Saturday 7th August, 19.00 & Sunday 8th August, 16.00
Do you remember the song your mother sang in order to comfort you, and make you fall asleep? Did you resist? And what about now?
Lullabies can often be our first encounter with music, but they also could introduce us to the ambiguities of darkness and passivity. Lullabaloo (lullaby & hullabaloo) moves between insomnia and nightmare, news and nostalgia, creating a polyphonic poem about the sleep of reason producing monsters.
This is the third operatic piece between acclaimed Scottish poet W.N. Herbert and innovative Greek composer Evangelia Rigaki who alongside German dramaturg Laura Schmidt and Greek visual artist Andreas Papanastasiu create a piece for the amazingly versatile Latvian performer Margo Zalite.
Music: Evangelia Rigaki
Words: W. N. Herbert
Design: Andreas Papanastasiu
Dramaturgy: Laura Schmidt
Featuring: Margita Zalite
Video / Sets: Andreas Papanastasiu
Music: Evangelia Rigaki
Words: W. N. Herbert
Design: Andreas Papanastasiu
Dramaturgy: Laura Schmidt
Featuring: Margita Zalite
Video / Sets: Andreas Papanastasiu
Biographies
W.N. Herbert was born in Dundee in 1961. He has published seven prize-winning volumes of poetry, most recently Bad Shaman Blues (Bloodaxe, 2006), and is widely anthologised. He has engaged in numerous public art and cross-media projects, and has collaborated with several composers, including Naomi Pinnock and the late Keith Morris. He is Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at Newcastle University.
Evangelia Rigaki has a PhD in Composition from University of London, following which she undertook postdoctoral research at Humboldt University in Berlin. From September 2010, Evangelia will be a lecturer in Music (Composition/Opera Studies) at Trinity College, University of Dublin. Her works have been performed in venues such as the Cheltenham Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Aldeburgh, Darmstadt New Music Summer Course and the Operadagen Rotterdam Festival. Recent performers of her works include the BBC Singers, EXAUDI, Barbirolli Quartet, Chroma Ensemble, Richard Alston Dance Company, Opera Studio Minailo and Tête-à-Tête Opera.
Margita Zalite is a very curious girl from Latvia. She has been always passionate about travelling and people. She spent some time of her life in Siberia and Greenland, where the locals fell in love with her. In her early years Margita worked as speachwriter for the Latvian minister of culture and worked also as an editor for Latvian National TV. In Paris, Copenhagen and now in Berlin she got scholarships to work on her future stage direction projects. Margitas biggest interest is how stage could interdisciplinary combine contemporary classical music, visualisations with social science and contemporary dance. Margitas biggest interest is how sta ge could interdisciplinary combine contemporary classical music, visualisations with social science and contemporary dance.
Andreas Papanastasiu is a visual artist. In 2006 he was selected to participate in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2008 he won at the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition. His work has been shown in London, Athens, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and New York.
Laura Schmidt, born in Hamburg. Studied Dramaturgy for Musical Theatre, Musicology and Italian Literature at Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding and Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität in Munich. Since October 2009 PhD in Theatre Science. Worked as an assistant to the dramaturg with Christoph Schlingensief (Mea Culpa, Burgtheater, Vienna), and as a dramaturg with Lea-Marie Hauptvogel / Verena Stoiber (Treffen, Spielart Festival, Munich), Anna Viebrock (Die Nacht, Ruhrtriennale, Essen), Michael Höppner (Man erschießt ja auch Pferde, Burgtheater, Vienna) and Sven Holm / NOVOFLOT (Das Weihnachtsoratorium, Radialsystem -V-, Berlin).