Tree Opera (for three voices, percussion instruments, electronics, Anna Fišere, 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFSWjQO9igY
Tree Opera – a performance in which the main characters, under the direction of Andris Kalnozols, with video projections by Katrīna Neiburga and set design by Andris Eglītis, are trees in three small groves within a three-hectare clear-cut area. Through the voices of Laima Lediņa, Dināra Rudāne, and Zigmārs Grasis, they enter romantic relationships, just like in the Enlightenment-era Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus’s study The Marriage of Trees (1729).
composer Anna Fišere (Ķirse)
text (in Latin) and direction Andris Kalnozols
translation Mārtiņš Laizāns
artists Katrīna Neiburga, Andris Eglītis
lighting designer Mārtiņš Feldmanis
sound engineer Tālis Timrots
coloratura soprano: Dināra Rudāne
soprano: Laima Lediņa
bass: Zigmārs Grasis
percussion: Alekss Jalaņeckis, Juris Āzers, Elvijs Endelis
voice in recording: Māra Ķimele
species and habitat experts–consultants: Maija Grandāne, Viesturs Lārmanis
Premiere on 12.08.2016; Alternative Chamber Music Festival Sansusī, Aknīste
“Praeludia Sponsaliorum Plantarum” or “Introduction to the Theme of the Betrothal of Plants” is a treatise written in 1729 by the famous Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus. Just as Linnaeus drew inspiration for his study from Giorgio Vallis’s work “The Marriage of Trees”, the creative team uses the theme of the sexuality of trees and plants as an imagination-stimulating platform for the musical composition. The relationships between the pine, spruce, and birch in nature are transformed into opera-worthy relationships in contemporary music.