La Cantatrice; or, The Story of Writing an Absurd Opera

In its new initiative to find original approaches to opera and music theatre for the 21st century and also new audiences for the lyric stage, OperaGenesis are working with French composer Jean Phillipe Calvin to complete a one-act, absurdist piece based on the Eugene Ionesco play, La Cantatrice Chauve or The Bald Soprano. Calvin writes an introductory explanation of what he is doing as he finishes the piece and looks forward to a showcase performance in London during November.

Since last November (2005) one of my long-standing dreams has been coming to fruition. Thanks to the Genesis Foundation and its OperaGenesis programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, I am just about to finish my opera La Cantatrice. It was inspired by Eugene Ionesco's famous absurdist play, La Cantatrice Chauve.

The choice of this monumental and iconic piece of absurd theatre and the idea of putting it to music has always excited me. It appeals to me in a very Ionescian way, in fact, because it is a play where we can find comedy, desire and satire, laughter and chaos, in a wonderful melange. As we say in French "Du bon usage des absurdités".

Music drama, opera and theatre are an important part of my world both as a young creator and as a member of the audience. I use these forms quite often in my creations, even in my instrumental works. In my mind there is always a mis-en-scène. This approach to my compositions, as if always writing scenic music, goes back a long time; and it was accentuated by my work with Sir Michael Tippett and Meirion Bowen.

The development of this piece through the OperaGenesis process, could lead to a full commission for the work, has been inspiring to me and also an education. It has given me the opportunity to explore my talents in a larger scale scenic work for the first time - and the results will be there for us all to examine critically when we showcase as much as we can of the piece on 12 November 2006 at 4pm in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. The performance will be for an invited audience of opera professionals. I will be present for the entire rehearsal process - and I am going to conduct both the rehearsals and the presentation.

My hope is that, having started with the idea of play and anti-play in Ionesco's work, I will be able to create a new form of opera buffa in one act relying on an approach that involves music and anti-music, a true opera buffa for the 21st century.

Musical Approach

The originality of the Ionesco text requires an original musical approach, one with which I have been playing in my mind since I first ran across the play. In fact you can still see it in its original production in Paris today at La Huchette Theatre where it has run continuously since 1959 with another Ionesco play, La Leçon, as the second part of the evening. (London has its Agatha Christie play, The Moustetrap, which has now run for over half a century; and Paris has its parallel long run in a double bill of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano and The Chairs. Perhaps this says something about the two cities? Certainly, I do not think the Agatha Christie would lend itself to treatment as a modern opera buffa!). My main motivation is simply this: wouldn't it be wonderful finally to see a modern opera that is genuinely comic? One that uses all the resources available of modern digital music making as well? It is rare for contemporary opera to be comic, let alone Theatre of the Absurd comic!

I found myself wondering: just as Gluck was once inspired to reform opera by Italian Opera Buffa, can we perhaps inspire something new in contemporary opera for a contemporary audience based on the vision of Ionesco? This has been the question that has informed all my work on this piece so far.

Creating something completely new, fresh and dynamic by using today's most recent musical technology and vocal writing seems to me to be the way forward. I am fortunate in finding full support for my approach at ROH2 from everyone involved with the OperaGenesis programme. I have also received enormous support and help from our studios in Paris at CCMIX (Centre de Création Musicale Iannis Xenakis) where the electronic parts of the opera are being created with the generosity of the director, Gerard Pape, and my friend Stefan Tiedje, to both of whom I am very grateful.

The full means at our disposal are being used - live singers, traditional orchestral instruments, electronic music and treated voices.

We are creating one individual work of music theatre while, we hope, at the same time developing new and exciting approaches that will also attract new and younger audiences to opera houses. This is their world and it will be reflected on the stage and in the music - and also in the cheaper prices for tickets.

A small scale production with a medium-sized chamber orchestra and live electronics, that's all we need to make a real breakthrough in what contemporary opera is all about. I use electronics purely in relation to the orchestra and singers to add a new dimension to my work and to the drama, as well as some modern sonorities. As for the libretto, since this opera will be in French/English I did my own adaptation of this work. But, as with Gluck, I would welcome finding a modern day Calzibigi for my next stage work.

The Bald Soprano satirizes those who value conformism over independent thought. It proceeds by undermining the belief or trust in the accuracy of language as an accurate means of communication and logic as a means of understanding the world. The Smiths - proudly prudish and anti-intellectual - are virtually interchangeable with their friends, the Martins, since the language they speak is entirely formulaic.

Both couples are certain they know the world, that they have complete understanding. Therefore, they have stopped thinking and so have nothing to communicate.

Logic cannot help the Smiths unravel who is who when discussing a family all of whose members are named Bobby Watson. Mr. Martin thinks he can use logic to determine if Mrs. Martin is, in fact, someone he knows. But even after he believes he has proven that he and Mrs. Martin are married, the Smiths' maid reveals that Mr. Martin has only piled up an extraordinary set of coincidences. When both couples sit down to talk it is a disaster since no one can think of anything to say. The appearance of the Fire Chief and the bout of story-telling that ensues only delays the final chaos of random words and sounds into which the characters descend.

As Nicholas Bataille said of the play:
Nous entrons dans l'univers de l'absurde. On peut considérer que cette pièce n'a ni début ni fin. Une anti-pièce comme il l'a été dit. Mais le thème de l'incommunicabilité y est très présent. Une vraie joie pour de se lancer à corps perdu dans une ambiance hors du réel.

See Jean Philippe Calvin's Biography