Title of the work: Viaje.
Composer: Javier Torres Maldonado.
Libretto: Cristina Rivera Garza.
Year of composition: 2011-2014.
Orchestration, voices and characters: Hombre (similar to Juan Rulfo in the 50s: tenor), Mujer (Bernice' Kolko' in' the' 50s: soprano), Tajëëw (Mixe -indigenous- woman), Policeman (baritone). Instruments of the ensemble (4 players): soprano and baritone saxophone (one player), viola, percussions (complete list) and piano.
Duration: 55 minutes.
Commission: Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico).
Dedicatee: Philippe-Arrii Blachette and Geneviève Chardin.
Publisher: Edizioni Suvini Zerboni - Milano (for a free copy of the score please contact me or send an e-mail to my publisher).
Electronics (minimum requirements): amplification of singers and instruments, quadraphonic diffusion system (technical rider -World premiere-: DOWNLOAD HERE),
Composition creation residences of the composer: the electronic part was composed by Javier Torres Maldonado in different artistic residences at CIRM, Centre National de Création Musicale de Nice, Compagnie leGrain Théâtre de la Voix de Bordeaux and LaBRI /SCRIME (Université de Bordeaux).
First world performance: 22.10.2014, Teatro Cervantes, Festival Internacional Cervantino, Guanajuato, Mexico. Performers: Compagnie Le Grain - Théâtre de la Voix: Baltazar Zuñiga, tenor (Hombre); Sevan Manoukian, soprano (Mujer); Camille Royer, mezzo-soprano (Tajeew), Alberto Albarán, baritone (Policia). Ensemble Sillages (Philippe Arrii-Blachette, artistique direction): Stéphane Sordet (saxophones), Gilles Deliège (viola), Vincent Leterme (piano), Eve Payeur (percussion). Nicolas Chesneau, musical direction, Christine Dormoy, stage direction, Nicolas Déflache, sound direction, Ladislas Rouge, stage manager. With the collaboration of: Mathilde Germi, video, Philippe Marioge stage design, Cidalia Da Costa costumes, Jean-Pascal Pracht light, Elodie Brémaud stage director's assistant, Etienne Graindorge sound director's assistant, Daniele Amidani musical informatics and software for performance. Project co-produced by: Festival Internacional Cervantino, DRAMA/Ensemble Sillages, Compagnie Le Grain / Théâtre de la Voix. Recorded voices (electronics): of Magali Klipffel, soprano, Romie Esteves, mezzo-soprano, Philippe Estephe, baritone.
Score (only with authorization).
Complete recording (World premiere, live recording, Only with authorization: LINK).
Complete recording (Leon, Guanajuato, live recording, Teatro María Greever, 14.10.2014. Only with authorization: LINK).
A road, a car, the path of a legendary race... there, is the place which will bring together a man and a woman, both of them photographers and each on a personal quest that will lead their way along the route followed by the famous Pan American race of the 1950’s. Joined by a woman in a state of terror, the couple will reach the outskirts of a village devastated by violence, acts of violence that are listed by one of the last local police officer.
From Ciudad Jarez, a border town with Texas, to Ciuydat Cuauhtémoc, near Guatemala, all characters will go through eight stages that will give the rhythm to the sequences of the electronic opera by Javier Maldonado.
Imagination and reality waver in the centre of Maldonado's musical sceneries. Like watchmen into the land of the shades, four musicians give rhythm to the space of Viaje symbolized by a road. Crossing the stage, it suggests a symbolical gap, a separation on which the mental or historical projections appear and disappear. Between the black & white patina of the 1950's photographies by Ruan Rulfo and the bright colors of a nowadays ubiquitous violence, Viaje is a patchwork that blur the lines between the Living and the Dead.
Libretto
Original text: Cristina Rivera Garza.
Libretto: Javier Torres Maldonado.
Languages: Spanish and French.
Email: tmjavier[at]gmail.com
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