Commission to Yvette Janine Jackson

What are the environmental and socio-economic impacts of space travel and space tourism on people living near rocket launch sites and test ranges? On the one hand, the space industry brings economic boost to the often poor, rural areas; on the other hand, people have to evacuate their homes because of noise and window destruction. These are the issues Yvette Janine Jackson addresses in her new radio opera, created in collaboration with and for the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Inspired by Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, the composer physically places the audience in the middle of the narrative through the use of a multi-channel surround sound. The opera’s theme engages different senses and reaches the audience in a different way than through reading or other media. Jackson invites the audience to draw on personal experience and knowledge to construct the narrative of the radio opera, rather than prescribing meaning.

Jackson considers radio operas to be compositions that combine music, dialogue and effects to stimulate the audience’s imagination and initiate conversations. To construct the libretti, Jackson gathers found text from myriad sources, such as news articles, anecdotes, livestreams or corporate websites that focus on the theme of the radio opera. The new text sometimes serves as a guide for the composer, but is not always passed on to the audience. In Jackson’s radio operas, the text is often unintelligible – the spoken word may be digitally edited or covered by other instruments, or sounds are sung that have no semantic meaning. The emphasis is on emotions and sounds.

The commission to Yvette Janine Jackson for the International Contemporary Ensemble is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
iceorg.org

Dates

March 11, 2023
Chelsea Factory, New York City