Category: COVID-19

The planet, some of us might say, is having a moment. Panic, collapse, disruption—with the tables turned on the principal disrupting species by an errant configuration of protein presumably just doing its thing in the carbon cycle; also course-correction, regrouping, re-orientation, re-alignment. And—also for a change—this might not simply be a function of human projection. As the carbon cycles run their variable course in the biosphere, the planet moves in its own time-space relationship with planets, the nearest stars, and not least of all, its satellite, the moon. These are cycles that can be neither denied nor disrupted for the simple fact that they are unlikely to be resisted by any living thing, even those on the ocean floor.

Whether musicians might be more susceptible to such natural rhythms is a thesis that can’t be proven; but the late composer and theorist, Pauline Oliveros, would almost certainly have embraced the notion of cultivating awareness and sensitivity to environmental rhythm, sound and vibrations. What she and others referred to as “deep listening” or “sonic awareness” were at the core of her artistic practice. From an environmentally engaged approach to listening, composing and making music that ranged from spelunking to the furthest edges of electronic music to pure meditative silence, Oliveros shaped her work by in effect sounding it out peripatetically amid collaborators, musicians, audiences transformed into participants, and the moment itself.

Sean Griffin, the director of Opera Povera, no less than Oliveros herself was, is alive to such moments; and as the moon moved towards its near-perigee alignment with Venus and Mercury that terrestrials refer to, more wishfully than accurately, as the “Pink Moon”—perhaps more wishful than ever, as most of us are nearly frozen in isolation from one another—Griffin seized on the idea of executing Oliveros’ The Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes, as if in reverse:  instead of simply pulling all of the performers and participants through internet and telecommunications to a single place (the original locus was Manhattan’s Lincoln Center), why not make the cloud in effect the actual platform, convening participants and performers by video-conferencing tools (Zoom) into a live-streamed virtual locus that would unfold as the moon appeared and began its ascent relative to the earth.  

“We wanted to open it up to the world. Instead of creating an elaborate imagined city, we could have a series of actions that that we would do together, sonic monuments projecting our good will out to each other.”  

His near-random idea (Oliveros would have loved the spontaneity) took shape as he chatted with his CalArts colleague and frequent collaborator, violinist Madeline Falcone, who, along with Nick Norton, rallied to help co-organize the Equal Sound Corona Relief Fund to provide emergency financial relief for musicians who suddenly found themselves without work, contracts, or engagements effectively for an entire season or longer.  As the word filtered out via social media, musicians emerged from all corners of the world to participate. Some of the names will be instantly familiar to new music fans both in Los Angeles and world-wide: George Lewis, Anne LeBaron, Max Richter, Carmina Escobar, Midori, Christine Tavolaci, and on—a list 250 names and growing (including many performance and multi-disciplinary artists—Cassils, Nao Bustamante and Susan Silton were just three of the names that jumped out at me).

This will be Falcone’s eighth project with Griffin. They came together in 2013. Falcone, whose Isaura Quartet collaborated with Griffin on two of his 2015 Opera Povera presentations at the Schindler House in West Hollywood—the Charles Gaines Declaration on the Rights of Women from Manifestos 2, and George Lewis’s 2007 Unison, last worked together with Ron Athey in Griffin’s production of Athey’s Gifts of the Spirit – a ritualized setting of the automatic writing ‘seances’ Athey has been conducting/performing for some years now.

For this collaboration, though, Falcone will be producing, working alongside the production’s technical director, Sagan West Fylak. “Two of us are going to be at CalArts, where we’ll be running the live feed from a set-up performance area. There will be a lot going on…. It will be chaos at times. Each performer will be able to experience all the performers in the Zoom meeting. The performers will be free to duet with another available musician; and performers can use the chat function to chat with one another. We want this to be a participatory event.”

Griffin elaborates: “This is why I knew the score would work so well. It’s an algorithmic score for large crowds of people: performers listen from where they are for a cue to perform; then when they hear the cue again, they pause, and wait for the cue to happen again.

“Everyone generates his or her own characters. In one passage, everyone will come together to blast out as much noise as they can in different directions. Then there will be a ten-minute passage of complete silence; and another where we’re trying to tune into, mix into each other.

“I have to reinforce that this is a participation opera, and best viewed from inside the opera. The openness of the score is evidence of Pauline’s trust in her fellow artists to create something out of these descriptions which are basically relationships, using that as a compositional device.”

Griffin has some hands-on experience with this kind of material. One of his Schindler House presentations was a treatment of Oliveros’ landmark 1970 To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation.

As they move through—and actually conduct—the chaos, Griffin and Falcone are making room for music or other performance elements that may or may not always mesh with the stream coherently for the rest of the participant-audience. “There will be rooms for participants and small breakout rooms that will not be live-streamed in the international feed.” Griffin mentions costume changes, a “documentation collage.” Falcone independently clarifies, “We will select other sections to feature at our end. We’ll be collecting documentation to be edited afterwards.”

Once again, Griffin and Falcone will be working with Ron Athey, which seems to promise that the essential element of Druid ritual will be working its lunar magic.

The performance begins at 6:00 p.m. PDT (and through to at least midnight); with a pre-concert conversation including Griffin, Athey, George Lewis, and others set to commence at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

Although it’s hard to predict how a net cast as far and wide as this one—with participants everywhere from the California coast to New York to Germany and even Australia—Griffin indicated that a test last Friday night that included at least 66 participants went well. Griffin signs off with an isolation-breaking note, reminding me that “when we look up at the sky no matter where we are, we’re looking at the same world together that night.”

Full Pink Moon streams live beginning at 6:00 p.m. (with pre-concert conversation at 5:00 p.m.) on Twitch, YouTube, FacebookLive and at seangriffin.org/full-pink-moon/livestream. Contributions may be made to the Equal Sound Corona Relief Fund by going to the Equal Sound website.