National Sawdust is set to present the world premiere of “Silent Light” this September. The opera by Paola Prestini and Royce Vavrek is an adaptation of Carlos Reygada’s film of the same name. Per the official summary, “The opera follows a pious husband and father whose strongly held spiritual obligation to his wife, their family, and community is put to the test when he falls in love with another woman from his faith.
” “Royce and I decided on ‘Silent Light’ because of the vast emotional canvas the film’s characters offer,” Prestini said in an official press release. “The film has no score, location sounds seem hard-edged, and when a hymn is sung, it is not a tune but a dirge. It was the perfect skeleton for an opera.
I fell in love with the subject because I am fascinated by rite and ritual, and ordinary and magical lives, and this piece has these qualities—it forces one to look at every day decisions and the consequences in a deeply human way.” “I saw the movie when it came out in cinemas, and it blew my mind,” Vavrek added. “There was something arresting about the beauty and simplicity through which these characters chose to live their lives.
It ripped my heart out and ultimately felt like a fairy tale with a huge operatic scope while being extremely quiet. It seemed like a really exciting way to explore a different type of virtuosity than what we normally get in opera. What we sought to make was a small chamber opera with really big ideas.
I think the theater of it communicates in a massive way, thanks to Thaddeus’ direction. Through our adaptation process, it was all about trusting Carlos’s vision and the structure of his film, and then asking Thaddeus to make our black and white pages something alive and beautiful on the stage.” The opera, which represents the first performance of a first full-length work by Prestini, will be directed by Thaddeus Strassberger and conducted by Christopher Rountree.
It stars Daniel Okulitch, Brittany Renée, Julia Mintzer, Anthony Dean Griffey, Maggie Lattimore, and James Demler. It also features live Foley by Sxip Shirey. Other performers include Nathan Repasz, Novus, Trinity CHoir, Jeffrey Ziegler, and Nelson Patton.
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