MEDIATHEK

One libretto, two operas, three characters, six composers

Out at S.E.A. chamber opera is a co-production of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation and the Budapest Music Center, Hungary.

Sławomir Mrożek’s drama, Out at Sea; a one-act absurd play for three characters (Fat, Medium and Thin) written in 1961. It thematizes issues of modern society: alienation, abuse of power, conformity and the limits of freedom. This work was chosen to be the basis of the Out at S.E.A. opera project. András Almási-Tóth wrote a libretto based on the original drama in 2013, replacing the setting of the original play, a boat on the sea, with a living-room of a reality show villa.

Several composers from 23 countries applied, and 37 of them were invited to participate a four-day Out at Sea chamber-opera workshop in Budapest with two experts of the genre: Peter Eötvös and Luca Francesconi. During these four days several aspects of the libretto and the possibilities of a realization as well as the basic tendencies and techniques of composing new operas were discussed. After the workshop all of the participants submitted short samples of their ideas on selected parts of the libretto. Finally six of the composers were commissioned to complete the work and write one of the characters entirely with instrumental accompaniment. The result is 2x3 separate parts, 334 musical fragments in total. The professors were adapting these into two complete one-act chamber operas.


Peter Eötvös on the project:
 
The compositional idea is as absurd as the theatrical play of Mrozek itself. Three different people meet in the story, three completely different characters. They respond to events in a very different way, so it was obvious that each character should be composed by another composer. In all known operas one composer writes the material for all characters, so they have one hallmark. In this project each of the characters are coming from a different part of the world, from a different culture, and they try to “row the same boat”.

The production is a true international showcase. Its participants are from Singapore, Taiwan, Austria, Georgia, Romania, Germany and Hungary. The world-premiere took place on 19 December, 2013 in Budapest. Series of Out at S.E.A. performances were / is about to be performed in Milan (`14 February, Rondo Festival), Paris (`14 July, ManiFeste), Brussels (`16 January, Flagely) and Berlin (TBA). The final scores were published by the Editio Musica Budapest.