OVERVIEW

The House of Words was conceived by composer/conductor Linda Bouchard and developed jointly with director Richard Armstrong. The work integrates the mosaic structure of Galeano's original text "THE BOOK OF EMBRACES" in a lyrical, imagistic libretto telling the poignant story of seven characters intertwined in a narrative of love, human frailty and political truths.

Music: Linda Bouchard Direction: Richard Armstrong Compilation of texts: Linda Bouchard/Richard Armstrong Languages: mostly in English, with some Spanish Duration: between 60 and 80 minutes Cast: five singers (1 soprano, 1 mezzo-soprano, 1 tenor, 2 baritones) Instrumentation: string bass, percussion and piano

SYNOPSIS

The story takes place during a 24-hour period, beginning in the evening, and centers on the consciousness and life experience of the central character and protagonist, The Writer. Throughout the opera, real-time events and interactions between the characters, and imagined, dream-like reminiscences unfold and overlap one another episodically.

As the chamber-opera begins, The Writer sits at his desk. He express to us his vulnerability. This musing becomes a means for presenting a specific cast of characters who appear on stage, as if borne from his breath.

This collection of characters go to a bar where they meet the "Man from Negua", who thinks of himself as God. Slightly intoxicated, he eventually annoys the party and gets kicked out of the bar. But as the scene at the bar continues we meet each character and their specific "obsessions." Each one has a story to tell, and there is a definite competition for central stage. The Writer leaves the bar with his wife The Dreamer. They run into the Man from Negua who is by now a very sad drunk. The Dreamer is moved by him, but continues to play a flirting game with her husband, The Writer.

That night, The Writer can't sleep. He takes a walk, and he re-counts to us, as if in flashback, events that he has experienced during his exile from his native Urugauy. Each of these vignettes are intimately related to the characters and stories we have heard in the bar.

By morning The Writer is exhausted and he ends up in the kitchen of his sister-in-law, The Homemaker, a sympathetic figure, who provides comfort in her understanding the delicate bridge between dream and reality, the past and present. During this same period of time, The Dreamer has become an inspiration to the Man from Negua, and he follows her, to the roof of her house and into the sky. In the closing chorus, the characters appear again on stage together, we find that all the characters are in fact different parts of The Writer and of his writing.

CONCEPT

In 1995 Linda Bouchard began looking for a non-traditional text for a chamber opera that would be engaging, imaginative, poetic and accessible. On reading The Book of Embraces, Bouchard felt the style, structure and content of Galeano's writing mirrored much her own aesthetic and way of working: the use collage and the concise, structured use of juxtaposition and variation, creating sudden shifts in emotional register.

The stories in The Book of Embraces are short and concise, between two and twenty-five lines each. They are shaped by a voice and intelligence that is at once pungent, aphoristic, critical, political and playful. The book itself is constructed like a mosaic, carrying in its many voices a story rich in human intimacies, poignant observations and provocative, critical comments on personal liberties and the geopolitics of the Americas.

Bouchard and director, Richard Armstrong, made an initial selection of stories from the book, and seven recurring characters emerged. They then proceeded to arrange the stories by re-ordering them, while repeating or combining others. They created a plot that follows these seven characters through a twenty-four hour cycle without changing a word of the original text. Sometimes these vignettes unfold simultaneously: a whispered chorus might tell story as a lyrical aria reveals another. Elsewhere, a story is sung at the same time in both Spanish and English. Repeated stories never have the exact same music, and usually a story performed once in English is then repeated in Spanish.

The final libretto is more than a simple adaptation of a pre-existing text but creates its own fragmentary narrative. Galeano's writing makes it easy to create specific and dramatic characters, each with their own expressive voice. The names of each character were taken directly from Galeano's text‹it is by assigning specific stories to each of the chosen characters that a drama was created. From these linked episodes or vignettes, the audience see the characters develop through a series of scenes, which are at times poignant, funny, lyrical, cynical, metaphorical, realistic and dramatic.

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STYLE

The work is built on the interplay between the direct addressing of the audience by the central character, The Writer, and the theatrical interaction that unfolds between the other characters. This combination of traditional story-telling with the musical drama of the singers evokes the expressive intelligence of the authorial voice and the narrative structure of the original text. Some of the production details include:

• A variety of vocal techniques (extended voice, spoken voice, "Sprechstimme" etc.).
• Choral writing, where all the characters are singing to the audience simultaneously.
• Musicians integrated into the staging.
• Singers playing percussion instruments, which become theatrical props.
• A set created by projections on scrims, by Canadian video artist, Paul Wong.

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CHARACTERS

THE WRITER is the narrator and the central character. He is married to The Dreamer and in love with her. He has been exiled to Barcelona from Uruguay thus escaping possible imprisonment, torture or death. He is an intellectual and a "bon vivant"; he smokes and drinks and likes drawing. He is extremely lucid, hopeful and has a certain sense of spirituality. He has a tremendous capacity for loving and is in touch with the enigma of mortality and life's potential for comedy. He goes to the street, the bar and the bedroom.

THE DREAMER is The Writer's wife, his muse, his caretaker, and homemaker. She serves as an outside ear for his reflections on life and often becomes like a mirror for him. The only time her life is separate from him is when she dreams. She draws strength from her own unconscious, which alludes to her mystery and appeal. She is a little absent-minded and acts quite lost after the return from exile. She lives mostly in her bedroom and on the roof, where she encounters the Man from Negua.

THE HOMEMAKER is close to The Dreamer-perhaps her sister. She is very opinionated and enthusiastic, sometimes too much so. She is stereotypically domestic, spends time in the kitchen and takes care of children. She is bossy, unsubtle and gets into everything. The Archeologist flirts with her and she doesn't know what to make of him.

THE ARCHEOLOGIST is also a writer but of non-fiction. He is interested in anthropology. He has traveled; he is an intellectual and an observer of life. He likes to talk and often recounts his adventures with some pomposity. He visits The Homemaker and finds her attractive. He behaves like an uncle to her children. He frequents the bar.

THE MAN FROM NEGUA thinks of himself as God. He is very lonely and talks to anyone who will listen. He occupies the bar, until he takes a long journey to the roof and finally climbs into the sky. He makes one stop in The Writer and The Dreamer's bedroom to sing arias about love.

THE GLASS EATERIS a black Afro-Cuban, an exemplary military man and front line sugar cane cutter. He is generous but not very bright, having been brainwashed by the revolution.

WOMAN WITH UMBRELLA is a mother and opera singer from Columbia. She left to avoid torture and is now living alone in exile in Paris. Her son is part of a guerrilla group in Bogota. She is politically wise and opinionated. She feels a lot of pain. Some fear she is mad but in fact it is her extraordinary lucidity and sensitivity that sometimes makes her act out of control.

LIST OF SELECTED STORIES (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

OUTLINE OF THE SCENARIO

Scene 1
As in a dream, the writer The Writer reveals to us his vulnerability, and the characters are born from his breath (The Gust).

Scene 2
The Homemaker shares with us a dream The Dreamer had. The characters take shape and proceed to the bar (The House of Words).

Scene 3
The Man from Negua, who thinks of himself as God is a little drunk. He talks to himself (Theology/3). An opera singer, Woman with Umbrella, tries to attract attention away from him because his attitude is upsetting (Television/2). A weird man, The Glass Eater, intense and self-absorbed, tries to communicate with The Man from Negua (Celebration of the Human Voice/1) while The Homemaker and The Archeologist are flirting (A Little Death). The Writer finally invites the Man from Negua to leave the bar.

Scene 4
The Man from Negua finds a bench to finish his sad monologue. The Writer and The Dreamer go home and converse about love. They play; they flirt (Diagnosis and Therapy, The Night/3, The Night/2).

Scene 5
The Dreamer dreams and through her dreams we visit aspects of her reality with The Writer. All the characters find a voice; we travel through time, see the interactions between the people The Writer loves, and experience their tragic lives (The Dreamer¹s Dream, The Nobodies, Loving, the Walls Speak/4, The Land of Dreams).

Scene 6
Restless, The Writer cannot sleep (The Night/1).

Scene 7
He goes into the street and as if in a flashback, the morning reminds him of events he has heard of or has experienced himself. The characters come into play: (Celebration of Friendship/2, Reality Is as Mad as a Hatter, Dazed Days, and Fear).

Scene 8
From The Writer¹s dream state, a return to reality. We are in The Homemaker¹s kitchen while she feeds her child (Art for Children). The Archeologist visits her and she gets a call from The Dreamer (Forgotten Dreams, Roamings). The Dreamer bids farewell to her dreams while the Man from Negua has perhaps understood the reason for his despair. (The Dreams Take Their Leave, The Night/4).

Scene 9
Closing chorus: we find that all the characters introduced to us by The Writer are in fact different parts of him, and of his writing. They return to their source (Celebration of Contradictions/2, The Gust, and The World).

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Eduardo Galeano, author

Eduardo Galeano's The Book of Embraces was published in Spanish in 1989 and translated into English in 1991. This extraordinary book is described as combining "parable, paradox, anecdote, dream, and autobiography" which together blend "into an exuberant world view and affirmation of human possibility". It is a book that can be read over and over again, perused, dipped into, or re-visited like an old friend who, though familiar, constantly surprises.

Eduardo Galeano was born in 1940 in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Book of Embraces is a series of short stories, which reflect his return to his homeland from enforced exile in Barcelona, following the dismantling of Uruguay's repressive military rule of the 1970s and 80s. Among his other books are Open Veins of Latin America, Days and Nights of Love and War, the trilogy Memory of Fire, Walking words, We Say No, and Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

Richard Armstrong, director

Richard Armstrong's unique experience as a pioneer of the extension of the human voice began in the sixties when he became a founding member of the Roy Hart Theatre in England, a radical group, which, under Hart’s tutelage, created one of the most influential and dynamic schools of voice and body research, before establishing its base in France in 1974. From that time on, his work as teacher, director and performer has taken him to over 20 countries, and inspired a whole generation of performers and their work.

From 1985 to 1989 he was a founding faculty member of New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing in Paris, and his Roy Hart Theatre production of Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci won an Obie in New York in 1986 for its "daring and original production".

1990 saw the culmination of a long collaboration with British composer John Metcalf on his opera Tornrak, in which Mr. Armstrong created three animal roles - a polar bear, a dancing bear and a wolf - specially written for his voice by the composer. The opera, commissioned by Welsh National Opera, premiered at the Banff Centre for the Arts before touring Great Britain. Tornrak subsequently won the Best New Opera Award from Opera America. Also in 1990 Mr. Armstrong collaborated as soloist with composer Mauricio Kagel for the North American premiere of his musical epic La Trahison Orale with music director Jean-Pierre Drouet.

In 1991 Mr. Armstrong provided vocal direction for new productions of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot and Eight Songs for a Mad King (performed at Stratford Festival, Canada).

In 1992 he conceived and directed Subtle Surprises Ahead, a new music theatre piece with works by Georges Aperghis, Frederick Rzewski, and John Metcalf, and provided vocal coaching for Andrew Toovey’s new opera Ubu (performed in Canada and Great Britain).

In 1994 Mr. Armstrong directed Owen Underhill’s new operate Star Catalogues for Vancouver New Music, and in 1995 directed the two cabarets What keeps mankind alive and Gibraltar may tumble for the Banff Festival of the Arts. For the 1996 festival he directed works never before performed in north America by French composer Georges Aperghis, including the world premiere of De la nature de la gravité.

In 1997 he directed the north American premiere of Women. War. Comedy by Thomas Brasch for New York's The Other Theatre. In 1998 and 1999 Mr. Armstrong performed with singer Fides Krucker in Rainer Wiens' opera Down Here On Earth for Autumn Leaf Performance in Toronto and Montreal. He has taught in Toronto as part of ALP’s Professional Development Workshop programme for several years, attracting an international array of performing artists.

In January 2000, Mr. Armstrong was invited to be one of five featured artists in A Conference for Theatre Makers and Trainers: International Origins for New Theatre Practice, sponsored by Towson University, the Baltimore Theatre Project, and The International Theatre Institute.

In 2000 he directed Musique Défilé; fashion show for the end of a century, conceived and composed for Montreal's Nouvel Ensemble Moderne by Linda Bouchard, in both Montreal and for the Singapore Arts Festival. The work with Linda Bouchard as director and librettist on the Galeano project marks their latest collaboration together.

His work in Canada began fifteen years ago when he joined the music theatre faculty at the Banff Centre. In addition to Banff, he divides his time between Toronto, Paris, New York and his home in Corsica, and teaches for companies, universities and opera schools around the world. He is currently part of the faculties at Towson University, Baltimore, and Fordham University, New York, as well as New York University’s summer school in Amsterdam.

Mr. Armstrong has just completed a book about his work, to be entitled "Voice Chronicles: an anti-text book on the human voice".

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Linda Bouchard
Tel/Fax: (415) 221-3196
Email: lindabouchard@compuserve.com

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