background
The first idea for the opera The Man of Sorrows came to me at the end of the 80’ies. It would become an opera consisting of two layers. An ‘Upper-layer’, in the form of a kind of mix of a performance and an installation, a ritual of which beginning and ending are clear beforehand and which is executed ruthlessly. Additionally a ‘Bottom-layer’, a 18th/19th century opera in which “the tenor wants to sleep with the soprano, while the bass tries to prevent this”. A layer with drama, intrigues and depth. The Upper-layer then would intervene in the Bottom-layer, as a deus ex machina.
Somewhere around the early 90’ies I saw an item on a television news bulletin, about the discovery of one of the earliest ‘Men of Sorrows’ by Henk van Os, then director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. What made this discovery so special was that this Man of Sorrows (a portrait en face of Jesus, often painted on wood) was hidden behind another painting. Van Os suspected this and used infrared to reveal the original.
This concept of an image hidden behind another image corresponded seamlessly to my idea of the double-sided opera. The idea for The Man of Sorrows was born.
plot
The plot of the opera is based on a theory of Robert Ambelain, who stated that the narrative of the figure of Jesus was designed around the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. The discussion during the council was about the figure of Jesus: was he of the same substance as God, therefore ‘unconceived’, or was he coequal to God but indeed ‘conceived’ (by God)? Main characters in this debate were Alexander of Alexandria and his pupil Athanasius, and their opponent Arius. De faction of Alexander (Jesus is unconceived and therefore equal to God) won in the end. In order to establish this doctrine conflicting texts needed to disappear, especially from two important historical works of Tacitus, the Historiae and de Anales. The parts about Judea (from the Historiae) and about the years 28-34 AD (Anales) are indeed lost.
Athanasius is the protagonist in this story. He is no less than Athanasius Kircher, who besides being the inventor of the magic lantern, speaking tubes, a coding machine and a composition machine, also invented a time machine. He could thereby travel on demand to the periods of importance necessary for establishing the christian canon.
In order to enable the resurrection of Jesus a famous illusion-trick is used: Jesus had a twin brother, Toama, who after the crucifixion and burial of Jesus could take his place after three days. Toama, ‘doubting Thomas’ in the Bible, “also named Didymus” [see: John 20:24-29, both Toama in Hebrew as Didymus in Latin means twin brother], is one of the main characters in this opera. Except as idea Jesus himself does not appear in the opera.
There are three time periods: firstly: 325 AD, Council of Nicea; secondly: Rome, 117 AD, year of death of Tacitus’ thirdly: 33 AD, Judea, around the death and resurrection of Jesus/Toama. In order to peculate the manuscripts of Tacitus Athanasius hires the young prostitute Eva, who is to seduce Tacitus to be able to get to his texts. As an opera requires, Eva falls in love with Tacitus as well. This plot-line is derived from the novel Livre du voir dit by Guillaume de Machaut, the description of the love affair of the young girl Peronelle d’Armentières and Machaut.
There are several doublings in the opera: Alexander - Arius; Jesus - Toama; Machaut/Peronelle - Tacitus/Eva; the double-layered structure, which among other things is articulated in the two principles of notation: conventional for the ‘Upper-layer’, and a free, more spatial one for the ‘Bottom-layer’ (as developed in the opera on Monteverdi, as described below). In broader sense the subject is historiography, and thereby the concepts of ‘truth’ and ‘contemporariness’.
music and text
In musical sense the opera will be a synthesis of all my work since the 80’ies, using my from then developed computer techniques known as my ‘DOS-Lab’. The libretto will consist of existing texts which can be applied at will. For the opening part in Nicea the Plato’s dialogue ‘Protagoras’ is used, with Alexander in the role of Socrates and Arius in the one of Protagoras. The scene’s around Tacitus and Eva are derived from Machaut’s Livre du voir dit. The texts of Athanasius come from amongst others Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Der Antichrist. Also the original, medieval texts of Alexander, Arius and Athanasius are being used. The voice settings will be partly in a quasi-parlando style, as applied in the opera La Tragedia di Claudio M. which I wrote with Johannes Boer and amongst others Cristiano Melli.
These texts are sung in English. The cantabile parts are sung in the original language. The performance of the ‘Upper-layer’ will be based on a technique I applied earlier in two …in nobis sine nobis… works, DEUS for the Orgelpark [2019] and Metamorphose I [2016], for which specific voices are played on keyboard, and processed through computer to sound and setting.
There are seven characters, sung by five or six singers (has to be determined yet):
1. Athasius - countertenor [Nicea, 325 AD; Rome, 117 AD; Judea, 33 AD]
2. Alexander - bass/baritone [Nicea, 325 AD]
3. Arius - alto [Nicea, 325 AD]
4. Tacitus - tenor [Rome, 117 AD]
5. Eva - soprano [Rome, 117 AD]
6. Toama - baritone/tenor [Judea, 33 AD]
7. Maria Magdalena - alto [Judea, 33 AD]
There is a double role for Arius and Maria, and possibly also for Tacitus and Toama.
method of working
The music is partly live and partly generated through computer processing. The function of deus ex machina of the ‘Upper-layer’ is being undermined towards the end of the opera by the ‘Bottom-layer’ basically through the tempo. The performers gradually start to determine the tempo of the upper-laying ‘clock’. keyboards.
Instrumentation (not yet definite), apart from the singers: 3 (bass-)clarinets, violin, double bass, trumpet, recorder(s) and 3 keyboards (attached to computer processing).
A visual component for the ‘Upper-layer’ should also be developed, which not only helps articulating the deus ex machina, but the time travelling of Athanasius as well.
In order to make this complex creation-process possible etudes and first concepts will be made first. The musical part of the ‘Upper-layer’ is developed through DOS-Lab. All is to be developed in. Studio LOOS, with the LOOS PerformanceLab. The creation-process enfolds itself through a continuous feedback-principle of writing, testing and developing techniques.
