VALIS by Tod Machover
Opera Review
By Dana Reason, Oregon State University & Paris Myers, MIT Media Lab
The lights dim. Nothing. Then pink. Sophia, played by Kristin Young, a NY based lyric coloratura, emerges in a neon pink bodysuit. She paces what appears to be a cat walk; both aware of and unbothered by the audience’s presence. Subtly, one of the pianists, Emil Droga, beautifully shapes improvised, ambient atonal phrases–a teaser warm up of sonic whimsy. The opera has begun.
In composer Tod Machover’s 2023 production of VALIS, frequencies of sound and light are woven together with advanced, algorithmic instruments to investigate the multidimensional nature of one’s reality. The opera is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1981 science fiction classic, VALIS, which follows the life of Horselover Fat, a schizophrenic man whose existence becomes consumed by a beam of pink light so visceral and otherworldly it could only be generated by God.
The story of VALIS first captured Machover ‘s imagination in 1987, while working with famed IRCAM composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. Machover was commissioned to write the first iteration of his opera VALIS for the Pompidou Center. His avant-garde use of improvisation, novel technology, and popular music history throughout the score is a testament to the innovative voice of the composer. In its 2023 premiere, VALIS provocatively investigates asynchronous, simultaneous existences. With its integration of AI and interactive systems, you’d think it was constructed yesterday. Machover’s creation of VALIS 35 years ago is a testament to his visionary musical, multimodal approach.
There is no orchestral pit in Machover’s 2023 production – the musicians are integrated in the same plane on stage–perhaps a modernist reckoning. The ensemble consists of several instruments: synthesizers, percussion instruments, and piano.Physically, the stage is triangulated with musicians on the audience’s left, separated by a walkway pointing going towards the audience, with the actors and singers to the right. Screens of all eras and sizes checker the stage, coaxing the viewer’s attention to and from timelines. Live video feed toggles between real and filtered existence. Feeding and refeeding us images; viewer and viewed.
With multiple perspectives of sensorial intake possible at any time throughout the production, the composer (Machover) and director (Jay Schieb) simultaneously occupy alternate spaces: Machover conducting the work he composed, Scheib, performing live video of the work he directed. Scheib’s live video is supplemented by other cast members gingerly holding video cameras. Screens became a vessel for the audience to feel an interactivity with the actors–to feel embedded in the characters’ happenings.
The main character of Horselover Fat–Philip K. Dick’s alter-ego–is played by artist-vocalist Davóne Tines. Tines, who recently performed in various operas such as Anthony Davis’ X:The life and Times of Malcom X, immediately reminds us of the power, deep sensitivity, and grit required to embody such a complex character–musically and psychologically. Vocally, Tines’ range exquisitely captures fleeting moments of euphoria and prolonged emotional chaos through his classically operatic and refreshingly original style.
Visually and sonically, real time improvisation and reactions create a living pulse between the composition, the performers, and their working with live technologies. This immediacy of working with responsive technologies creates alternative senses of space-time, being and non-being, conscious and unconscious–real and imagined narratives.
New instruments are imagined and actualized real-time throughout the opera, demonstrating the next generation of co-composition between humans and intelligent musical machines. “Mini’s Jar,” a hand-held prism-like jar is discretely covered with sensors that transmit the performer’s creative, human input to a custom musical A.I created by Manaswi Mishra. Max Addae performs on stage with his new instrument “VocalCords.” Real time, he shapes and expresses musical tension–emotional vocal textures are magically reimagined through A.I. powered instrumentation.
A wide sonic spectrum envelops the audience–from very high notes arced into emotional invocations and evocations to the expressionistic deep bass-baritone sound of David Cushing (Dr. Stone). Timur Bekbosunov, (as character Eric Lampton), shares an evocative duet with soprano Maggie Finnegan. Rose Hegele (as Gloria Double), pulls us into her character with luminescent expressivity and an earthiness. The percussionist, Maria Maria Finkelmeier is central to the energy, and the thrusts of change that Machover’s music embodies. There is counterpoint, and polyphony throughout: lighting, screens, sounds, interactive sheets of sounds, sparseness, then density (the kind you feel from a romp with a Cecil Taylor big band) and variance (the feeling of a Yiddish folk song at one point, a throwback to big early synth pop-rock and blues inspired American music).
Machover conducts a row of synthesizers with no bodies playing them. One hears large swaths and patches of synths (and string music, but no strings). Unisons between the ensemble and vocalists act as a poignant creation of melodic syntax. The listener sinks into the sound, and is nearly swept away as it passes through the body of the audience.
VALIS rewards curiosity. And it will move you. It understands our collective reckoning with transient and nebulous systems. Chaotic, multivariate systems. But it’s not chaos. It makes perfect sense. The physicality of sound, movement, melody, and attention are always centered and central. The audience is invited to enter a private space. A memory, a life lived, a sound. Participate in the sensorial feast however you so choose.
Review of Valis: MIT Theater Arts Performance Cambridge, MA Sept 8-10, 2023
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