Tzotzil Metamorph, an operatic dynamic
improvised trance dialogues ■ chamber opera ■ installation ■ metamorph pavilion
Tzotzil Metamorph is an operatic piece that utilises an innovative method at the juncture of creation and performance practice, in which mimetic scripting is used to transform highly intuitive processes of improvisation into a number of performance artefacts. From the Mexican Tzotzil poetry of Mariando Lopez and Mary Bautista, the composition emerges as a recorded improvisation performance, where the composer is the protagonist, the instrumentalist and vocalist through means of multi-level audio layering. These tracks undergo audio editing during the process, resulting in a trance improvisation mix. Named Improvised Trance Dialogues, these pieces exist for playback in stereo and multiple channels and undergo transformation to form an installation, which presents the insistent “individual perspective” of the material through video and sound installation artefacts.
This set of pieces, the Improvised Trance Dialogues undergo a post-diagrammatic analysis: reverse engineering as understood in an architectural context whereby freely created 3-dimensional forms are ‘source maps’ for extracting 2-d plans and components from that creation, in a fluid exchange. This technique is used to uncover the mimetic-script, which generates a chamber opera score that can be interpreted by subsequent performers.
The invented term, metamorph, represents the meta-structure of the dynamic process whereby components of the initial improvised embodiment of the text (morphs) are transformed. This term also extends to the architectural morphing process which results in a unique pavilion, designed to house and embody the piece, arriving at another meta-structure to bind the elements together.
Je devins un opera fabuleux:
I became a fabulous opera: (Rimbaud, 1965)
Chamber Opera Parts:
1 EPIC IN THE GLASSHOUSE 11’46″
for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, retuned piano and mirror plate with port glasses with live electronics
2 JUJUN 11′
for soprano solo, 2 sopranos, flute, viola, piano with yin yang balls, tape
3 IN THE SILENCE 14’30″
for soprano solo, 3 sopranos, flute, cello, tibetan bowls, live electronics
4 SOUL SMOKE 10′
for soprano/horn, flute, Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, tibetan bowls, live electronics
The LOST ACT: 5 JSIMTASBANAJETIK 10′
for solo soprano, percussion & yin yang balls, prepared piano
6 TE YELOBAL 5’19″
for soprano, electronic voices, prepared piano with yin yang balls, tape
7 TRILL OF THE HUMAN BIRD 7’28″
for soprano, ululation choir (6 sopranos), prepared violin, steel instrument with live electronics
