Liza Lim & Patricia Sykes: The Navigator (2008) - Scene 4, part 2
Liza Lim and Patricia Sykes's opera The Navigator was premiered in Brisbane, Australia, in July 2008. Further performances of the work have taken place in Melbourne (Melbourne Festival, October 2008), Fomenko Theatre, Moscow (June 2009) and Opéra national de Paris - Bastille, Paris (December 2009).
The composer writes:
'The subject of The Navigator opera (2006-08) is erotic paradox - or perhaps more precisely, the structure of the paradox that is theatricalised in Eros - the Ancient Greek divinity of desire. The opera examines the operations of desire as a triangulated geometry between "the lover", "the beloved" and the impossible "vanishing point" that keeps the space of desire open and alive. This strategy of triangulation is used as a formal template or "pattern language" in staging shifting positions within this geometry: of distance and nearness in musical space; convergence and divergence of different temporal forms.'
The following YouTube extract comes from the Scene 4 (part 2) of The Navigator, and was recorded on 27 July 2008 at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts in Brisbane. The extract forms part of the Youtube channel by ELISION Ensemble - a growing selection of performance videos of works by Liza Lim, Chris Dench, John Rodgers and Timothy O'Dwyer, among others.
Liza Lim | composer
Patricia Sykes | librettist
Barrie Kosky | director
Talise Trevigne | The Beloved
Andrew Watts | The Navigator
Deborah Kayser | The Angel of History, Siren
Omar Ebrahim | The Fool, Siren
Philip Larson | The Crone, Siren
Genevieve Lacey | alto Ganassi recorder soloist
Manuel Nawri | ELISION Ensemble
Paula Rae | piccolo, flute, alto flute, frog guiro
Peter Veale | oboe, cor anglais, frog guiro
Richard Haynes | clarinet in B-flat, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, lizard guiro
Simone Walters | bassoon, contrabassoon, frog guiro
Ysolt Clark | horn, frog guiro
Tristram Williams | trumpet, flügelhorn, frog guiro
Benjamin Marks | alto trombone, tenor trombone, piccolo devil chaser
Peter Neville | percussion
Marshall McGuire | Baroque triple harp, cikada guiro
Daryl Buckley | electric guitar
Graeme Jennings | violin, frog guiro
Erkki Veltheim | viola damore, frog guiro
Séverine Ballon | violoncello, frog guiro
Daniel Yeadon | violoncello, frog guiro
Joan Wright | contrabass, frog guiro
Barrie Kosky and Alice Babidge | set designers
Alice Babidge | costume designer
Nathalie Ryner | head costume assistant
Damien Cooper | lighting design
Michael Hewes | sound design
Daryl Buckley | ELISION artistic director
Further links
Liza Lim - AMC profile
ELISION Ensemble (www.elision.org.au)
'Alchemical Journeys' part 1 and part 2 - Jane Cruchy's interview with Liza Lim on Resonate
'Genevieve and Ganassi' - Morwenna Collett's interview with Genevieve Lacey on Resonate