into his room and torments him with nightmarish visions until she bursts through the ceiling. He wrestles with her until he understands that she is the inner child he ‘murdered,’ the soul that he has ignored, and in a final glorious duet, based on the Song of Solomon, he unites with her.”

- Banuta Rubess (estate of Nic Gotham)

MUSIC DESCRIPTION

The libretto ranges from Sophie’s raunchy harangues: “Toilet’s down the hall, bathtub’s two buck’s extra. Don’t piss in the sink!” to the soaring romantic duet from the Song of Songs: “For love is strong as death.” Gotham’s edgy jazz idiom feeds the dramatic tension from the first measure of the score. With its funky harmony and rhythms, albeit within conventional opera forms (overture, aria, duet), there are huge demands of the singers: exposed vocal entries and deliberately awkward melodic intervals.

SCORES FOR PURCHASE

Libretto:

Nigredo Hotel – Libretto

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Arias & Excerpts:

Nigredo Hotel - "Until I was a child..." (aria)

Ray, a jaded neurosurgeon, muses on the loss of his childhood wonder and innocence.

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Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Ray	middle-low	A2-D4

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Nigredo Hotel - "If it was a man" (aria)

Alone in his hotel room, Ray worries that he hit someone with his car on the road. After fearing it might have been a child, he convinces himself it was only a raccoon.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Ray	middle-low	B2-D4

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Nigredo Hotel - "I hate water" (aria)

As Sophie runs a bath in the distance, Ray reflects on how uncomfortable bathing makes him feel.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Ray	middle-low	A#2-C#4

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Nigredo Hotel - "When I was small" (aria)

Ray sings of the ambivalence his parents felt towards him as a child.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Ray	middle-low	A2-A4

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Nigredo Hotel - "The square root..." (aria)

Ray frantically tries to calm himself by reciting scientific jargon, while a being claiming to be his own child self tries to open the door.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Ray	middle-low	Bb2-A4

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Nigredo Hotel - "Wisdom Aria" Option 1

Sophie, the manifestation of Ray's soul sings an extended aria explaining how she has been locked away from Ray since he was a child.

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Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Sophie	high	A3-Bb5

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Nigredo Hotel - "Wisdom Aria" Option 2

Sophie, the manifestation of Ray's soul sings an extended aria explaining how she has been locked away from Ray since he was a child.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Sophie	high	C#4-Bb5

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Nigredo Hotel - "You are dark but lovely"

Ray and Sophie sing an intimate duet as they reconnect and reconcile.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Sophie	high	C4-C6
Ray	middle-low	B2-F#4

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PREMIERE PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Premiere Production:

May 19, 1992 at The Tarragon Theatre, Toronto ON

Producers:

Tapestry Opera and Tarragon Theatre

Cast:

Role	Name
Sophie	Shari Saunders
Ray	Jonathan Whitaker

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Premiere Production Team:

Role	Name
Music Director	Wayne Strongman
Assistant Conductor	Shelley Hanson
Director	Banuta Rubess
Assistant Director	Alissa Palmer
Fight Director	John Stead
Design	Jerrard Smith
Design	Diana Smith
Lighting Designer	Paul Mathiesen
Stage Manager	Isolde Pleasant-Faulkner
Production Manager	Aidan Cosgrave

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CREATION

DEVELOPMENT

For Tapestry and for new opera in Canada, Nigredo Hotel was a shift of seismic proportions. In 1991, Claire Hopkinson joined Tapestry as Executive Director/Producer. Shortly thereafter, a very close creative team of rising stars, including playwright/actress (soon-to-become novelist) Ann-Marie MacDonald, jazz saxophonist/composer Nic Gotham, and director/playwright Banuta Rubess, approached us. Already seasoned theatre collaborators, they had begun a conversation with Urjo Kareda at Tarragon Theatre about an idea for a chamber opera. It was an opportunity aching to be seized.

QUOTATIONS FROM CREATIVE TEAM

The extremely physical production required a fight director, a baritone singing actor capable of having a nervous breakdown onstage, and a fearless soprano to climb up on scaffolding above the set, be pulled upside down through the ceiling, and then sing a powerful aria with extended sustain. Shari Saunders, a light lyric soprano with nerves of steel, and Jonathan Whitaker, moving over from musical theatre, accepted the challenge.

The Smiths' set performed, as well as being an elevated, raked stage to allow for a tiny pit for the band at the front. The radiator rattled and emitted steam, the ceiling lighting fixture dropped to become a swing, among cascading fiery swirls of fabric. Paul Mathiesen’s detailed lighting plot (almost a third character) required the actors to hit specific stage lamp positions coinciding with the text/music cues. In his review of the 1992 premiere at Tarragon, Robert Everett-Green opined that Tapestry had opened the way for a “new audience” for the art form. Fulfilling that prophecy defined Tapestry’s artistic path for the future.

- Wayne Strongman

QUOTATIONS FROM MEDIA

Nigredo Hotel - Print Review
Nigredo Hotel - Globe and Mail Review

"...moments of deep beauty and irreverent joy"

- Times Colonist

“Sophie sings, 'Blessed are the lost, for theirs is the kingdom of wonder.' Nigredo Hotel delightfully opens a door to that very kingdom.”

- Christopher Hoile, Eye Weekly May 12, 2005

AWARDS

Nominated at the 1993 Dora Mavor Moore Awards:

Best New Play/Musical - Nic Gotham and Ann-Marie MacDonald
Costume Design - Jerrard Smith and Diana Smith
Set Design - Jerrard Smith and Diana Smith
Lighting Design - Paul Mathiesen
Performance - Shari Saunders
Performance - Jonathan Whittaker

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

When Words Sing: Seven Canadian Libretti
Edited by Julie Salverson, Playwright's Canada Press, May 2021. Includes libretto and essays by Anne-Marie MacDonald, Banuta Rubess and premiere lighting designer Paul Mathiesen.

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