A Librettist and Artist's Research
My collaborator for "Immortal Labia," composer Alan Chan, and I were fortunate to be accepted to a joint writer-composer residency in Visby, Sweden for June, 2023!
Since I had not been in Europe for 12 years before this trip, I wanted to make sure I made the most of my trip to Europe by seeing a few other European cities for research and inspiration.
In my libretto "Immortal Labia" our two-headed heroes Doremi and Fasolati visit Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, among other places and eras.
In London, I visited the British Museum, and went to the the Egyptian Gallery. I also saw the special exhibit "Luxury and power, Persia to Greece" to see if there was anything I wanted to add to my Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece scenes.
Some highlights for me at the museum were seeing a statue of an Assyrian attendant god who stood outside a doorway in the Temple of Nabu, God of Writing; and Persian-influenced Athenian animal face drinking vessels. In the BCE's if you had one of these and you tilted your head back and held up an animal cup to your face, everyone else at a party would see the face of an animal in place of your own head. I like this type of physical humor and will think about using it more in my operas.
Early Sunday evening, I met some friends to see a free Royal Opera House cinema screening at Licester Square Gardens. It was wonderful seeing excerpts of Swan Lake and La Traviata. I wish there were actual operas to see during my 3 days in London! But alas, that will have to happen on another visit.
