Inanna Letter

When going through some of my old email correspondence, I found the email sent to a friend in London, just after the world premiere of "Inanna" in Amsterdam. It is a nice reminder to this piece:

Subject: Short Inanna report
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 01:36:19 +0100

One hour ago I came back from "Inanna" world premiere. (At the moment I am living in Rotterdam at friend's house and I still don't know where I am going to settle permanently for three months...)

> >INANNA: small scale, but quite strong work, in my opinion. Site specific - as it is often the case with ZT Hollandia - it was performed in the old gas factory "Westergasfabriek". It has three acts, without intermission, lasts for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
> >Libretist is Hal Hartley - earlier I saw the film ("New Maths" that he did with Andriessen), and I was delighted with the unusual relation between visuals and music, avoiding stereotypes. Inanna is sung/spoken in Dutch, English and Sumerian. Ensemble-six players: electric violin, db clarinet, quartet of saxophones
> >Andriessen’s Music: repetitive, harsh, with many replicas on his own mature musical language - "Rosa" like saxophone hoqueting passages, "De Stijl" like boogie-woogie "field", "De Staat" like entrance of the voice parts...
> >Music is not continuous, there are also spoken parts. The most interesting issue that music raises is how we today hear/imagine the music of Sumerian time and culture -It could be that Andriessen's music is the 'false simulacrum' of Sumerian music
> >Roles: Inanna, the goddess of fertility and heaven, Ereshkigal, Inanna's sister, the goddess of the underworld, Enki, their father, the god of waters, Dumuzzi, Inanna's husband, Gesthinanna, Dumuzzi's sister + 2 eunuchs + 3 Yes-men (do you know who is the Yes-man?) >All the voices are without vibrato
> >Time: undefined, it could be both now and "then", it is mythology
> > Except in chorus they never sing simultaneously.
> >Plot: very simple, even deliberately banal - Inanna wants to go to the underworld, and "they" don't let her. Finally, she manages. I think that libretto is constructed to ironically problematize the world of great opera mythologies.
> >Inanna could be interpreted in parallel with Glass’ "Akhnaten" - think that would be extremely interesting.
> >Direction: Pol Koek. Quite informal, but with few interesting interventions - Enky is in the aquarium-like space filled with the water, stone rain is falling on the stage like the symbol for Enky's anger... chamber atmosphere...
> >Start: this music theatre piece starts with 'lecture' in Dutch, which is held by the "museum girl", about Sumerian culture

> >Now I feel that I am really tired. >I will check about other performances of “Inanna” and will let you know. I hope that those fragments gave you the idea about it. I was impressed, so I thought that I should write you immediately. Until soon, J>

Electric violin custom-made by maker Dave Bruce Johnson of Violectra was built in 2003 to match exact proportions as Monica Germino's acoustic violin and had its first performances in "Inanna".

Implied Harmonies Photo Log

Back to blogging: photos from Hartley's short film "Implied Harmonies" that tells the story of how "La Commedia" was made. More here.

Birthday Blog

Louis Andriessen's birthday. I have found "A sort of birthday card for Dutch composer Louis Andriessen" by Hal Hartley (2004/2010).

The Garden of Opera Delights: American Premiere of "La Commedia"

Tonight at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles "La Commedia" (concert performance) will have its American premiere. For more details click here.
"La Commedia" has five parts:
I The City of Dis or The Ship of Fools
II Story From Hell (Racconto dall'Inferno)
III Lucifer
IV The Garden of Earthly Delights
V Luce Etterna (Eternal Light)
Parts I and IV are named after Hyeronymus Bosch's paintings.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights

"La Commedia" - Synopsis of Part I

Part I: The City of Dis or “The Ship of Fools” - Synopsis by Louis Andriessen
It opens with a psalm text in Latin introducing Das Narrenschiff, followed by the sixteenth century recruitment text for the guild of the Blue Barge. Anyone indulging in throwing dice, dancing and capering with pretty women is welcome. “With such folk the Barge is loaded.” Then Beatrice appears. She tells (in Italian) about her request for Virgil to help Dante on his expedition through the afterlife. There are some men in a boat on their way to Dis, the burning city in Hell. On the roof of the flaming towers they see screaming furies. Near the end someone walks on the water. Dante concludes the first act with the words: “I was certain that she was sent from heaven”.

Part I: The City of Dis or "The Ship of Fools" - Synopsis by Hal Hartley
The Terrifying Orchestra of the 21st century, also known as "The Guild", play their music on the streets of Amsterdam. They finish for the day, divide up the money, and go to their favorite bar, the Ship of Fools, where Lucifer, a local businessman with failed political ambitions, witnesses everything. Meanwhile, two young social activists from the suburbs, Maria and Lucia, arrive in town to hand out political pamphlets during the visit to the city of a famous public figure - Beatrice. Dante, a lady television journalist from Italy, is preparing her on-camera report of this important event. Maria is saddened to see her friend Lucia seduced by the young, tattooed, horn player, Farfarello, and taken to the Ship of Fools. At the bar, the Guild get drunk, dance, argue, fight, and try to make out with each other's wives and girlfriends. A ferocious fight breaks out between Calcabrina and Libbicocco.

"La Commedia": Impossible Synchronization

Hartley and Andriessen offered two different synopses for "La Commedia". This fact contributes to the view of the opera as an impossible synchronization. Hartley wrote the synopisis of film, and Andriessen synopsis of musical dramaturgy. There is an ambivalence between characters of Dante's "Comedy" and their contemporary embodiments. For Andriessen, Lucifer is «the fallen angel, in part III and Cacciaguida, an angry thug with frightening opinions in part V», and for Hartley «An angry and resentful businessman with frustrated political ambitions”. For Andriessen, Dante is «at once the famous Italian poet of 14 century Florence on his journey through hell, purgatory and heaven as described in his Divine Comedy, as well as a TV News anchor woman reporting on current affairs across Europe», and for Hartley only «television news journalist from Italy”. For Andriessen Beatrice is «Dante’s true love and guide in heaven. But she is also "a popular statesperson of some sort», and for Hartley she is «a famous foreign public figure visiting Amsterdam”.
Significant characters of "La Commedia" are also members of the musical guild, symbolizing the institution of music, and its functioning in the flux of capital. With colorful Italian devils’ names, Andriessen and Hartley are parodying the tradition of senseless operatic plots. In Hartley's film central role is given to musical guild and their Amsterdam adventures. In Andriessen's interpretation there are direct references to the world of Dante's Comedy and Hyeronymus Bosch's paintings.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Ship of Fools

Interview with Andriessen on "La Commedia", Part I

An interview with Louis Andriessen on film opera "La Commedia" (2008, in collaboration with filmmaker Hal Hartley). Conversation took place on March 10, 2009 in Andriessen's studio in Amsterdam. I asked him about place of opera in the age of media, using musical language of romanticism, corruption of the music world, love, philosophy, Dante, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch, singing voice and gender.
"La Commedia" will have its American premiere in April this year in Carnegie Hall.

La Commedia Trailer

was recently published on Youtube by De Nederlandse Opera (also see: The Plot, Team and Cast, Photographs etc.)

La Commedia, Genesis of Film and Video

Picturesque photo from the film set of La Commedia (March 26-April 1, 2008, Amsterdam). More pictures here.

There are also detailed notes on editing process by Kyle Gilman.

Hal Hartley La Commedia Interview

Filmmaker Hal Hartley was interviewed by Oliver Kerkdijk for Odeon Magazine (DNO's house magazine) in March 2008 about film opera "La Commedia" premiered last June in Amsterdam. Article contains nice pictures of the performance.

La Commedia photo log

I made these photos in Amsterdam while walking along river Amstel in June 2008: vivid atmosphere around Carre theatre where the world premiere of film opera "La Commedia" by Louis Andriessen and Hal Hartley took place.