"An opera for Gulbenkian Orchestra to play with stones"
Isabel Salema | Publico, 20.09.16
When Vasco Mendonça was invited by the Foundation Bosch 500 to compose the music for this chamber opera (...), the librettist had already been already chosen.
We are in an oasis, Club Med-type, where two men and a woman spend their holidays on a beach surrounded by horror (...). "It is a series of episodes, typifications of things that can happen during a decadent holiday, based on drink dancing, and doing as much sex as possible." Bosch in the XXI century: a paradise, a beach in the Mediterranean, which after all is hell, Lampedusa.
Already in his third chamber opera, VM acknowledges he likes to work with the voice and with theater. "Opera has the advantage of joining these two elements".(...)
Unlike The House Taken Over, his second chamber opera (...), here there isn´t an increasingly tense musical narrative. " Given the nature of the libretto, it was counterproductive to try and create a narrative musical drama, a story through music." The composer took the episodic nature of the piece and established an opposition between what is happening at the resort, between that which is sung, histrionic, euphoric, and that which is associated with horror, more ritualized, almost sacred. For the resort episodes, he uses historical archetypes, such as the trio, the lament or the aria, while instrumental, voiceless moments are given to horror, a kind of trance induction.
"The libretto presented me with three monsters: people who sing, dance and copulate while others die next to them. And what happens is that we immediately distance ourselves from them. That to me was relatively problematic in the libretto, because from the moment that there is a judgment and a condemnation, we can go all home quietly, thinking we are not like that. And I am always a bit afraid to adress topical issues in my work." The challenge was to look at these monsters, and find out how similar they are to us. And this challenge", explains Vasco Mendonça, "was left out to music."
"Music is a powerful language. As Samuel Beckett said, music always wins. I can take any word, for example an obscenity, and easily change it into a lyrical moment." This was ultimately his dramaturgical counterpart to the libretto. "Creating a sort of snake that sometimes redeems the characters. But does not attempt to exonerate them."
Each composer, says VM, has its own way of putting a text to music. "When we compose an opera there are always changes that have to do with prosody, number of syllables, stress, the very nature of consonants. I tried to adjust a few things in the text to fit the type of vocal writing I was interested in doing: privileging simple grammatical constructions and short words. " The economy, he adds, is for me the most important feature of a libretto, because "music, adding an abstract dimension, easily compromises the understanding of the text."
The unusual instruments are back: the didgeridoo and the melodica, for one. But this time even stranger objects - stones and papers. None of them are particularly associated with an environment. "The use of these instruments isn´t dramatic, but has to do mainly with timbral research. If we start from the traditional forces and add unusual elements, this enriches the timbral vocabulary." (...)
"Holiday in Paradise, with Hell next to it"
Bernardo Mariano | Diario de Noticias, 19.10.16
What has the work of Hieronymus Bosch in common with three European sunbathers in a Mediterranean resort? At first glance, nothing, but our perception may change if we locate the action: the island of Lampedusa. It was from these contrasting premises that Vasco Mendonça´s opera BOSCH BEACH was born (...)
"The commission from Bosch Foundation proposed a reflection on the painter's work, and we were immediately interested in the themes of guilt and atonement. When, after a while, the pictures of Lampedusa surfaced, this shocking confluence of such radically different universes seemed the ideal setting (...)" Faced with a libretto "in episodes or vignettes, without a narrative or chronological thread, written in a biting, sarcastic, even blunt register(...)," VM decided to "create a structure in separate numbers, related to opera archetypes, thus mirroring the shape-mosaic of the libretto. "
But then he took advantage "music´s fantastic capacity to go beyond the text, which can ultimately suggest the the opposite of what´s in the words. He thus forged "a route that is often not paralell to the text", a kind of "snake". In his opinion, "constant sarcasm and vitriol are a trapdoor, become superficial and merely for effect"," because, he argues, "one should not be afraid of sincerity or lyricism". And with these "weapons", "mechanisms that, through the type of vocal writing and harmonic treatment, are hopefully able to create empathy between us, audience, and the characters, which we would otherwise dismiss as monstrous". To create "elements of recognition, and the realization that their behaviors could be ours". The aim being to escape the "temptation of simple explanations for complex issues" (...)
In this scenario, the Other [the refugees] is notably absent: "Only indirectly realized in the form of corpses." Rather, it is in the music that they live: "I´ve created opposing universes: histrionic and loquacious inside the resort and austere, ritualistic and sacred in the surroundings (...)
VM recognizes the dangers of treating such a burning topical issue, "the risk is that it will narrow down one´s appreciation of the piece to its context, and to our ethical judgement of the artist´s position." (...) This "is only one dimension" of the piece (...). He prefers to see it as "an allegory of horror, capable of generating a reflection on the relationship between our intimate and collective guilt" (...).
All served through a piece in which VM that identifies three new features of his work: "pastiche, a set of dances that refer to the universe of pop culture, and instrumental exploration: the use of instruments associated with other languages, such as electric guitar and bass, melodica, slide whistle, didgeridoo,bass clarinet ... ". With the purpose of "putting sand in the mechanism." (...)
"I´ve always been interested in deviant behaviour"
Myriam Gaspar | Sábado, 12.10.16
The composer likes to see himself as a craftsman. A craftsman who carves the score with notes. Not just any notes. The notes that reflect what he thinks and how he feels about the world. About guilt, for example. The main subject of Bosch Beach, his most recent opera, commissioned by Jheronimus Bosch 500 Foundation, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of the Dutch painter, opening October 20th, at Teatro Maria Matos. Inspired by Bosch´s 'The Seven Deadly Sins', Vasco Mendonça´s piece was deals with the arrival of refugees in Lampedusa, in a beach full of tourists sunbathing. Whose fault is it? The composer was leaving for New York when he spoke to us on his three new pieces opening this October.
What are these pieces you have been working on recently?
I´ve preparing a new production on my previous chamber opera The House Taken Over, inspired by the writer Julio Cortazar's short story Casa Tomada, which debuted in Aix in 2013.(...) The second work is a piece of chamber music called Fight | Flight | Freeze, which will be performed at the Lincoln Center on the 12th in an event sponsoerd by the ROLEX Institute, and is based on a mechanism all mammals have when facing a threat. We fight, flee or play dead.
Why did you choose this title?
I always had claustrophobia and fear of flying. And this mechanism - Fight, Flight, Freeze - is distorted when there is a phobia. Claustrophobia or the fear of heights are distortions of that process. That is, the mechanism is there, but for the wrong reasons, because there is no real threat.
How is that transposed into music?
Over the past five years I´ve had to travel so much that I was sort of stunned. Now it's just boring. The fact is, these mechanisms have always interested me and are something with which I've always had to deal with. The piece itself is somewhat rough, made with music moments that succeed each other in a discontinuous manner, not very organic. I see it somewhat as a representation of panic.
How do you react to fear?
It depends on the type of threat. Fear of flying is an acute form of claustrophobia. But there are several strategies to control it. Now I don´t feel anything, really. Deviant behavior always interested me immensely, but it is very difficult to transpose this into absolute music, because it is so abstract. No text, no actors. For me it is more like a motivation, an excuse to create music, to express things that, at some point in my life, were important. to me. This piece coincided with a tumultuous period of work, I traveled a lot, my children were small. There were a number of factors that could cause anxiety.
How does the management of the creative process with your day-to-day?
Composing music is always a highly technical and abstract activity. There´s an idea you want to express, but then when you start putting it down on paper, there are many details that have nothing to do with the creative process. Things as prosaic as: does the violin play this note? You have deal with orchestration, compositional technique, etc. This technical dimension leads me to think more like a craftsman and less in my psychological motivations. Composers I admire in the conceptualisation of a piece, generally have this approach of a craftsman. As if they were potters shaping the clay. This was a hard piece to write. It was written in the most bizarre places. Some bits in Helsinki, others in Los Angeles, while traveling. When I finished it, I had no idea what it was. It was so different from anything I'd done. And now it´s is a piece that I really like. And I am very pleased that people like to perform it. It has stones, paper tearing, it is extremely virtuoso. Not everyone can play it. It requires a level of energy and anxiety that relates to the title.
Bosch Beach was inspired on Jheronimus Bosch´s 'The Seven Deadly Sins'. Did you chose the name?
The name was given by the librettist. The Jheronimus Bosch 500 Foundation commissioned us an opera that should somehow be inspired by this painting. It is a particularly evocative depiction of sin, the world of Bosch is always populated with these completely deranged creatures, monsters and lecherous beings. These medieaval paintings were a kind of moral guides, dealing with guilt and sin. For example, Bosch was part of a sect that considered people with physical disabilities as sinners. And as we were discussing how that ambiguity and strange relationship with guilt would translate to the contemporary world, those horrible pictures of Lampedusa appeared, where refugees are side by side with tourists drinking cocktails at the beach, an absolutely obscene image.
It is a contrast. But whose fault is it?
That is our point. On the one hand, those poor bastards, lying on beach chairs, can´t be blamed for the disgrace happening 20 meters away from them. On the other hand, they are part of a world that is responsible for that same disgrace. That is, we have our thirty seconds of guilt when we see those pictures, but then we calm down because we think that we are powerles. If we are in a Club Med on a Greek island and twenty people cast ashore nearly dead, we´ll obviously give them our water and our blankets. But to what extent we are willing to give up certain aspects that are a part of our well-being and way of life? The opera takes place in this space, a rather strange beach, where three bathers are spending their holidays surrounded by a universe of death and misery.
Do you think people will understand?
What interested me the most was to empathize with the bathers. Through music, particularly through their vocal lines, I wanted to suggest the following: these swimmers are not necessarily monsters, we can recognize ourselves in them, to a degree. Their actions are reprehensible, but they´re are also capable of compassion. This recognition is the key to the restlessness I wanted the audience to experience.
People always end up feeling guilty.
When I saw that child´s picture on the beach, who is the age of my son, I didn´t sleep for three days thinking about. We need more awareness. When I look around me, I realize there is something seriously wrong with the direction we are taking. This whole issue with the refugees is quite bizarre, in the sense that we are responsible for those migrations, but then think superficially, we think the Muslim entering Europe will put a bomb in a shopping center. We either acquit or condemn. And we lack true political leaders. We mainly focus our discourse on numbers. Numbers decide people's lives. As if some sort of alien octopus decides those who survive and those who don´t. There is a dismissal of political decisions and lack of political courage (...)
Fear speaking.
We must refuse simple explanations because the world is complicated. There are situations where we can't say this is good or this is bad. We have to reach out to others, understand their motivations, make our own judgment instead of repeating the mantra we hear.(...)
"An opera after Bosch and guilt"
Manuela Paraíso | Jornal de Letras, 12.10.16
With his previous chamber opera, The House Taken Over, being performed last week in New York, his last one, BOSCH BEACH, opened in September in Bruges, is now in Frankfurt and will come to Lisbon on October 20. At 39 years he is the one of the most prominent Portuguese composers, with growing international reputation. We've talked to him about his music, and particularly about this new work.(...)
What was the initial concept for the creation of this opera?
The question of guilt, inspired by Bosch´s 'Seven Deadly Sins'. (...) To transpose this idea onto the show interested me as a starting point - but, as in any piece I compose, it must transcend it, it should translate my artistic and personal concerns, which are nevertheless fed by this initial idea; this is a piece inspired by the underlying ethical issues present in the painting, particularly at that time, where representations such as this were allegories, codes of conduct. I'm more interested in this abstract take. (...)
Is the setting inspired by Lampedusa?
When we started to dwell on this creation, someone came up with a photo of Lampedusa. I usually think it´s risky to circumscribe a show to a topical issue, because it tends to be examined in the light of that issue. This is such an important subject, that we tend to analyze the show mostly from an ethical perspective, as a mirror of our own relationship with that subject - that is one of the intentions, but it should also serve to make us think about wider problems. It is an allegory. The subject might be that one particularly, but it might also be the other thousand points of confluence of horror we see today. What interested me most - and therein lies a disagreement between me and the librettist regarding the setting and plot - is that we have on one hand these voracious swimmers and onthe other a setting of horror and suffering around them. The risk of a scenario such as this is that the audience can easily identify those swimmers as monsters.
And this would be restrictive on a dramaturgical level?
Yes, the whole thing would be put to rest, and that´s not as interesting as if we try to look more carefully into these people, look for what kind of empathy we can create with them. Because if we consider them straight away as monsters, then it becomes simple. None of us, public, creators, considers himself as a monster, because we are capable of empathy, and we´re appalled by human suffering. The more we relate to those characters, the more we realize that they are able to feel someone else´s pain at the same time they carry out those unbelievable actions.
If any of us, while drinking a cocktail, would see a refugee cast asore, we would immediately feel guity and offer assistance. But to what extent, unconsciously, are we responsible? The truth is that we are both guilty and innocent. And for me this ambiguity is far more interesting, because it forces us to think about these issues and our conduct. In your program notes, you mention you´ve established two musical layers to distinguish the lightness of the characters from the horror of their environment. How is this ambiguous side musically dealt with?
It's hard to explain. The point is that, in the libretto, I was faced not with a narrative but with a situation, and then a series of episodes, in some of which there are moments of awareness, only to be quickly swallowed up by more alienation. In this sense, what I wanted to do in formal terms (because it would be counterproductive to establish a continuous narrative flow in an episodic situation) was to amplify this formal idea of episodes, almost as a number opera, and stress this inorganic structure of narrative development. Some of the episodes have an atonement element - mostly associated to the contratenor, who acts as a mirror of the ambiguous way we deal with these situations.(...)
In your previous opera, based on a short story by Cortázar, space was closed; I this one, there is a a beach, but it is also claustrophobic. In both pieces, you could have focused more on the social and political element of the subjects, but instead you´ve chosen to focus on the characters - and in Bosch Beach, in the creation of empathy.
That´s is an interesting observation. I´ve just saw again The House Taken Over, which is being performed in New York in a new production. Yes, despite the political resonances this issue might have, what we ultimately have to face are our intimate choices, which is my preferred territory. I am interested in the intimate, personal choices, whether in a context of family intimacy as in The House Taken Over, or the intimate moral sense in our choices of how to relate to each other, and to the other who´s different from us. These make for the core from which we build political and social behaviours - and we know the dangers we are presently facing. Ultimately, what interests me the most are the personal decisions, individual responsibility and inner guilt. In that sense, there is indeed a connection, a common thread between the two operas, despite their differences in content, approach and character.(...)
"National Sawdust announces second season"
Michael Cooper | The New York Times
National Sawdust, the experimental performance space that opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last fall and quickly became a vital part of New York’s new music scene, said Monday that its second season would feature a roster of guest programmers, 30 newly commissioned works and the start of an online arts journal.(...) Musical highlights include a celebration of the composer Philip Glass at 80; a 12-hour performance of John Zorn’s “Bagatelles”; a new series called Womanproducer looking at how women create sonic worlds; the world premiere of Juliet Palmer’s a cappella opera “Sweat”; and the American premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s “The House Taken Over,” a co-production with the Manhattan School of Music and the Festival d’Aix en Provence.(...)
Wallpaper
Patricia Zohn | Wallpaper, March 2016
As he stood to introduce three pieces of contemporary chamber music at the Rolex Arts Weekend, including a world premiere, the dynamic Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça surveyed the audience with a smile (...). For Mendonça, it is his work in opera that anchors his abstract compositions. 'The human voice is my instrument of choice; there´s something overwhelming and vulnerable about it', he says. (...)
Sábado
Myriam Gaspar | Sábado, 22.12.15
He could have been a jazz musician. Even played at the Hot Club of Portugal, but the fascination by composition swept him away. Studied with George Benjamin at King´s College London, was composer-in-residence at Casa da Música in Porto, and the Gulbenkian Foundation commissioned him a piece to celebrate Gulbenkian Orchestra´s 50th anniversary. His works have been performed in major european venues, by groups such as the Asko | Schoenberg Ensemble. In 2013, premiered The House Taken Over at Aix-en-Provence Festival, and is now composing a new opera for the 500th anniversary of Hieronymus Bosch, in Holland.
How did you know you had been chosen by the Rolex Foundation for the Mentor and Protégé program?
I received a rather informal email, wrapped in a certain secrecy. At first, I even thought it was spam. It said I´d been selected to apply for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé award - which I hadn´t heard of. Sent me a password to do the application, which is quite complex. I had to record myself on video, submit my portfolio, write a personal letter.
The international jury is formed by five people, and each member proposes five candidates.
Yes. And out of those 25 candidates, they then selected three finalists. I was told I was supposed to meet with the other finalists and Kaija Saariaho in Lyon, where she was having a performance.
Do you know who proposed you?
It was a secret at that point. We were only told later on, at a meeting in Geneva. They´re quite careful with that sort of thing, to avoid lobbying. In my case, it was the swiss composer Michael Jarrell, whom I´d met in France a few years before.
How did you feel when you knew you were in the last three?
It was surprising. It´s nice to be in the final three candidates, in a pool of composers younger than 40, with no geographical restricitions.
You thought: I´m really good...
(laughs) I´m extremely self-critical, the challenge is to ease the self-criticism. For example, when I finish a piece I´m usually less happy with it than when I hear it two years after. There´s a feeling of fragility.
Do you feel insecure?
Since there is a very intimate connection between what I am and what I do, to some degree there´s always a sense of insecurity when you expose yourself. In a way, it is as if you´re jumping on stage, exposing yourself and asking: now judge me. But generally, when I hand in a piece, I´m happy with what I´ve done - otherwise I´ll postpone or cancel it.
Has that happened already?
Yes. Once, just three weeks before a deadline, after struggling for a while, I called the commissioner and told him: I´m not able to do this right now.
How long does it take you to finish a piece?
It varies a lot. It depends on the lenght, if it´s chamber music or an orchestral piece... For example, I´m now starting a new chamber opera for three singers and fourteen musicians, about 1h20 long. It should take me a year to finish it. I´m slow - it can take me up to four hours to be certain of a single note.
Where does inspiration come from?
Stravinsky used to say: "I´m in my desk from nine till five. If inspiration comes, she´ll know where to find me." It´s not so much about having ideas. There are always plenty, what is necessary is to filter them. I sometimes say I have a somewhat abnormal curiosity on what surrounds me, I´m always hyper alert to everything. I may have an idea when I drop off my son at school, and I notice the polyrhythm by a couple of intermittent traffic lights nearby, or have an idea from a poem - for example, the title of orchestral piece I´ve written for Gulbenkian is a wordplay with a passage from Eliot´s The Hollow Men.
Thanks to Rolex, Kaija Saariaho was your mentor for a year. What did you talk about in your first meeting?
About everything but music. Kaija is someone easy to connect to, and I felt very comfortable with her. At the time, much more than music or my career, the main focus in my life had been the birth of my first child, which had operated a disturbing change in me. I was experiencing a sense of fragility related to his existence, which I had never experienced before. I´m usually quite a reckless person.
Why are there more male composers than female ones?
Because the classical music business is very chauvinistic. Luckily, the tendency is reversing. There´s absolutely no gift that men have and women don´t.
What´s your daily routine like? Are you methodical?
Yes. "Workaholic", as my wife says. If I´m allowed, I´ll work every day. It´s what defines me. It is as if I´m in a self-contained dimension.
(...)
Why did you feel the need to move to Holland?
The most important thing for a composer is to listen, to make, to react. Trial, error, trial, error. I needed that, and it wasn´t possible at the time in Portugal. During the two years I was in Holland doing my masters' degree, there were over thirty performances of my music - which is astounding. I also had the chance to work with professional ensembles, had pieces performed at the Concertgebouw... Holland was a sort of El Dorado to learn and develop as a composer.
(...)
As a composer, are you not affected by portuguese reality?
I want to. For example, the discussions we´re having about my next opera (which will premiere in Brugges in September 2016, integrated in the comemorations of Hieronymous Bosch´s 500th anniversary) are mainly on moral ambiguity. It´s a terrible, but unsolvable, problem. At this point, Europe´s burning. Those pictures of the refugee boats arriving at the same beaches the tourists are getting a tan... Are we guilty? People left to their own misery, running away. It´s the banality of evil described by Arendt and Eliot: the world doesn´t end with a bang, but with a whimper. In that sense, opera is interesting because it allows for these issues to be addressed.
(...)
Kaija Saariaho & Vasco Mendonça
ROLEX Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative | Music 2014-2015
"A triumphal night at Aix-en-Provence"
Ana Rocha | Espiral do Tempo, Winter 2015
(...) the audience reacted enthusiastically to the new piece by the portuguese composer (...) with this score, something luminous, wave-like, like a multifaceted fabric of solar radiations, jumps from the stage to the audience. (...) There is, in this music, a wonderful craftsmanship, agility and technique already seen in pieces such as Boys of Summer (2012) and, above all, The House Taken Over (2013). (...).
"Europera with a portuguese UFO"
Pedro Boléo | Público, 09.11.15
"(...) Vasco Mendonça stands today mainly as an opera composer, a rare case in portuguese music scene. "Opera has been defining my career", he says. And he already has a commission for a new opera next year, commissioned to comemorate the 500 years of painter Hieronymus Bosch. "When I´m doing opera, it´s because I´m fond of theatre. It makes no sense to think of an opera as a musical piece in the ether", says the composer. In What The Night Brings his music is less obviously 'operatic', and VM preferes to think of it "almost as a madrigal, with its intimate connection between text and music (...) The composer speaks passionately about this connection (...) and of the curious idea of "the necessity to fight their tendency to repel eachother, in order to turn them into mutual amplifiers (...) For VM, the paths to this connection in musical drama are open. "There isn´t one particular approach I reject. There isn´t one direction for opera, nor are the borders even set", he says, considering (What the Night Brings) to be an upsetting UFO at the end of the show (...)"
"Variations on love"
Jorge Calado | Expresso, 07.11.15
"(...) Opera was born in Florence, at the end of the XVI, but quickly became global. Currently, the hopes (and several certainties) lie in composers such as the americans John Adams and Philip Glass (e, perhaps, Nico Muhly), the british George Benjamin and Thomas Adès, the italian Luca Francesconi (...). It is not simple patriotism that leads me to also bet in Vasco Mendonça. (...)”
"The Invisible Musician"
Catia Matos | DOZE, August 2015
(...) "I had a quintet, but after a certain point - I studied piano and guitar - I spent more time with my own compositional experiences, than actually practicing. Slowly I realised what I was really interested in. Studying an instrument is something quite violent, and it became clear my obsessions lied somewhere else. Nevertheless, the process of composing is also quite painful. Everyday I come to work on the tube thinking 'what am I doing here again?' But I suppose it´s inevitable - I don´t know how to do anything else, really.(...)
I´m hugely curious about everything that surrounds me, mostly of people. I try to be as open as possible to what´s happening around me. I like to make my work as autobiographical as possible, which is hard sometimes, because music has such technical demands. But to connect it to my own hesitations, obsessions or personal yearnings is a way of creating a narrower bridge between what I am and what I do."
Today, at 38, Vasco Mendonça is referred to as one of most promising names in composition on the international scene. Even with the natural obstacles to his profession, the artist has been standing out internationally, with pieces such as Boys of Summer (2012) and The House Taken Over (2013). "The contemporary composer is an invisible figure. Doesn´t exist in terms of media exposition.(...) Work has to be pursued on an european level."(...)
WHAT THE NIGHT BRINGS
"(...) Vasco Mendonça's superb final quintet." Martine Mergeay | La Libre, 09.07.15
"(...) as for Mendonça´s What The Night Brings, it´s the power and the sound explosion that stand out." Michel Egea | Destimed, 08.07.15
"(...) Vasco Mendonça´s What The Night Brings (...) made for an unsettling epilogue." James Oestreich | The New York Times, 12.07.15
"(...) a superb madrigal after a poem by Philip Larkin that finishes the show (...)" Laurent Bury | Forum Opera, 13.07.15
"(...) Mendonça's piece, What The Night Brings (incidentally, the piece that closes the show) is one of the most interesting and accomplished works of the portuguese composer. (...)" Jorge Calado | Expresso, 25.07.15