PASSIONSYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA | AUSTRALIA/THE NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE

SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA PRESENT

PROUDLY MADE POSSIBLE BYFREE PROGRAM

SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA PRESENT

PASSIONSYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA | AUSTRALIA/THE NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE

CITY RECITAL HALL14 & 15 JAN, 8PM90MINS NO INTERVALPerformed in Italian with English surtitles

MUSICPascal Dusapin

LIBRETTOPascal Dusapin, Rita de Letteriis

MISE-EN-ESPACEPierre Audi

CONDUCTORJack Symonds

REVIVAL DIRECTORMiranda Lakerveld

ELECTRONICS/SOUND ENGINEERThierry Coduys

LIGHTING DESIGNERNicholas Rayment, based on original lighting by Jürgen Kolb

LEIElise Caluwaerts

LUIWiard Witholt

VOCAL ENSEMBLEJane Sheldon, Ellen Hooper, Anna Fraser, Andrew Goodwin, Mitchell Riley, Simon Lobelson

VIOLINSAlex Norton, Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba

VIOLA/OUD SOLOJames Wannan

CELLOMee Na Lojewski

DOUBLE BASSJaan Pallandi

FLUTE/PICCOLOJane Duncan

OBOEBenjamin Opie

COR ANGLAISNgaire de Korte

CLARINETPeter Smith

BASS CLARINETSusan Newsome

FESTIVAL DONORSMAKE IT POSSIBLE

BASSOONJack Schiller

FRENCH HORNMichael Wray

TRUMPETTristram Williams

TROMBONEMatthew Harrison

HARPSICHORD SOLOZubin Kanga

HARPGenevieve Lang-Huppert

SYNTHESIZERJem Harding

COMPANY MANAGEMENTDanielle Maas, Huw Belling

SURTITLESTakefumi Ogawa

SPECIAL THANKSSigi Giesler, Holland Festival

Robby Duiveman, De Nederlandse Opera

INTRODUCTIONThis production of the chamber opera Passion by Pascal Dusapin goes to the core of the aims and ambitions of Sydney Festival. We strive to present the best local companies Sydney has to offer, and support them to embrace projects that are beyond the scope of their regular seasons – sometimes by facilitating collaboration with international artists and ensembles. We also try to introduce important new works of theatre and music to Australian audiences.

Passion is all this: one of the most iconic new music theatre works written in the last decade, begging to be premiered on our shores. The adventurous and talented Sydney Chamber Opera is a relative newcomer but has already made a lasting impact with bold program choices and exquisite productions. Sydney Festival is thrilled to be able to pair them with world-renowned theatre and opera director Pierre Audi, presenting the Australian debut performance of two young vocal stars, coloratura soprano Elise Caluwaerts and baritone Wiard Witholt.

Based on the Orpheus myth, Passion is a powerful work, painted with delicate brush strokes. Voices swirl around the audience aided by subtle surround electronics. Instrumental sounds from east and west blend with the voices of a vocal sextet to form a mysterious soundscape. We hope you enjoy this Australian premiere of a quintessential addition to the opera canon.

LIEVEN BERTELSFESTIVAL DIRECTOR

PASSIONPascal Dusapin

1

The Others When day turns to night…

Woman Am I getting close to you? I, yes, it is I!Yes, yes… I, I!

Man Sun! Sun!.. You who see everything… Sun… my Sun!

Woman Is your heart with me?.. Sun! Sun… Sun!...Look up to the Heavens. Stay close to me… Can you see me?

Man I see you!

Woman Can you hear me?

ManI hear you!

Woman I see you! I hear you! I see and hear you (O joys.. O longings…) I can see you!

Man Look up to the Heavens.Tell me whether pleasure comes to us from the Heavens. Tell me!

Woman Just like all that happens to us down here comes from the Heavens (O my Sun!)

Man O my Sun! Your heart is with me. Sun! Sun! O Sun! Look up there.Come close to me… (I have wings…yes, I have wings…)

Woman O my Sun…

2

They walk… The sound of a violin can be heard in the distance.

Man Shall I get close to you?... Shall I leave?...(Ah, nothing can overwhelm me!...) I, it is I! Yes… yes… I, I! Ah, a gust of wind could blow me away. But nothing escapes me! Don’t run away! (I have wings…) I am speaking to you. (How do you soothe a troubled heart?...) Is there a finch flying among the branches? Can you hear a trickle of water flow?... Nothing…nothing…

Woman Sun! Sun! …you who see everything… Sun… My Sun! Tell me whether pleasure comes from the Heavens. Tell me! … How it can come from the Heavens…

Man I no longer have a heart… The night… The dark night… O black night… The night dances for the moon in the sky… And me! Earlier I quenched my thirst with sighs while drinking tears. (What are you yearning for?) Look at the Heavens (To himself) Can you see that lush shore? Now rest… Come closer… Rest now! Sing like the waves.

Woman I cannot see, I cannot hear. (O longings, joys and torments!...) I am blind!

Man (Am I blind?...)

Woman I am deaf!

Man (Am I deaf?...)

Woman I am blind and deaf! A gust of wind and I could die…Man (A light gust…, yes, a light gust…) I am approaching… I am coming close to you… No. I am leaving. I am leaving, yes… (I have wings!... yes, I have wings). No! Yes! No!

Woman What are you yearning for? Look, look up to the Heavens. Where are you going?...

Man And you, where are you coming from?

Woman When day turns to night, I found myself in a dark forest. I was preparing for war…

ManFor war? But why should I… come too?

Woman What about me? Do I breathe? Do I breathe?

Man You have left me.. Oh… and I? Shall I stay? No, I will descend without fear into the deepest abyss… but how can the King’s heart be softened in the shadows, how can I help you gaze at the stars again?

Woman O fate! Alas… You have abandoned me!... O miserly Heavens! You break my heart!... You are fleeing… O life of mine… O fate! O cruel and wicked fate! O offensive stars… O miserly Heavens!

Man But why should I come? Who is so brave? (I fear moving forward…)

Woman If you did love me, why won’t you help me? Why do you not pity my tears? Can’t you see that death is threatening me? Down there there’s… be silent... help me… my blood is shaking in my veins… Sun… my Sun, you who see everything…

Man Why have you gone back to these anxieties? Why did you not climb that gentle slope? … You are fleeing… That beast that makes you scream, that allows no one to approach it…

Woman Oh, my Sun remains silent… You have left me, farewell Heavens and Sun, farewell. Now… I am descending…

Man I have broken her heart… (I hate myself, where can I seek shelter?...) I shall flee… O my life… O fate!

3

Man Yet I am back here at the centre of the stage!...

The Others Woe unto you…Nothing is safeFrom my teeth.They gnaw.They gnaw.Do not flee, you mortals.I may be lame, but I do have wings.

Man It’s dark, but my Sun is inside this space! Open, open the window. Come here! Shining well before daybreak! Rise up and chase clouds and darkness from my sky!... But what do I see… (he sees her!...) No, I am not dreaming!... Her soul is returning to the Heavens.Come back!O fate…

Woman My joys, my painsAre what my life is yearning forI am blind, I am deafI cannot see, I cannot hear…

4

Woman I am still asleep or am I awake?What do I see?What air am I breathing?On what soil am I treading?I am still asleep or am I awake?O sleep, mortal sleep, bedfellow of death…

The Others O sleep, mortal sleep, bedfellow of death…Alas, alas, alas… Sleep, sleep…(Alas, the future is merciless..Alas, the future does not forget…)

Woman (motionless)I cannot hear…I can no longer see, I can no longer hear…The crater is opening up, I am falling into it…No!Shall I ever stop shedding tears?Shall I ever be able to release a song of joy from my heart?

The Others Oh… so long… long… so long….(and the stars move aside…)Ah, ah, ah … (The mortals do not despair!...)You insatiable glutton!You cruel rodent!You charlatan! You arrogant boor!Do not come to deprive me of my peace!(Addressing Time)Run!Run!Faster!(Time begins to spin like a top)

Woman(stretching along the ground…)I cannot hear… I cannot hear… (she dies again)5

Woman Come with me in a long sleep.

Man But everything is grey, motionless and calm.

Woman That’s not true (Do you exist?) You don’t exist! Go away!

Man Do you remember me?

Woman Listen!

Man It’s the wind.

Woman No! He is calling me…

Man Don’t move.

Woman I must leave (going back, going back…)

Man Don’t move.

Woman (opening a door ajar and addressing someone who can’t be seen)Who are you?

The Others Open up… Obey me!

Man Don’t move! Obey me!

Woman (addressing the man she is looking at)You no longer scare me. May I come with you?

Man But where? No! What is happening?

Woman (turning towards him)Don’t hold me back. You no longer need me. To you, I am only anapparition.

6

Man But I… I won’t let you leave just like this! I won’t let you spoil your beauty like this! No, no! You would not dare spoil your beauty if I were next to you!

WomanDon’t hold me back…

7

WomanI am coming. (I am following you…) You are not dreaming. (a long sleep…)

Man (But everything is grey…) What are you waiting for? (motionless…)What are you longing for? What are you waiting for? (…and calm…)

Man (Shall I come?) You left me… (left me…) What are you longing for? (What?...) You are not dreaming.

Woman Speak to me, speak to me… I can no longer hear.

Man Why are you abandoning me like this?

The Others Rise! On your feet! The journey is long and the path is harsh…

Man You have left me… And forever I shall regret it... (Alas! I am being overwhelmed!...)Look, look up to the Heavens.

Woman I shall forever weep and regret it… (It only takes a gust of wind to blow me away!...)There is the serpent… help me… Alas! I can no longer hear! I can no longer see! Speak to me. Speak to me! Sun! O my Sun! Speak to me. Speak to me! Let me hear your voice. I no longer recall what your voice sounds like!

Man I am being threatened by shame and danger, I know. Flee this wild place!... Listen to me. Listen to me… Now listen…

Woman (without looking at him)I no longer know what your voice sounds like.O speak to me! O my Sun, speak, speak, speak to me… May I hear your voice? Speak to me. Speak to me. Sun. Have I lost you forever? I no longer hear anything. You, speak to me! You! Speak to me! I look at you, O my Sun, but I fail to recognise you!

The Others The day is turning to night… and all that road still ahead of me… on my own… oh… no end in sight… O memory … and the dark surrounds … not being able to see anything… not being able to hear anything…(continue to struggle?...)Who will record that which you see…

8

Woman The day is slipping away…

Man (The forest and the rivers are silent…)Tell me the reason why I should descend down there.

Woman I shall tell you why, but I must return there.

Man But where?

Woman There, whence I have come.

Man Take me there!

Woman Are you ready?

Man Tell me the reason why I should descend down there.

Woman Don’t you know it? There, everything meets its opposite.

Man Oh… you searched for so much.

Woman So much?

Man Did you find that which you were looking for?

Woman I no longer hear anybody sing…

Man Rest now. Come back!

Woman No! I cannot gaze at the Sun for long.

Man Wake up!

9

Woman I have dreamt so much… I was waiting. And then, all of a sudden, that shadow… so clear. What was the thing fleeing above my head? The clouds and the stars were dashing away. What was it then? (Could it be the moon?)

Man Are you blind? The night has fallen…

Woman I cannot see anything.

Man It is night time, believe me.

Woman Is that so? So, it is night time? Night time? Is the night searching for me? Even though I am not blind… I believe you. It is night time, the day is no longer. (A hopeless grief, nothing can comfort me…)

Man But look! Look where that path leads to!

Woman (He is blind!) I cannot see anything!

Man What are you saying?There it is!Look at the moon!It is approaching!Speak to it, speak to it!

Woman O…Speak to me! Let me hear your voice! I no longer recall what your voice sounds like! O my Sun, speak to me!

May I hear your voice?

Speak to me!Speak to me, Sun!Are you lost forever?I can no longer hear!I can no longer see!You!Speak to me!I am looking at you, O my sun, but I fail to recognise you.

Oh… Who is breaking my heart?……………….The sky is opening up for me…

Man Look at the moon!Look… the moon…What are you hoping for?What help can you long for?

Do you ignore that the path leading from this dark cavern to the Sun is blocked?

… I am coming to help you…

(I can help you) It is I… yes… yes… yes… it is I.

10

Woman What do I hear?... Could it be his voice?...

WomanIt is so familiar… It sounds like… the voice from a dream… I fail to recognise it…

Farewell, farewell Sun, farewell…

Farewell, Sun.farewell…

(Expressions flow from your face like a river…)Farewell… Now…I know everything.

ManStop, stop, do you want it?... stop… (I am frightened…)

Oh… the finch… I can see the finch

I forget… I can hear it… I forget… I can hear it… I no longer know… if… I become… (I can no longer hear)--- oh.. the finch… (I am frightened).. I can no longer hear…O my Sun…

Man(I am close to you)It is I… (I am close to you)O…

(The Heavens open up…)

(By now, all that can be seen is a mouth singing…)

PASCAL DUSAPINPascal Dusapin was born in Nancy in 1955 and is currently regarded as France’s most important living composer. He attaches great importance to technique and to precise knowledge, as did his teacher Iannis Xenakis and therefore studied not only art and aesthetics but also physics at the Sorbonne in the 1970s. At the urging of Italian composer Franco Donatoni he also followed the courses that Xenakis taught at the Sorbonne from 1974 to 1978. Dusapin’s early works were strongly influenced by Donatoni and Xenakis, but over the course of time he developed a style that was completely his own, one that was characterised by a preference for microtonality, the piling-up of atonal complexes and variation on Greek tetrachords. Dusapin has a pronounced preference for instruments that can imitate the human voice such as winds and strings; he has composed surprisingly little for piano.

Dusapin had built up a large body of work over three decades and is active in many genres, including opera, chamber music, choral music and orchestral music. He has met with critical acclaim since the publication of his first works at the end of the 1970s and has been awarded many musical prizes, including a study bursary at the Villa Medici in Rome (1981–1983), the Prix de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1993, the Grand Prix National de Musique (1995) and the Victoire de la Musique (1998) for the Montaigne recording of his ‘operatorio’ La melancholia and other works. He was named Composer of the Year in 2002.

PIERRE AUDIPierre Audi was born in Beirut (Lebanon) in 1957. He grew up there and in Paris. He read History at Oxford University in Great Britain between 1975 and 1978. In 1979, Pierre Audi founded the Almeida Theatre in London and its Festival of Contemporary Music, which he directed until 1989. Since 1988 he has been director of Dutch National Opera. In addition to his responsibilities at the opera in Amsterdam, he was artistic director of the Holland Festival for ten years. Pierre is appointed artistic director of the Park Avenue Armory in New York.

As a stage director he collaborated with many visual artists notably Karel Appel, Georg Baselitz, Anish Kapoor, Herzog & de Meuron, Jannis Kounellis, Berlinde De Bruyckere and Jonathan Meese.

Many of his productions, introduced in Amsterdam, have gone on to win acclaim on other stages, including his cycle of all four Monteverdi operas, which have been seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sydney Festival and Los Angeles Opera.

He has established a large repertoire of contemporary music theatre works, among them Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy, Morton Feldman’s Neither and Claude Vivier’s Rêves d’un Marco Polo.

As guest director, he has worked for, among others, the Bavarian State Opera, Sweden’s Drottningholm Court Theatre, Salzburg Festival, Paris Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro Dell’Opera Di Roma, Metropolitan Opera New York, Vienna State Opera and Ruhrtriennale.

His numerous awards include the Leslie Boosey Award for his contribution to British Musical Life, Medal of Honour, Drottninholm Sweden, the Prize of Holland’s Theater Critics, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Theater Prize and the Amsterdam Cultural Business Award. He became in 2009 the first recipient of the Johannes Vermeer Award, a new state prize for the arts in The Netherlands. He was knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion in 2000 and was made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur a few years later. For his work for Holland Festival Pierre received the Silver Medal of the City of Amsterdam. He is appointed Honorary Fellow Music Theatre at University of Amsterdam 2014–2016.

JACK SYMONDSJack Symonds is a composer, conductor and accompanist, and artistic director of Sydney Chamber Opera. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music, London under Kenneth Hesketh and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he received the University Medal. Trained also as a pianist and trombonist, he continues to work regularly as an accompanist and pianist, giving the premiere of many new works as well as frequently conducting his own and others’ music, including Britten’s Owen Wingrave  & The Turn of the Screw, Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse, Kancheli’s Exil, Janác ek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Benjamin’s Into the Little Hilll, Kurtág’s ... pas à pas- nulle part..., Romitelli’s An Index of Metals and the world premieres of Smetanin’s Mayakovsky and Gyger’s Fly Away Peter.  

As a composer he has written works for the JACK Quartet, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australia Piano Quartet, Sydney Chamber Opera (Notes from Underground, Climbing Toward Midnight), Streeton Trio, cellists Timo-Veikko Valve and Patrick Murphy, soprano Jane Sheldon, violist James Wannan, Syzygy Ensemble and Affinity Collective. 

MIRANDA LAKERVELDMiranda Lakerveld has worked extensively with director Pierre Audi, reviving a number of his productions like Wagner Dream, Das Rheingold and L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She assisted him on projects like Saint Francois D’Assise and Passion. As a director Miranda Lakerveld creates innovative staging for opera and classical music, in which the crossing of boundaries between cultures and disciplines is her guiding principle. She works with singers, visual artists, dancers, classical musicians, composers, writers as well as peace-activists and traditional performing artists from around the globe. Her focus is to create dialogue among cultures through a new, intercultural, form of opera. She created Orfeo in India an adaptation of Monteverdi’s  L’Orfeo, with Indian and European musicians in Ahmedabad (India), Erda a performance/lecture at Dutch National Opera, and recently Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, with communities in Amsterdam West, fusing Monteverdi with Arabic and Turkish traditional music. She is working on a PhD at the University of Amsterdam; in this creative research she compares opera to traditional music-drama performances, which she has studied in India, Iran, Mexico, Guatemala and the Tibetan community in exile.

SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERASydney Chamber Opera is at the forefront of contemporary chamber opera in Australia and has developed a distinctive presence in Sydney and beyond. It is committed to the development of opera as a contemporary performance form, balancing a program of world premieres of new Australian work with Australian premieres of recent international work. 

Co-founded by Jack Symonds and Louis Garrick in 2010, SCO has rapidly developed into an important voice in the Australian music and theatre landscape, becoming a resident company at Carriageworks in 2014. SCO has received critical acclaim for its innovative programming, musical rigour and compelling theatre making. It has made work for the Sydney Festival (2014), Melbourne Festival (2015) and Sydney Biennale (2012), as well as presenting five world premieres of Australian opera and in 2013, winning Time Out Sydney’s Best Opera Award for its Australian premiere of Britten’s Owen Wingrave.

ELISE CALUWAERTSColoratura soprano Elise Caluwaerts began her singing career as a baroque singer, and later expanded her repertoire to the romantic and contemporary repertoire. She simultaneously studied at the conservatories of Antwerp with Lucienne Van Deyck (classical singing) and Brussels (early music), followed by the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where she graduated Cum Laude in 2006 with Diane Forlano. She took master classes with Peter Kooij, Elly Ameling, David Wilson Johnson and Jozef De Beenhouwer. Franco Farina and Gemma Visser are her present coaches.

Elise has performed in Europe, Mexico, China and the United States, both in opera and music theatre, oratorio and lieder recitals, and became a highly sought-after soloist in the baroque, classical and romantic repertoire. She sang roles as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, the main role in Semele, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas and Angelica in Orlando Furioso. In 2015 she was invited by the Volkstheater Rostock to sing the role of Jenny in Kurt Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny.

She has worked with conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Jordi Savall, Reinbert De Leeuw, Lawrence Foster, Robin Engelen and Emmanuelle Haim and chamber music such as Oxalys, Ensemble Phoenix Munich, Musiques Nouvelles and La Sfera Armoniosa. For many years, she also worked with director Wouter Van Looy in various international scenic projects for Music Theatre Transparant.

In addition, Elise has a special fondness for performing contemporary music and multidisciplinary projects. She sang at the world premieres of Wim Henderickx, Filip Rathé, Nicholas Lens and Joris Blanckaert, and worked as an actress and singer in art films by Hans Op De Beeck and Lucas Van Woerkum.

WIARD WITHOLTWiard Witholt studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Maarten Koningsberger, and graduated in the summer of 2003. In June 2005 he graduated from the New Opera Academy in Amsterdam. His present teacher is the English baritone David Wilson-Johnson. From 2005–2006 he was a member of the Netherlands Opera Studio (OSN), and from October 2006 till June 2008 he was a member of the Atelier Lyrique at the Opéra National de Paris. He took part in masterclasses with Jard van Nes, Robert Holl, Ann Murray, Graham Clark and Brigitte Fassbaender and Dennis Heath. Wiard Witholt was one of the laureates in the Cristina Deutekom Competition in Enschede in September 2006, and in June 2007 he represented The Netherlands at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

In 2008 he made his debut at the Royal Theatre La Monnaie Brussels as Le Berger in Pelléas et Mélisande. From the season 2009/2010 onwards, Wiard Witholt became a full member of the Opera House in Dessau (Anhalt, Germany) where he sung amongst others parts such as: Heerrufer in Lohengrin, Maximilian in Candide (Bernstein), Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Pietro in La Muette de Portici (Auber), Silvano in Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera, Mister X in Der Zirkusprinzessin, Zurga in Les Pêcheurs de Perles and Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore. Meanwhile he made his debut at Teatro Real in Madrid as Frére Léon (St. François d’Assise/Messiaen), at Opéra Royal de Wallonie Liège as Il Conte (Nozze di Figaro) and at Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg as Falke (Fledermaus).

More recently he created Schemariah the principal character in Hiob, an opera after the novel by Joseph Roth, composed by Erich Zeisl and completed by Jan Duzynski. The world premiere took place during Festspiele Plus at Bavarian State Opera Munich, July 2014. At Nationale Opera Amsterdam he appeared in Reimsreisje (as Alvaro) in a revisited version of Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims. He also took part in the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s opera Penthesilea (as Messager) at the Royal Theatre La Monnaie (2015); in a production stage directed by Pierre Audi. The meeting with Pascal Dusapin led to Wiard Witholt’s engagement by Sydney Festival 2016 for this stage production of Pascal Dusapin’s Passion.

Photos: Far left Elise Caluwaerts by Lalo Gonzalez. Pictured left Wiard Witholt.

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