Stages of the River: A Russian River Opera
In June 2014, Hugh presented his large-scale 5-act River Opera at Warnecke Ranch & Vineyards in Healdsburg. Following the curving intersection of Brooks Creek and the River, the Opera moves from glade to glade, using natural features to define the stage.
Radio interview in Sonoma on KRCB.
Nice little feature in the Press-Democrat.
Multiple musicians are spread throughout the space, as well as sound and sculptural installations that reflect on the sonic and visual qualities of the River. Official list of our stellar performers:
Percussion
thingamajigs (Dylan Bolles and Edward Schocker) and Joe Kelner
Voices
Ben DeShazo-Couchot, Christa Durand, Daniella Caveney, Jesus Contreras, Marc Rudlin, Megan Stetson, Rachel Deatherage, Rachel Walters Steiner
Instruments
Annie Cilley, Peter Bonos, Travis Hendrix
An early sound installation which led to the Opera as it is today! video documentation, August 6, 2011. Press: ArtHound.
Libretto by Fred Euphrat. Composition and Production by Hugh Livingston. Technical direction and installation by Brendan Aanes.
Radio interview in Sonoma on KRCB.
Nice little feature in the Press-Democrat.
Multiple musicians are spread throughout the space, as well as sound and sculptural installations that reflect on the sonic and visual qualities of the River. Official list of our stellar performers:
Percussion
thingamajigs (Dylan Bolles and Edward Schocker) and Joe Kelner
Voices
Ben DeShazo-Couchot, Christa Durand, Daniella Caveney, Jesus Contreras, Marc Rudlin, Megan Stetson, Rachel Deatherage, Rachel Walters Steiner
Instruments
Annie Cilley, Peter Bonos, Travis Hendrix
An early sound installation which led to the Opera as it is today! video documentation, August 6, 2011. Press: ArtHound.
Libretto by Fred Euphrat. Composition and Production by Hugh Livingston. Technical direction and installation by Brendan Aanes.
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The overture...
RO Preview Clip A from Livingston Sound on Vimeo.
Overture
The first glimpse of the River, from a bluff 60 feet above. A window frames the opposite bank. Sound is heard from the hills behind, yet no musicians are visible.
Act I
A natural theater, complete with wings and overhangs (oak and bay, of course). The action unfolds in 4 planes receding away from the viewers as in a conventional theatrical setting. Dancers use windows as props as they appear and disappear from the surrounding foliage.
Act II
A milling about space, with sound installations in every tree, and roving vocalists and instrumentalists. To be explored by the viewer without constraints.
Act III
Another natural theater space, this one very long, plays with perspective and distance as the musicians move rapidly through the space.
Epilogue
The road leads down to Brooks Creek, and the audience is invited to finally get their feet wet in the River.*
* Seasonal variations may apply.
* Seasonal variations may apply.
Stages of the Russian River: more project details
Description
Stages of the Russian River, an outdoor opera by composer Hugh Livingston to be performed on the banks of the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, explores the history and future of outdoor musicmaking and creates a social-geographic experience that connects the audience with ecology and art.
The River Opera is a site-specific exploration of the Russian River, choosing a one-mile stretch that reflects the 116-mile whole. Instrumentalists, dancers and singers will be situated on opposite banks, float by on rafts, and emerge from the oak and bay woods. The audience will wend their way down a path as a series of scenes unfolds in front of them. The experience will be immersive and interactive, and built around exploration rather than the fixity of a conventional theatrical opera presentation. There will be a combination of live instruments, voices and digital sound installation.
The installed sound will use sculptural elements and old Victorian windows from which sound emerges. The windows frame specific parts of the larger landscape, encouraging the audience to pause to contemplate a distant mountain or a foreground oak leaf, while sound associated with that view radiates from the surface, like the momentary focus of viewing a Chinese landscape painting. The soundscapes will be built upon Hugh’s four years of documentation of Russian River sounds, and each vocalist will have a custom-designed percussion instrument which articulates their character. The libretto by forester and environmental writer Fred Euphrat will be deconstructed into snippets of narrative that assemble over time into a coherent whole. Likewise, the musical elements will be fragmented and time-stretched, so that the afternoon experience becomes a gradual unfolding of both geography and the emergence of musical space along the winding path.
Artistic Intent
Situating ecological artwork amidst natural forces shaping the watershed heightens awareness of environmental and aesthetic aspects of the River and its music. Using curves of the banks, natural flood terraces and feeder creeks, river form illuminates musical form. Three separate acts are designed, plus an overture and epilogue (where one’s feet get wet), such that each site is not visible from the previous. We will build new instruments to complement the existing river soundscape, to project across the roaring river echoing from the banks or mimic the gentle burbling of brooks. The opera is a stroll, not unfolding in linear time. Narrative and musical bits filter in and out, repeat and expand across space, while the audience assembles an impression of the intended experience.
The project is meant to unite river constituents, a civic engagement that uses artwork to illuminate river issues. It will appeal to younger audiences resistant to the formality of conventional grand opera theater experiences. The River Opera is designed for a one-mile stretch of riverfront of the historic Warnecke Ranch on Chalk Hill Road in Healdsburg. The sites of the individual scenes have their origin in terraces sculpted with artistic intent for theatrical potential, with low arching oak and bay pointing towards the River.
Russian Riverkeeper has partnered with Hugh for six years and multiple local and national grants, and together they continue to act as champions of river awareness through large-scale art projects connecting to River communities. The co-produced work has been exhibited at Warnecke Ranch, SlaughterhouseSpace, in the Sculpture Garden and galleries of the Sonoma County Museum, in line with Riverkeeper’s ‘Celebrate the River’ mission component.
River Opera Creative Team
Hugh Livingston (Santa Rosa/Oakland), composer and producer
Fred Euphrat (Healdsburg/San Francisco), librettist
Brendan Aanes (Oakland), technical direction
Ensemble: 8 vocalists, four percussionists and 3 windplayers
Project Timeline
June 6 2014, Preview (performance at 7pm)
June 7 2014 Premiere Performances (2 and 530pm)
Stages of the Russian River, an outdoor opera by composer Hugh Livingston to be performed on the banks of the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, explores the history and future of outdoor musicmaking and creates a social-geographic experience that connects the audience with ecology and art.
The River Opera is a site-specific exploration of the Russian River, choosing a one-mile stretch that reflects the 116-mile whole. Instrumentalists, dancers and singers will be situated on opposite banks, float by on rafts, and emerge from the oak and bay woods. The audience will wend their way down a path as a series of scenes unfolds in front of them. The experience will be immersive and interactive, and built around exploration rather than the fixity of a conventional theatrical opera presentation. There will be a combination of live instruments, voices and digital sound installation.
The installed sound will use sculptural elements and old Victorian windows from which sound emerges. The windows frame specific parts of the larger landscape, encouraging the audience to pause to contemplate a distant mountain or a foreground oak leaf, while sound associated with that view radiates from the surface, like the momentary focus of viewing a Chinese landscape painting. The soundscapes will be built upon Hugh’s four years of documentation of Russian River sounds, and each vocalist will have a custom-designed percussion instrument which articulates their character. The libretto by forester and environmental writer Fred Euphrat will be deconstructed into snippets of narrative that assemble over time into a coherent whole. Likewise, the musical elements will be fragmented and time-stretched, so that the afternoon experience becomes a gradual unfolding of both geography and the emergence of musical space along the winding path.
Artistic Intent
Situating ecological artwork amidst natural forces shaping the watershed heightens awareness of environmental and aesthetic aspects of the River and its music. Using curves of the banks, natural flood terraces and feeder creeks, river form illuminates musical form. Three separate acts are designed, plus an overture and epilogue (where one’s feet get wet), such that each site is not visible from the previous. We will build new instruments to complement the existing river soundscape, to project across the roaring river echoing from the banks or mimic the gentle burbling of brooks. The opera is a stroll, not unfolding in linear time. Narrative and musical bits filter in and out, repeat and expand across space, while the audience assembles an impression of the intended experience.
The project is meant to unite river constituents, a civic engagement that uses artwork to illuminate river issues. It will appeal to younger audiences resistant to the formality of conventional grand opera theater experiences. The River Opera is designed for a one-mile stretch of riverfront of the historic Warnecke Ranch on Chalk Hill Road in Healdsburg. The sites of the individual scenes have their origin in terraces sculpted with artistic intent for theatrical potential, with low arching oak and bay pointing towards the River.
Russian Riverkeeper has partnered with Hugh for six years and multiple local and national grants, and together they continue to act as champions of river awareness through large-scale art projects connecting to River communities. The co-produced work has been exhibited at Warnecke Ranch, SlaughterhouseSpace, in the Sculpture Garden and galleries of the Sonoma County Museum, in line with Riverkeeper’s ‘Celebrate the River’ mission component.
River Opera Creative Team
Hugh Livingston (Santa Rosa/Oakland), composer and producer
Fred Euphrat (Healdsburg/San Francisco), librettist
Brendan Aanes (Oakland), technical direction
Ensemble: 8 vocalists, four percussionists and 3 windplayers
Project Timeline
June 6 2014, Preview (performance at 7pm)
June 7 2014 Premiere Performances (2 and 530pm)
