30 November [Friday] and 1 December [Saturday] 2001, 8 PM
By Roger Reynolds
Several years ago, when the Library of Congress Music Division Chief, Jon Newsom, and I had come to an agreement that the Library of Congress would undertake a Special Collection of all the materials that Karen and I had accumulated in our lives together, he showed us around the Library's facilities. When we entered the incomparable, vaulted space of The Thomas Jefferson Building's Great Hall in Washington, DC, I was stunned and exhilarated. I knew immediately that I wanted to make music for and in this space. Subsequently, JUSTICE (see the description below) was commissioned by the Julian E. Berla and Freda Hauptman Berla Fund in the Library of Congress for the celebration of the Library's Bicentennial in 2000. It will receive its première performances on 30 November [Friday] and 1 December [Saturday] 2001.
The production of this almost hour-long work features soprano Carmen Pelton, actress Donnah Welby, and percussionist Steven Schick. It will be directed by Henry Fonte. Harvey Sollberger is musical advisor, with lighting by Martha Mountain. The technical direction is by Peter Otto, working with Josef Kucera and Ralph Pitt (the latter team all from the UCSD Department of Music). The line producer for the library is K F. Williams.
Nothing of this sort has ever been attempted in Washington. Computer sound will emanate from an 8-channel speaker system distributed both around the main-floor audience and in the spacious galleries above. And not only pre-processed sounds -- voices and instruments -- will be used. The three performers are each miked, so that the choreographies of their staged movements in the Great Hall can be complemented by an independent, real-time spatialization of the sounds they produce as they perform.
Although the text, drawn from Aeschylus and Euripides, is focused and evocative, justice remains a complex and elusive matter, just as we have all now come to understand it is. Clytemnestra's many-faceted character is reflected in the tripartite representation I have given her (soprano, actress, and percussionist). But a further dimensionalization of this drama arises, in these performances, out of the mobility of the sounds in space, and, of course, the majesty of the Jefferson Building itself.
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The San Diego Union Tribune.
Friday, 3 August 2001
Roger Reynolds hones 'Justice' for Washington debut
By Valerie Scher
CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC
Come November, the Pulitzer Prize-winning UCSD composer Roger Reynolds will shake up Washington by presenting the new opera commissioned by the Library of Congress.
Just how daring is Reynolds' "Justice"?
Try a percussionist who creates whooshing sounds with wooden sticks, like a ninja at Carnegie Hall. A soprano and an actress who angrily confront each other in an outburst worthy of TV's "Jerry Springer." And computer-enhanced sounds that are more ominous and otherworldly than anything in a Hollywood science-fiction film.
That and more are included in Reynolds' hour-long experimental work, scheduled for performances Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 as part of "I Hear America Singing," the library's tribute to U.S. music. Nothing quite like "Justice" has ever been heard at the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, founded in 1800.
"This is a culminating event in the library's bicentennial celebration," said Reynolds, 67, after a recent rehearsal at the University of California, San Diego. "It's the result of the feeling, ideas and sounds that were aroused in me by reading Greek tragedies. That's my business -- to convert those imaginings into a form that everyone can share."
"Justice" -- part of Reynolds' epic, yet-to-be-finished music/theater work titled "The Red Act" -- draws inspiration from the bloody conflict between Clytemnestra and her husband Agamemnon, based on plays by Aeschylus and Euripides. At issue is the pull between public and private life, between outer respectability and inner torment.
"One wonders how politicians will react to a piece called 'Justice,'" says Reynolds, a Del Mar resident who won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for music for his string orchestra piece "Whispers Out of Time." "My experience has been that when people attend unusual events of this sort, they have extraordinary experiences. It can spark a re-evaluation of things, which is an important function of art."
Although Reynolds is disappointed that no San Diego performances are planned, he's pleased with the team that has been assembled for the Washington run. Soprano Carmen Pelton, actress Donnah Welby and percussionist Steven Schick are featured in the production, directed by Henry Fonte and overseen by K F. Williams, the library's production manager. Dramatic lighting will come care of Martha Mountain, and Peter Otto [also Josef Kucera and Ralph Pitt] is in charge of the computer sound in the four-story, highly reverberant concert site. Harvey Sollberger appears as musical advisor.
Members of Congress have first dibs on the free tickets, which will be available to the public six weeks prior to the performances. (Ticketmaster, which handles the tickets and charges a small fee for each one sold, can be reached at 301-808-6900. [Out-of-state: 800-551-7328; DC: 202.432.7328; VA: 703.573.7328; Baltimore: 410.481.7328.])
"My responsibility is to do my best to write the music and make it potentially meaningful," said Reynolds. "But the audience must also bring something important -- a willingness to hear and to consider."
That way, "Justice" can prevail.
Questions? ping@rogerreynolds.com
This page was last modified on 8 August 2005.