The Pomegranate Cycle: Reconfiguring opera through performance, technology & composition By Eve Elizabeth Klein Bachelor of Arts Honours (Music), Macquarie University, Sydney A PhD Submission for the Department of Music and Sound Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia 2011 ______________ Keywords Music. Opera. Women. Feminism. Composition. Technology. Sound Recording. Music Technology. Voice. Opera Singing. Vocal Pedagogy. The Pomegranate Cycle. Postmodernism. Classical Music. Musical Works. Virtual Orchestras. Persephone. Demeter. The Rape of Persephone. Nineteenth Century Music. Musical Canons. Repertory Opera. Opera & Violence. Opera & Rape. Opera & Death. Operatic Narratives. Postclassical Music. Electronica Opera. Popular Music & Opera. Experimental Opera. Feminist Musicology. Women & Composition. Contemporary Opera. Multimedia Opera. DIY. DIY & Music. DIY & Opera. Author’s Note Part of Chapter 7 has been previously published in: Klein, E., 2010. "Self-made CD: Texture and Narrative in Small-Run DIY CD Production". In Ø. Vågnes & A. Grønstad, eds. Coverscaping: Discovering Album Aesthetics. Museum Tusculanum Press. 2 Abstract The Pomegranate Cycle is a practice-led enquiry consisting of a creative work and an exegesis. This project investigates the potential of self-directed, technologically mediated composition as a means of reconfiguring gender stereotypes within the operatic tradition. This practice confronts two primary stereotypes: the positioning of female performing bodies within narratives of violence and the absence of women from authorial roles that construct and regulate the operatic tradition. The Pomegranate Cycle redresses these stereotypes by presenting a new narrative trajectory of healing for its central character, and by placing the singer inside the role of composer and producer. During the twentieth and early twenty-first century, operatic and classical music institutions have resisted incorporating works of living composers into their repertory. Consequently, the canon’s historic representations of gender remain unchallenged. Historically and contemporarily, men have almost exclusively occupied the roles of composer, conductor, director and critic, and therefore men have regulated the pedagogy, performance practices, repertoire and organisations that sustain classical music. In this landscape, women are singers, and few have the means to challenge the constructions of gender they are asked to reproduce. The Pomegranate Cycle uses recording technologies as the means of driving change because these technologies have already challenged the regulation of the classical tradition by changing people’s modes of accessing, creating and interacting with music. Building on the work of artists including Phillips and van Veen, Robert Ashley and Diamanda Galas, The Pomegranate Cycle seeks to broaden the definition of what opera can be. This work examines the ways in which the operatic tradition can be hybridised with contemporary musical forms such as ambient electronica, glitch, spoken word and concrete sounds as a way of bringing the form into dialogue with contemporary music cultures. The ultilisation of other sound cultures within the context of opera enables women’s voices and stories to be presented in new ways, while also providing a point of friction with opera’s traditional storytelling devices. The Pomegranate Cycle simulates aesthetics associated with Western art music genres by drawing on contemporary recording techniques, virtual instruments and sound-processing plug-ins. Through such simulations, the work disrupts the way virtuosic human craft has been used to generate authenticity and regulate access to the institutions that protect and produce Western art music. The DIY approach to 3 production, recording, composition and performance of The Pomegranate Cycle demonstrates that an opera can be realised by a single person. Access to the broader institutions which regulate the tradition are not necessary. In short, The Pomegranate Cycle establishes that a singer can be more than a voice and a performing body. She can be her own multimedia storyteller. Her audience can be anywhere. 4 Table of Contents KEYWORDS 2 AUTHOR’S NOTE 2 ABSTRACT 3 LIST OF FIGURES 8 LIST OF SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 8 LIST OF IMAGES 9 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY 13 1.1 - INTRODUCTION 13 1.2 - METHODOLOGY & CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 24 I: CONTEXT 30 CHAPTER 2 - CRAFTING THE “NATURAL” WOMAN: OPERATIC VOICE AND THE METAPHORICAL BODY 31 2.1 - INTRODUCTION 31 2.2 - TECHNIQUE WITHIN THE BODY 32 2.3 - PHILOSOPHICAL THREATS TO THE SINGING BODY 34 2.4 - SINGING INSIDE THE BODY 36 2.5 - “NATURAL” VOICE, NO SENSATION? 37 2.6 – VOCAL GRAIN & TRANSCENDENCE 39 2.7 - CONCLUSION 40 CHAPTER 3 - THE TRANSCENDENTAL DEATHMACHINE: WOMEN IN OPERATIC NARRATIVES, OR, A CASE FOR NEW WORK 43 3.1 - INTRODUCTION 43 3.2 - CHROMATIC WOMEN, SUBLIMINAL WOMEN 45 3.3 - VOCAL WO(MEN), VOCAL AESTHETICS 47 3.4 - CONVENTIONAL WOMEN, VIOLATED WOMEN 49 3.4.1 - A Woman’s DeaTh, a Man’s Grief 49 3.4.2 - Power, Sex, Rape, Men 51 3.4.3 - Women as Icons, Women as Men 56 3.5 - ALTERNATIVE WOMEN, ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES? 57 3.6 - STAGING WOMEN, DESIGNING HISTORIES 59 3.7 - COMPOSING WOMEN, COMPOSING NOW 61 3.8 - CONCLUSION 64 CHAPTER 4 - UNEARTHLY CREATURES: OPERA’S NEW FRONTIERS 69 4.1 - INTRODUCTION 69 4.2 - ELECTRONICA-OPERA AND ALIEN DIVAS 71 4.3 -WHEN AN OPERA IS NOT AN OPERA 78 4.4 – (P)0PERATIC VOCAL SCHIZOPHRENIA OF THE 1980S 86 4.5 – LIBERATING THE MADWOMAN, POLITICISING VOCALITIES 93 4.6 – POPULAR PATHS FOR COMPOSING WOMEN 96 4.7 - POSTCLASSICAL LANDSCAPES 100 4.8 - OPERA, POSTHUMAN 103 4.9 – MAPPING THE FRONTIER: CONCLUSIONS FROM CONTEXT 109 5 II: CONFRONTATION 118 CHAPTER 5 - VOICING PERSEPHONE: NARRATIVE, VOICE & STRUCTURE IN THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE 119 5.1 – INTRODUCTION 119 5.2 - BEGINNING WITH A STORY 119 5.3 - PERSEPHONE’S MANY FACES 122 5.4 - WOMEN & STORY IN THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE 124 5.5 - THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE SYNOPSIS 127 5.6 - STRUCTURE & VOICE 128 5.7 - ENDING WITH A STORY 131 5.8 –CONCLUSION 132 CHAPTER 6 - PRODUCING THE COMPOSER: CLASSICAL MUSIC BEYOND THE CONCERT HALL 134 6.1 - INTRODUCTION 134 6.2 - THE PRODUCER AS COMPOSER, THE PRODUCER AS TECHNICIAN 135 6.3 - KEEPING SCORE: THE MUSICAL WORK AND THE ABSTRACT 138 6.4 - HIGH FIDELITY, “HIGH” ART 148 6.5 - IT’S ALIVE!... ? 151 6.6 - DEATH BY VIRTUAL ORCHESTRA 159 6.7 - PRODUCING THE COMPOSER: DIY CLASSICAL MUSIC STORYTELLING 168 6.8 - CONCLUSIONS 173 CHAPTER 7 - CRAFTING PERSEPHONE: TECHNOLOGY-CENTRED METHODOLOGIES FOR COMPOSITION AND PERFORMANCE IN THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE 178 7.1 - INTRODUCTION 178 7.2 - BACKGROUNDS 178 7.3 – MUSIC COMMUNITIES & DIY-ENABLED PRACTICES IN THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE 180 7.4 – SYMPHONIC SIMULATION 185 7.5 – DENYING THE CONCERT HALL AESTHETIC 187 7.6 – INITIAL RECEPTION 188 7.7 – CONCLUSION 189 III: LOCATION/ REFLECTION 190 CHAPTER 8 - A FEMINIST COMPOSER IN POSTMODERN TIMES 191 8.1 - INTRODUCTION 191 8.2 - A POSTMODERN FRAMING 192 8.3 - A FEMINIST FRAMING 200 8.4 - ASSEMBLING A FEMINIST-ORIENTED MUSICAL PRACTICE 204 8.5 – CONCLUSION 209 CHAPTER 9 - POSITIONING THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE: A POSTCLASSICAL-AMBIENT-ELECTRONICA- OPERA 211 9.1 – INTRODUCTION 211 9.2 - GENRE 211 9.3 - VOICE 214 9.4 - STAGING 215 9.5 - CONCLUSION 219 CHAPTER 10 - CONCLUSIONS: THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE IN PRACTICE 221 6 IV: APPENDICES & BIBLIOGRAPHY 228 APPENDIX 1 - THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE LIBRETTO 229 APPENDIX 2 - PHOTOS FROM THE POMEGRANATE CYCLE 239 APPENDIX 3 - AUDIO CD TRACK LIST 247 APPENDIX 4 – DVD TRACK LIST 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY 249 7 List of Figures Figure 1: A model of creative arts and research processes: the iterative cyclic web of practice-led research and research-led practice (H. Smith & Dean 2009, 20)_________________________________26 Figure 2: “The Diva Dance” (Serra 1997)_________________________________________74 Figure 3: The Pomegranate Cycle Structure________________________________________130 Figure 4: A Breakdown of the Stages, Processes & Resources Used in The Pomegranate Cycle____181 List of Supplementary Material Appendix 1: The Pomegranate Cycle Libretto____________________________________229 Appendix 2: Photos From The Pomegranate Cycle ________________________________239 Appendix 3: Audio CD Track List___________________________________________247 Appendix 4: DVD Track List______________________________________________248 Audio CD: Audio recording of The Pomegranate Cycle DVD: Excerpts of Footage From Live Performances of The Pomegranate Cycle 8 List of Images Image 1: “Pomegranate” sculptural set piece at the Imagine Festival, October 2010_____________239 Image 2: “Pomegranate” sculptural set piece at the Brisbane Festival, September 2010___________239 Image 3: The Pomegranate Cycle publicity photo 2010________________________________240 Image 4: Eve Klein performing “Punishment” at the Brisbane Festival, September 2010_________240 Image 5: Liz Evans performing “Her Song” at the Brisbane Festival, September 2010___________241 Image 6: Liz Evans & Eve Klein performing “Burning” at the Brisbane Festival, September 2010___241 Image 7: Eve Klein performing “Narcissus Bloom & the Rape of the Pomegranate” at the Brisbane Festival, September 2010______________________________________________________242 Image 8: Liz Evans & Eve Klein performing “Punishment” at the Brisbane Festival, September 2010____________________________________________________________________242 Image 9: Liz Evans