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| Cheeses, Noodles and Various Gifts Andris Dzenītis Life is short, Art long, Occasion fleeting, Experience treacherous, Judgment difficult. Hippocrates (from Nic Gotham's composition "Fruits of the Earth") | |
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It seems the truth of the first two lines is no longer in any doubt: the whole of the civilised world is convinced of the enduring value and uniqueness of classical art. How is it with contemporary art? The terms that Hippocrates uses - "occasion", "experience", "judgment" - are excellent illustrations for considering the status of contemporary art with regard to eternity. We cannot be really convinced that, for example, environmental art or an installation envisaged for a particular space can pretend to immortality, and it seems that, remaining only in memories and photographs, it does not even try to pretend to such status. Let alone the realisation of new, locally fresh ideas in this geographical location. Under competition-free, isolated conditions, such ideas are not at all easy to evaluate. Reading back from the beginning of the quotation: the decision "to be or not to be" really is a difficult and slow one in terms of cultural policy, and experience really is treacherous, when one wishes to say something intimately personal. In this regard it may even be a very good thing that the monumental multimedia projects of academic art in Western culture that emphasise music have not reached us yet, so that we may be able to create our own idiom, without intermediaries.
This is not the first time that the Latvian Radio Choir has initiated the creation of complicated multimedia stage productions. More than a year ago, a production of "Black over Red", Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem", was created in collaboration with the Scottish Theatre Cryptic (with stage design by Gleb Panteleyev), and even earlier, together with director Uģis Brikmanis, there were several projects by Mārtiņš Brauns. To a very large degree, this is based on a deeply felt wish by conductor Kaspars Putniņš, the life-force behind the choir's experiments and creative quest, to set the choir free, to break from the outmoded static tradition of choral singing, making the choir mobile, and turning each singer into a personality, an actor, a moving sculpture. Kaspars Putniņš has resolutely faced the difficulties presented by the complexity of composers' scores and the expense and "knottiness" of technical devices, and of collaborating with very different people from quite diverse branches of the arts. A minor subjective insight: Latvian musicians, particularly composers, are quite choosy in their search for possibilities of active cooperation with the visual arts. Artists' criteria are equally conceptual. The reason for this is even slightly anthropological, at least in Latvia. The academism cultivated for decades in Latvian musical culture and, one might say, the "philharmonism", which has left its dark blue imprint on the minds of a section of the younger generation too, means that there are marked differences from the outset between the interests and even the way of life of people from the two arts (not to mention the healthiness or otherwise of their lifestyle). Knowing many young artists, I must admit that the majority are much more open and without prejudices towards any trends in art, or music, more assertive and even more "brigandish". At the same time, many of them associate the idea of "contemporary music' with what they hear in the "Pulkvedis", "Casablanca" or "Depo" clubs. There is an impression of academic composers more as the sort of frail figures who need to be handled with particular care to prevent them from "disintegrating". To many young musicians, artistic experiments are often seemingly acceptable, but it seems that the absence of active bohemianism does not permit a complete understanding of their élite character. It is precisely this artistic élitism that Kaspars Putniņš most wished to break free of in the project "Fruits of the Earth, Fruits of the Sky", inviting for collaboration the artist Kristaps Ģelzis, the fashion designer Keita, the director Baņuta Rubess and the composers Nic Gotham and Ģirts Bišs. Three evenings in the New Hall of the National Opera were devoted to two pieces that the composers refer to as "stage works" - "Fruits of the Earth" by Nic Gotham and "Gift Set" by Ģirts Bišs. In assessing events of this type, it is difficult to analyse separately any one of the arts involved, particularly if (whether we like it or not) the central place must be reserved for music. Kristaps Ģelzis writes in the booklet about "Fruits of the Earth, Fruits of the Sky": "The tendency of visualising music is mistaken in its essence. Unfortunately, cultural development makes people accept everything lightly and gaily - in the same manner as Indians delighted at the trinkets of civilisation. (..) But sound, after all, is sufficiently eloquent! Everyone can listen to music with eyes closed, conjuring up the images one desires, which under such conditions arise freely and naturally. Accordingly, my ideal condition for "Fruits of the Earth, Fruits of the Sky" would be very simple: I would have the audience blindfolded and make them sit through the whole length of the piece in this state.." One must agree with this idea of music as a form of art that addresses one directly, but it does contradict the idea behind the production as a festival of music and images and denies the need for audiovisual art. The principle "lightly and gaily", at least in the first composition, Nic Gotham's "Fruits of the Earth", proves its worth entirely. "Fruits of the Earth" consists of two thematically contrasting parts. The first part, "The Ecstasy of Taste" is based on the philosophical musings of 19th century French gourmet Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin about the noble part played by food in human existence. The skill at breaking eggs vividly displayed by choir soloist Ivars Cinkuss was truly captivating, and the bright theatricality served in places to mask inadequacies in the music. The descriptions of ancient recipes displayed on video screens and the images of very appetizing foods (as seen in fast food shops, with photographs of overly beautified helpings) projected as slides put the salivary glands to work, but (I'm not well versed in computer technology) the chosen simplified conference-type layers of images produced with Power Point-type software seemed somewhat primitive. Possibly, this was the intention, but there was in this case an unwelcome contrast between the obtrusive images on the two screens and the spatial arrangement. By the way, the New Hall of the National Opera is by no means ideal for such projects, since, in the view of Baņuta Rubess, the poor architecture of the venue (the stage is badly visible from the front ten rows, and the acoustics are poor) and the sense of confinement prevent one from obtaining a full impression of the art. Nevertheless, in considering alternative venues, I need to retract my words straight away-nobody is offering anything better (at least in Riga). My advice to the staff of the opera would be to forego the income from about ten tickets and not to place additional seats in the aisles. Believe me, at least those sitting at the back see only the black walls of the wings and a corner of the video screen. In the first part, Nic Gotham's music created a colourful, even slightly operatic impression, definitely aided by the participation of the saxophone quartet. Unfortunately, the second part, "fruit of the womb" does not bring any musical innovations. One must charge the composer with somewhat unvaried musical thinking, rendering the second part thematically much poorer and duller. Although the concept behind the direction is interesting, one would have wished the saxophone quartet not to become involved in any activity or movement, since this markedly disrupted the acoustic flow of the sound. At the same time, compared with the first part, the second was conceptually more interesting, but much "heavier". The texts made use of the advice by 18th century doctor William Smiley to medical students on obstetrics, and epithets from Hippocrates. A truly original direction of discovery, to some extent continuing the conference form already mentioned (much more interesting now), was the use of the overhead projector, displaying both textual explanations and chronicles in the form of pages, and three-dimensional objects-mechanical equipment used in obstetrics (which could be a painful experience for women for whom childbirth is associated with bad memories). Praiseworthy is the idiom of direction that Baņuta Rubess successfully applies in interpreting the work - traditionally operatic, kitschy and corresponding to the optimistic character (nonetheless) of the music. The name of Ģirts Bišs has recently been linked mostly with people working in the advertising sphere - he is one of Latvia's leading sound designers in advertising, but he has also obtained a diploma as a composer and has been active in the field of contemporary academic music. Having the opportunity to create a major work, the composer nevertheless does not retreat from his familiar field of advertising, basing his fourteen short fragments under the title of "Gift Set", with symbolic playful texts by the author and Ingus Josts, on the principles of advertising language. Ģirts Bišs even defines his composition as 14 adverts for feelings hard to define". The texts are careless and playful, and Bišs' poetic descriptions (advice) on "practical photography" even show some similarity with the "advisor style" widely used in Gotham's work. The brevity of the works does somewhat prevent one from delving into the wonderful feelings, whose potential in the music is so great that it could become a wonderful ambience for those sinking into nostalgia. One can sense a professional, honestly artistic approach on the part of Bišs towards the sound of electronic music, which is rare among recognised composers of advertising music in Latvia, who are more inclined to play on the most banal feelings of potential customers. However, in spite of Bišs' self-emphasised advertising aesthetics, this is the aspect that one wishes to dwell on least at this occasion. The only reference is the fantastic culmination of the work: a large, bright portrait of a Barby Doll on the video screen, so sincere and moving that one almost wishes to perceive the doll as a living person. In contrast to Gotham's work, brightly staged, but using a pastel-tone colour scheme, dusky tones are more predominant here, with moving horizontal and vertical elements in a multi-facetted structure, the image being projected simultaneously on two video screens placed one in front of the other. There is an alternation of the display of a single image, which obtains dimensionality by being displayed on both screens (to my mind, very effective in this regard is the simultaneous black and white projection on the two screens of a conversation between Bišs and Gotham), and the confrontation of two different images. Unfortunately, within the limits of my competence, I am entirely unable to evaluate the contribution of fashion designer Keita. In "Fruits of the Earth" this was in the form of cooks' and doctors' outfits, which may be purchased or rented, and the only noticeable feature in "Gift Set" was the specially dressed up diva in stylised Baroque costume, who crossed the stage diagonally a single time. By the way, I could not perceive the need for this moment from the point of view of the direction. Although the musical material of the two compositions does not strive to follow the latest world trends in new music, it is precisely the aim at democratisation of art that deserves commendation. It is a pity that such an event had such a short lease of life. Regardless of the good marketing, the major effort had to justify itself in just three evenings, during which the performance was shown to most of the people interested in this kind of art. The Latvian Concert Agency - one of the organisers of "Fruits of the Earth, Fruits of the Sky" - did itself a great disservice in planning its programme, by scheduling an outstanding concert in the Wagner Hall on the date of the final performance. I too was hard put to give any advice to people unable to make a choice between one event and the other. For the Radio Choir this will certainly not be the last project developing from the wish for communication between people from different branches of the arts. So far in Latvia, we can only make comparisons among the choir's own contributions to realising multimedia stage projects. I would like to invite artists and musicians active in the field of academic music to seek and find one another more actively, in order to establish criteria for comparison, a new music and art, which most likely is the real successor to opera and ballet, and possibly even the beginning of something quite novel! | |
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