Libretto: Paul van der Woerd
Music: Maxim Shalygin
Producers: Nova Opera Ukraine and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam
Approximate duration 90 min.
“To the feasts of the good, the good come uninvited”
Maxim Shalygin’s new opera Amandante taps into the dynamics of love and trembling hiding in plain sight between the lines of Plato’s Symposium, inspired by Shelley’s romantic translation, The Banquet.
Although a series of dinner speeches may not make for much drama by itself, aspects of the classical text inevitably elicit questions and tensions. To begin with, Plato does not quote the speakers directly. In his representation, we know what was contended long ago because Aristodemus, who attended the famous feast in Agathon’s house at the time, reported afterwards to Apollodorus, who in turn recounts everything to a friend ‘in the present’. The ‘symposium’ is not only remote, separated from us by time and layers of storytellers, but also an exclusive party for a small group of fairly unbalanced composition. There are no women present; if Diotima has a big say, it is by mouth of Socrates. Music is turned away and wine is brought in only afterwards.
The most prominent action is almost at the end, in the blustery invasion of Alcibiades, Agathon’s lover. It is known that, among those attending, the host had other lovers as well; apart from Socrates, these included Pausanias. The various speakers were each other’s rivals and contenders. Their speeches each deal with different aspects of love, such as psychological, sociological, biological, and mythological; alternatively, they can be interpreted as stages of infatuation. Either way, we have a set of competing discourses instead of a discussion — a lot of rhetorics demystified by Socrates with a few well-aimed questions, and concluded by Alcibiades with a reality check.
Symposium presupposes that whenever and wherever some are in, evidently others must be out — or under way. Amandante gives a voice to those who were excluded from the feast and tasks them with guarding the border between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. Someone breaks this border and discovers what love and identity mean to each other.
Rushing from a field outside the city towards the venue where his lovers are convening is Alcibiades. High-spirited and drunk with desire, he passes through scenes and stages informed by each of the elated dinner speeches he is supposed to be missing.
Meanwhile, at the back door of Agathon’s house, the playwright’s wife and the girl dismissed as flute player share their sentiments with the merchant whose wine is expelled from the feast as well — providing for a prologue, chorus-like interludes, and an epilogue that punctuate the drama. Piercing their barrier, the hero breaks into the room where Socrates and Diotima are entertaining the host. He triumphs in his surrender.
The music of Amandante is full of melodies, polyphonic textures, jokes, passion and virtuosity. The opera is structured without the use of recitatives. All the words of the libretto are put into the heroes’ singing, providing for a rich melodic and harmonic development that shapes the drama in accordance with its intrinsic, however unexpected logic. Starting from the overture, the music drives us into meditation and action at the same time, maintaining the tension till the very last moment.
Amandante explores the paradox of getting the better of love as a division bridging individuals, both uniting and disjointing their identities.
Paul van der Woerd works as a copywriter, (web) editor, translator and photographer. Amandante is his first opera libretto, a second one is in the making. In 2005, he initiated the theatrical monologue The Last Letter, for which he translated a key chapter from Vasili Grossman’s war epos, Life and Fate. His published translations include novels from authors such as Yevgeny Vodolazkin, Oleg Pavlov, and Dmitry Glukhovsky. Musicians are his favourite subject in photography.
Maxim Shalygin views creativity as an unconscious act of insanity that reveals truth, with its value being undeniable for both the creator and those who can perceive its beauty. Over the past decade, he has focused on composing music for solo instruments, believing that a single instrument can express the most intimate and profound emotions. Shalygin’s notable works include ‘9 Preludes’ for piano solo and ‘Letters to Anna’ for violin solo, among others, and he has collaborated with distinguished performers and composed for orchestras. His music has been recognized in international competitions and has featured in projects like Lars von Trier’s ‘Gesamt’. Additionally, Shalygin has created music for ballet and electroacoustic compositions, with his vocal music being considered the most intimate part of his oeuvre, blending poetry and music.
More about Maxim Shalygin…
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention