TAP:EX Forbidden

CAST: Alexander Hajek, Saye Skye | PHOTO CREDIT: Dahlia Katz

CAST: Neema Bickersteth | PHOTO CREDIT: Dahlia Katz

CAST: Shirin Eskandani | PHOTO CREDIT: Dahlia Katz

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OVERVIEW

Title: TAP:EX Forbidden
Composer: Afarin Mansouri
Librettist: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Commissioned By:

Tapestry Opera

Language: English, Farsi
Producer:

Tapestry Opera

Run Time:

Roles:

Role	Voice Type	Range ?	Character Description
Lucifer/Various	middle-low	Ab2-E4	The devil
Child	high	C4-A5	A young girl
The Boy	silent-spoken	spoken	Spoken word, raps in Farsi
The Woman/Various	middle-high	C4-A5	A woman taken prisoner

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Orchestration: Percussion, Ney, Tar

Creating Tap:Ex Forbidden

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SYNOPSIS

Content warning: sexual violence, incarceration, religious abuse, homophobia, conversion therapy

Through several vignettes, Forbidden examines the idea of rules and taboos. Do they protect people, or do they control them? Are they of any value, or do they simply exploit the powerless?

A young girl, punished with repetition of religious text, is trying to understand why she’s been disciplined. She’s visited by Lucifer, who challenges her to disobey. He blurs her absolutist mindset by conjuring scenes demonstrating the totalitarian nature of taboos.

A rape victim tries to get help from the authorities, but she’s stonewalled. A woman sings in tribute to banned books. Two people discover a bond, but due to their country’s rules on homosexuality, they cannot be together.

These scenes and more awaken the child’s mind to something beyond rules: choice. She decides that the only acceptable practice is to choose her own path.

MUSIC DESCRIPTION

Forbidden isn’t just a story of rebellion, it musically challenges the dogma of opera with its haunting and provocative fusion of Western-style opera singing, traditional Persian instruments and music, spoken word, and Farsi rapping. Afarin Mansouri gives the music ample room to convey its own struggles with rules. Instances of distinctly individual styles give way to cohesive and engaging fusion. Portions where the singing collaborates with the rhythms and patterns of hip-hop trade off with moments of juxtaposition.

Fitting its fusion with hip-hop, Mansouri chose to base most of the music on rhythm rather than harmony. She derived rhythmic ideas from Islamic spiritual gatherings such as those of the Darvīsh and the mantras (or ḏikr). For melody, Mansouri folded in the Persian modal system of Dastgāh. However, she varied the system slightly from what one might hear in strictly traditional Persian music, abstracting it with elements of the Bayat-e Esfahan and Kereshme. Masouri has also subtly woven in over twenty leitmotifs from Persian tradition.

Each instrument carries historical significance and, in its own way, represents the development of the Child. For example, the daf has long been a part of Sufi ceremonies and even had important religious uses as far as the Kâvusakân dynasty in the 3rd century. This is music that is highly reflective of the development of consciousness through distinct and diverse expressions of humanity, each joining together to create something more than the sum of its parts.

SCORES FOR PURCHASE

Piano Vocal Scores:

TAP:EX Forbidden – Piano Vocal Score

Purchase This Score

Arias & Excerpts:

TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 1: "Understanding"

The Child is taught a lesson. She attempted to speak her truth, but was met with discipline.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	C4-Eb5
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken
2 Adults	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 2: "With His Eyes (Male Gaze)"

An interrogator turns his lurid eyes on an imprisoned female activist. Purposefully misunderstanding her movements as seduction, he convinces himself of something horrid.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Woman	middle-high	C4-G5
Interrogator	middle-low	Ab2-C#4
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 3: "Come In"

Lucifer taunts the Child in a cell. She doesn't understand what she's done wrong.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	Gb4-F#5
Lucifer	middle-low	Ab2-Ab3

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 4: "Stay, Still, Forever"

A cleric prepares for confessional. Someone enters the booth. The cleric realizes it’s a man with whom he shared a mutual attraction. The man has recently finished gay conversion therapy and wishes to resume some kind of a relationship.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Penitent	middle-high	B3-E5
Cleric	middle-low	B2-F3
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 5: "Go On, Get Out"

The Child is bored. She reads several books in an effort to learn all the things she shouldn’t do, say, feel, or see. Lucifer simply asks her why, attempting to get her attention on him instead of books. She finds a name, Iblis, and taunts him.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	C#4-A5
Lucifer	middle-low	A2-Eb4

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 6: "Book's Lament"

A book pleads with the audience to be read. A rhythmic chorus rises. A tribute to the banned, the burned, and the hidden.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Book	middle	A#3-A5
3 Librarians	silent-spoken	spoken
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 7: "In the Book"

As Lucifer tries again to get the Child to go with him, the Child finds out who Lucifer is in one of the books of the cell.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	F#4-G5
Lucifer	middle-low	B2-D4

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 1, Scene 8: "Eat Anything"

The Child is allowed out of her cage, with a warning she can have anyting she wants except for one thing. She asks what it might be, and in a Kafka-esque reply they say, “you know.”

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
4 Adults	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 1: "After Intermission"

The Child is led back to the book cage, and performers take their places.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	silent-spoken	spoken
4 Adults	silent-spoken	spoken
Instrumentalists	silent-spoken	improvised

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 2: "White Key"

Lucifer jangles an entrancing key in front of the Child and a young boy. This key promises to open the gates of heaven, but the boy has his own doubts about that. Nevertheless, he zips up his vest...

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	G4-A5
Lucifer	silent-spoken	spoken
Boy	high	C4-F5
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 3: "In the Maze of Prison"

The Child questions Lucifer’s role as tempter, while he tempts with growing intensity. He chastises the Child for bowing to authority. She erupts in anger, pushing the books aside and leaving the cage.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	C4-A5
Lucifer	middle-low	Bb2-E4
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 4: "Dubai know how to Party"

A distraught woman is trying to report her sexual assault to a policeman. She admits she’s had some alcohol. Instead of pursuing justice, the policeman arrests her for illegal possession of alcohol. The Child witnesses all of it.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	F4-E5
Woman	high	C4-F5
Cop	middle-low	B2-D4

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 5: "Power Shift"

Lucifer is enraged at the unfairness put upon him. The Child sees, and has an idea. Perhaps the system should be broken. When Lucifer realizes the Child has seen his truth, he tries to hide his emotions.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	C#4-G5
Lucifer	middle-low	A2-Eb4
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 6: "With His Serenity (Falun Dufa)"

A watcher looks over a group of faithful. His irritation turns to hatred as he accuses them of subversion. He claims to have proof hidden in some papers, but the Child has destroyed them. The Child proclaims “I know what to do,” and the tension between authority and people escalates. The Child begins taking pages and notes from all the surrounding books, determined to make her own.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	G4-G5
Faithful 1	high	C4-C5
Faithful 2	high	C4-C5
Watcher	middle-low	A2-C4

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Act 2, Scene 7: "Enlightenment"

The Child creates her own book from pages of other books. She hands out her new rules to the audience.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Child	high	C4-C6
Chorus	middle-high	C4-Eb5
Chorus	middle-high	C4-Ab4
Chorus	middle-low	C2-Eb4
Rapper	silent-spoken	spoken

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TAP:EX Forbidden - Epilogue

Lucifer rebuilds the cage, then tries to convince the audience to join him in self-exile.

Character	Voice Type	Range ?
Lucifer	silent-spoken	spoken

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PREMIERE PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Premiere Production:

February 8-11, 2018 at Tapestry Opera's Ernest Balmer Studio, 315-9 Trinity Street, Toronto, ON

Producers:

Tapestry Opera

Cast:

Role	Name
Lucifer/Various	Alexander Hajek
Child	Neema Bickersteth
The Boy	Säye Skye
The Woman/Various	Shirin Eskandani
Tar	Padideh Ahrarnejad
Ney	Kianoush Khalilian
Percussion	Ali Massoudi

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Premiere Production Team:

Role	Name
Director	Michael Hidetoshi Mori
Music Director	Michael Shannon
Producer	Jaime Martino
Costumes and Set Design	Erin Gerofsky
Lighting Design	Yehuda Fisher
Sound Design	Vanessa Vai
Stage Manager	Kristin McCollum

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CREATION

DEVELOPMENT

Forbidden began in a collaboration between Michael Mori and composer Afarin Mansouri, joined later by librettist Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. The three began with the question, “What is forbidden?" This interrogation produced over forty different story ideas, which were pared down into a number of vignettes. These included personal stories by Mansouri and St. Bernard, elements of which were incorporated into the libretto.

While collaborating on the music, Mansouri and St. Bernard discovered an overlap in their process that allowed for new and innovative ways to create. Mansouri had focused on rhythm being the basis of the opera’s music. St. Bernard, coming from rap, spoken word, and hip-hop, shared that basis.

Works in the Tapestry Explorations TAP:EX series largely focus on what isn’t “supposed to” go with opera. As such, Forbidden was developed to challenge its audience as well as its own genre with a fusion of styles. Composer Afarin Mansouri chose Persian classical instruments to simultaneously deliver thematic material and “refresh the ears of the audience.”

QUOTATIONS FROM CREATIVE TEAM

"The journey for this opera started with a word, and frustration over a Trump travel ban. Afarin had approached me about a number of projects and as we sat down to talk through them, the word "forbidden" came up. Apparently, it is still forbidden for women to sing in public in Iran. The word was so deep and provocative that it took over our conversation... Forbidden immediately felt like the right start for TAP:EX, and quickly the idea for integrating rap/spoken word, a genre with a great empowerment and social justice history, became the natural way forward. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, a LIBLAB graduate and celebrated playwright who is also a powerful rapper and spoken word artist, met Afarin and the rest is here for you to see today..."

- Michael Mori

“[Persian and hip hop music] both share an aspect of spontaneity within an apparent structure. They are forms that prioritize individuality and have elements of a resistance tradition inside of them, and that very much speaks to the themes of Forbidden... The forms of music that we’re using speak to me of the pursuit of individualism within a rigid structure, and sometimes against that rigid structure.”

- Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

“This opera means a lot to me, from its story and style to its cast and musicians. The subject matter made me another person. We spent a few months researching the subject of Forbidden and found so many true stories; some horrifying, some sad, and some funny. We found almost twenty categories in which forbidden was applied to race, gender, social politics, and religion, among other things. It was so hard to select only a few categories. Some things that are forbidden in one culture, are a norm in another culture. The barrier is lack of knowledge about what is not familiar to us. It is the knowledge that becomes that forbidden fruit. The more we learn, the less we judge. [Forbidden] is also very important to me as a composer with a Persian background: opera was a genre being banned in Iran after the 1976 Revolution. I feel blessed to be able to create and to see the performance of my opera.”

- Afarin Mansouri, to John Gilks

QUOTATIONS FROM MEDIA

"undeniably powerful"
- Jenna Douglas, The Globe and Mail

"...a tantalizing glimpse into what sorts of new fusions of styles are possible."
- John Terauds, The Toronto Star

"Forbidden is a great example of how to let opera evolve..."
- Jen Norman, Mooney on Theatre

"a modern opera breaking taboos"
- BBC World News (video)

"a well executed mashup"
- Schmopera

"...a musical and dramatic kaleidoscope which is intriguing, musically satisfying, and dramatically engaging."
- John Gilks, Opera Ramblings

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Forbidden - Tapestry Opera
Forbidden - Program

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Creating Tap:Ex Forbidden

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