About

Music of the Americas presents a new production composer Claude Vivier's chamber opera Kopernikus, performed by Meridionalis and the International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Sebastián Zubieta, with live video by Sergio Policicchio.
In what Vivier described as a "ritual opera of death," the central character — a young woman named Agni — descends into a dreamworld where "mystical beings borrowed from stories gravitate around her: Lewis Carroll, Merlin, a witch, the Queen of the Night, a blind prophet, an old monk, Tristan and Isolde, Mozart, the Master of the Waters, Copernicus and his mother. These characters could be Agni’s dreams that follow her during her initiation and finally into her dematerialization". Vivier abandons traditional modes of storytelling, drawing upon classical philosophy and sciences and telling his via sound, ritual, and symbol. The plot defies precise interpretation, offering multiple, often contradictory meanings. At the center of the quest is the composer’s fascination with the perennial majesty of the cosmos and his belief that “art will no longer be the sweet panacea that we apply to a wounded body, [but] will be the body.” The production — originally designed for a planetarium, premiered in Buenos Aires in 2018 — joins Agni’s trajectory, submerging the audience in light that emanates from celestial projections and abstracted nature footage.
 
The production has been presented to critical acclaim in Buenos Aires and New York City. 
 

                 Festival Nueva Ópera Buenos Aires 2018 billboard for Kopernikus

 

 

                            Festival Nueva Ópera Buenos Aires 2018: Kopernikus

 

Buenos Aires, August 2-4, 2018 at the Planetario Galileo Galilei

 

Performers

Katharine Dain: Coloratura
Amy Goldin: Soprano
Hai-Ting Chinn: Mezzo-soprano
Kirsten Sollek: Contralto
Christopher Herbert: Baritone
Joseph Beutel: Baritone
Steven Hrycelak: Bass
 
Michelle Wong: Oboe
Federico Landaburu: Clarinet 1 
Uriel Kauffman: Clarinet 2
Alejandro Cancelos: Clarinet 3
Julián Goldstein: Trumpet
Damián Stepaniuk: Trombone
Daniel Robuschi: Violin
 
 
 
 
 

Reviews

 

 

 

 

 

  

Listening to the Throbbing of the Stars

   May 17, 2019 | Zachary Woolfe

 
 "The musical performance was superb"
Claude Vivier’s celestial music is still more heard about than heard, but he was the focus of back-to-back performances in New York this week.                          Read more here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Kopernikus at the Issue Project Room

   Claude Vivier Takes the Fear Out of Death 
   May 18, 2019 | Susan Hall 

   

"The large and rich voices of Meridonalis filled every corner of the 40,000 square foot space."

Claude Vivier's Kopernikus, a chamber opera, had its New York premiere at the glorious Image Project Room in downtown Brooklyn.                                            Read more here!