MEDIATHEK

Troparion" is a chamber opera written for alto Helena Rasker and violinist Liza Ferschtman. The approx. 45 minutes long piece was commissioned by the Delft Chamber Music Festival and the Holland Festival. The first performance of Troparion took place on June 18th 2013 at the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam, staged by Pierre Audi, in a double bill with opera Suster Bertken.

A woman sheds her tears upon a dead branch and sprinkles it with holy water while praying incessantly, in the hope that God will breathe new life into it. It was the theatrical power of this image what made me decide to compose Troparion, which means ‘an oft-repeated verse’.

The Egyptian desert around Sketis forms the setting of Troparion. Around the year 400 A.D., countless hermits and ascetics gathered in this barren and desolate region. They went on a search for integrity and authenticity, driven by a longing for unification with God. The libretto of Troparion is largely derived from the ‘Apophthegmata Patrum’ (‘Sayings of the Desert Fathers’) and is sung in classical Greek, its original language. The music of Troparion consists of three movements, which together last about 45 minutes, and is written for a small ensemble. The first movement bears a highly ritualistic character and is built up almost entirely out of weeping on the branch, murmuring of a troparion, and singing of prayers. The second part relates of a journey deep into the desert in which the woman encounters two naked men amongst the drinking animals at an oasis. They explain to her how to become a monk and ascetic. In the final movement a miracle occurs and the branch buds and bears the most delicious fruit, after which the music returns to the serenity of the beginning. The central character in Troparion is anonymous, in accordance both with the nature of the desert as well as that of the ascetic, bearing in mind also the seventies-ballad ‘I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name’.