The Tyrant
Composer: Paul Dresher
Librettist: Jim Lewis
Tenor: John Duykers
Directed by Melissa Weaver
Musicians:
Karen Bentley Pollick (violin)
Tod Brody (flute, piccolo, alto flute)
Joel Davel (percussion)
Peter Josheff (clarinets)
Alex Kelly (cello)
Marja Mutru (keyboards)
Visual and Lighting Design by Tom Ontiveros
Set Design and Construction by Alexander Nichols and Daniel Schmidt
Sound Designer: Greg Kuhn
Technical Director: Robert Reetz
Inspired by the writings of Italo Calvino, Paul Dresher's The Tyrant is a solo chamber opera written for tenor and long-time collaborator John Duykers. It depicts the claustrophobic world of a despot who is so afraid of being overthrown that he refuses to leave his throne. Isolated deep within his palace, the Tyrant is forced to experience his kingdom entirely through the medium of sound. After years of absolute control and constant vigilance, he is weary and overcome with doubt and fear.
The Tyrant can be understood on many different levels. A political allegory about the corrosive psychological effects of absolute power, it examines the conflicting voices we all carry within us and how we attend to the inevitable internal conflicts among them. Additionally, it is a fable about listening that poignantly explores themes of self-discovery and spiritual exploration.
Synopsis:
The Tyrant begins on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of his bloody ascent to power, as he struggles to compose the speech he will give at the celebrations commemorating this momentous event.看看 He reflects upon the world he has created since his "revolution" and the order he has brought, in the course of which he gives the first tentative voice to the notion that perhaps there has been a price to pay for such absolute power.看
But, rejecting such thoughts, he details first his royal responsibilities ("Aria of the Body" and "Bored With It All") and then the numerous pleasures afforded to him while living within the constraints of his life, lived literally on the throne ("All Your Heart's Desires").看
After an extended aria ("Heavenly Clockwork") expounding on the joys he experiences listening to sonic manifestations of the day to day life in his palace, he experiences a moment of fear as he attempts to ascertain the source of a mysterious sound that comes unbidden to him in his throne room ("Treason"), wondering if it represents friend or foe, perhaps even the murmurings of an incipient rebellion.看
While he quickly reassures himself of his absolute control and scoffs at the idea of his decline, a sequence of unidentifiable sounds soon deepen his insecurity, leading to an extended aria ("Maestro, Is That You?") sung to his predecessor, whom he imagines imprisoned in the palace dungeon below.看看
Even though exhausted and desperate for sleep, he returns to his labors on his still unfinished speech, attempting a number of opening lines, but rejecting them all in disgust.看看 Through the open window, and interrupting his efforts, he hears a vocalise striking in its beauty and simplicity ("Lullaby").看 Indulging in a sentimental and nostalgic vision of the world outside the palace, he imagines it to be the sound of a mother singing to a child cradled in her arms, and to this lullaby, he finally falls asleep.
After a brief but fitful sleep, he is awakened by silence.看 Nearly desperate with a desire to experience the woman's voice again, he sings of escaping from the palace ("Awakening"), returning to the world outside and finding her voice.看 But he soon realizes that he can never leave the palace and that he must find the woman by other means.看
He concocts a series of quickly rejected plans for finding her, landing eventually on the idea of a singing contest that he hopes will bring her before his royal court ("The Singing Contest").看看 Once she is identified as the long-sought voice, he imagines that they will sing a grand yet intimate duet, in the process unleashing his own long-hidden and true voice.看
But this rhapsody is rudely interrupted by a series of unexpected and very aggressive sounds leading to the realization that, having dropped his perpetual vigilance, he now faces real rebellion and destruction ("Rebellion").看看 As he prepares himself for the end, he remembers that his palace contains many secret passages, built for just such an escape.看
Quickly discarding the uniform and emblems of his office, he passes through a secret portal and descends through the maze of pathways ("Escape"), leaving the fires of rebellion above and moving down into the cool, damp and dark world of the palace dungeon.看看
Arriving there and sealing himself off from the world above, he encounters another voice, perhaps that of his imprisoned predecessor, but also one that sounds strikingly like his own.看 They speak ("A Conversation") of their roles, the woman's voice and the palace.看看 But when this other voice goes silent and he finally relinquishes all vestiges of his former self, the Tyrant realizes that all the other voices - the woman's, his imprisoned predecessor - all emanated from inside himself.看
In the "Coda" the Tyrant reflects upon silence and chaos and the unstoppable wave that is about to break over and engulf him.
Production History:
The Tyrant was originally written for the incomparable John Duykers.*
Created as a companion piece to Peter Maxwell Davies' classic work Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969), The Tyrant uses the identical instrumental ensemble, consisting of violin, flutes, clarinets, piano, cello, and percussion. Commissioned by the Seattle Chamber Players in consortium with Present Music (Milwaukee), the California EAR Unit (Los Angeles), and the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the opera had its first concert performances in May 2005 in Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Support for the production The Tyrant was received from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Tyrant was commissioned as part of the national series of works from Meet The Composer's Commissioning Music/USA , which is made possible by the generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Helen F. Whitaker Fund and the Target Foundation. Copying the score and parts was funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center.
In winter 2006 generous funding from The Opera Fund of Opera America enabled composer Dresher and librettist Lewis to expand the libretto and score significantly. By late April 2006, their revisions were finished, and an unstaged performance of the expanded opera was held in Milwaukee by Present Music. On May 2-7, 2006 the fully staged opera, complete with new set designs by Alex V. Nichols, premiered at the Cleveland Playhouse on the 2005-06 subscription series of the Cleveland Opera.
Musical Traditions, Inc. would like to thank the following individuals for their invaluable contributions: Philippa Kelly, Natasha Beery and Sandy McCoy, Elena Dubinets, Martha Dresher, Mark Palmer, Donald Osborne, Ken Berry, Paul Taub, and Virko Baley and his UNLV ensemble NEXTET, who produced the first workshop of the project.
*John Duykers appears courtesy of California Artists Management
