{"id":4515,"date":"2024-04-30T15:31:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vpropera.org\/site\/?p=4515"},"modified":"2025-02-24T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T02:24:02","slug":"brink-working-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/vpropera.org\/site\/2024\/04\/30\/brink-working-title\/","title":{"rendered":"BRINK (working title)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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presented by UNFIX NYC: \u200bDISTURBANCE\u00a0 <\/strong>
Saturday, May 18th, 2024, 5:30PM<\/strong>
Grace & St. Paul’s Church, 123 west 71st Street, New York City
<\/strong>(16 live performances, Film Showing & Panel Discussion)
BRINK (working title)<\/em><\/strong> is the first piece of Act I
For schedule of performances and tickets click HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRINK (working title)<\/strong><\/em>
Nonn’ erubescite, reges?<\/strong><\/em> from Oedipus Rex<\/strong> by Igor Stravinsky, libretto Jean Cocteau
L’\u00c9nigme \u00c9ternelle<\/strong><\/em> from Deux M\u00e9lodies H\u00e9bra\u00efques<\/strong> by Maurice Ravel
Paysage <\/strong><\/em>from Po\u00e8mes pour M\u00ed <\/strong>by Olivier Messiaen

Judith Barnes, director, mezzo soprano
Irena Romendik, co-director, video artist, performer
Dmitriy Glivinskiy, piano
A production of Vertical Player Repertory

Director’s note: BRINK (working title)<\/strong><\/em> is a continuation of WOMEN OF SALT AND LONGIN<\/i><\/strong>G<\/em><\/strong>*<\/i>, a telling through music and movement of the story of Lot\u2019s Wife, who, immured in regret for her lost home, was turned into a pillar of salt. The theme of exile has affected me more directly than I anticipated when I first began work on this piece in 2018. Originally created as a response to the refugee crisis and displacement caused by war and climate change, the piece has taken on a viscerally personal meaning for me. Two years ago, I fell through the open beams of the floor of my own building in a construction accident, and consequently lost my home and artistic studio of 40 years. Now I am wondering about the idea of fate and how it pulls us on even when we refuse to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In BRINK (working title<\/strong>)<\/em>, I will be singing Jocasta\u2019s aria from Stravinsky\u2019s Oedipus Rex<\/strong><\/em>, a song by Ravel called L\u2019\u00c9nigme \u00c9ternelle<\/strong><\/em>, and Paysage<\/strong><\/em>, a song from Messiaen’s Po\u00e8mes pour M\u00ed<\/strong><\/strong><\/em>. The other performers are Irena Romendik, who will be creating visuals as well as joining me on stage, and pianist Dmitriy Glivinskiy, who has performed on numerous VPR productions in the past.

In Oedipus Rex<\/strong><\/em>, Queen Jocasta refuses to believe the warning of the Oracle: her own son is destined to kill his father, King Laius, and become her husband. She has done everything in her power to escape that prophecy, including exposing her newborn son on the mountainside to die. But he survives, and unknowingly he returns to his birthplace years later to fulfill the dreadful augury.

L’\u00c9nigme \u00c9ternelle<\/strong><\/em> is a song on an anonymous Yiddish text. The World asks the ancient question, and the World answers. And when there is no answer, the answer is still the same: tra la, tra la la la la<\/em>. Perhaps there really is no other answer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Paysage<\/em><\/strong> (Landscape), <\/em>the lake gleams like a big blue jewel, far off in the distance. The road is rutted, the way is hard, my feet hesitate in the dust. But I see the beloved, green and blue like the landscape, shining in the sun. She smiles, her hand over her eyes. And the lake gleams like a big blue jewel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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