Unsuk Chin's Operascope is on a program featuring Japanese composer Misato Mochizuki and Canadian composer Rita Ueda.Supplied
The history of opera will be presented in Toronto – minus the singing – when award-winning composer Unsuk Chin’s Operascope has its North American premiere at Koerner Hall on Jan. 24.
The work – conducted by Alex Pauk and co-commissioned by Canadian ensemble Esprit Orchestra with Bayerisches Staatsorchester (the Bavarian State Orchestra, partner to the Bavarian State Opera), Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, South Korea’s Tongyeong International Music Festival and Orchestre de Paris – is on a program also featuring Nigredo by Japanese composer Misato Mochizuki and Canadian composer Rita Ueda’s Birds Calling... from the Canada in You.
The program is characteristic of Esprit Orchestra, Canada’s only full-time organization devoted to the work of contemporary classical composers, which has held six Canadian premieres by the South Korea-born, Berlin-based Chin since 2010.
Operascope pays homage to its titular art form by deftly weaving familiar sounds from well-known composers (including opera stalwarts Verdi and Puccini) into a nine-minute sonic tapestry scored for a large orchestra, including a Wagnerian-style range of brass instruments. It isn’t Chin’s first time referencing other composers: Her subito con forza (Suddenly With Force), which premiered in Amsterdam in 2020, honoured Beethoven to mark the composer’s 250th birthday.
Conductor Kent Nagano, former music director of L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (2006-2020), has worked with Chin since 1999 and led the work’s world premiere this past November in Munich. Chin recently shared her thoughts about collaborating with the famed maestro, why there are no voices in the work and how classical institutions might tackle 21st-century issues.
What led to the decision to reference famous opera composers in Operascope?
The work indeed plays with musical history, albeit in a very hidden way. The “aura” of operatic music, “a power plant of emotions” as [German filmmaker and author] Alexander Kluge once described it, played a role when writing this work. But you will barely recognize the musical sources, nor is [such identification] necessary. The main thing is the allusions to different operatic styles and approaches throughout history. There were two reasons for writing this work: Firstly, the premiere took place in Munich on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Bavarian State Opera, an opera house that has hosted premieres from composers including Mozart, Strauss and Wagner up to premieres of composers of our own time, including my opera, Alice in Wonderland. The second is that I am currently working on a new opera and thus very immersed in revisiting different operatic traditions.
Kent Nagano and Unsuk Chin have been collaborators for more than 20 years.Wilfred Hoesl/Wilfred Hoesl
Why are there no vocal parts?
Kent Nagano and the Bavarian State Orchestra, who jointly commissioned this work with four other musical institutions, including the amazing, enterprising Esprit Orchestra, asked for an orchestral piece. Besides, there is this interesting “alienation” effect to contextualize operatic effects and influences differently, with the orchestra as the main and only protagonist.
To what extent has your collaboration with Nagano influenced your creative approach?
The collaboration with Kent Nagano, which dates back to a premiere and commission over 20 years ago, is very important for me. Kent has premiered several of my works and presented my music in depth with different institutions he has been allied with. He is a visionary equally in his approach to programming and overall music-making.
Many composers have referenced other classical works within their own oeuvre; what is the attraction for you?
I do so rarely, with a few exceptions: my orchestral works Operascope [2023], subito con forza [2020], and Frontispiece [2019], as well as Alice in Wonderland [2004-2007]. In all these works, certain aspects of several key works of various epochs are being evoked and poured into new moulds by letting them interact and comment upon each other. They refer to gestures typical of specific works and composers which are being “translated” to each other in different and occasionally unexpected ways. Not infrequently, that also lends itself to a humorous or sarcastic approach.
To what degree do you think Operascope might be perceived as a political and/or social statement on the Eurocentric history of opera?
There are always different ways of listening to music, and there is room for different interpretations, at least as long as they do not distract from the actual music experience. Personally, I enjoy [French composer] Gérard Grisey’s words: “We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture” – as well as [Russian composer] Igor Stravinsky’s definition: “The phenomenon of music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the co-ordination between time and human beings.”
Naomi Sato performs. Operascope has its North American premiere at Koerner Hall on Jan. 24.Supplied
Classical institutions are pondering how to attract new and younger audiences to concerts – more diversity, newer works, a loosening of formal concert protocols. What’s your take?
I have been curating concerts and festivals for 20 years and continue doing so with two festivals in Korea and Taiwan. Our approach is very eclectic: We present high-profile artists such as Leonidas Kavakos, orchestral and chamber music of different epochs (including premieres and unknown gems), but also experimental multimedia works and music theatre, performance art, reinventions of non-European musical and theatrical traditions. There are many ways to approach the concert experience, but one thing remains essential for me: Listening and performing require concentration and devotion. In fact, I think the concert experience is one of the rare occasions in our information-saturated world where it is possible to focus on something in a communal experience.
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