FULL Proving Up (Mazzoli) & Periodic Table (Podzorova) ST.Petersburg 2024 Kirill Panfilov, Yulia Petrachuk, David Sanikidze, Igor Vitkovsky, Yuri Rostotsky
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Proving Up, Periodic Table
- Composer: Mazzoli Missy, Podzorova Alina
- Libretto: Royce Vavrek, Asya Chashchinskaya Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Theater of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy, St.Petersburg, Russia, Muffled Voices Festival
- Recorded: June 22, 2024
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Kirill Panfilov, Yulia Petrachuk, David Sanikidze, Vasilisa Shaplyko, Pelageya Kurennaya, Zhasur Khaidarov, Igor Vitkovsky, Yuri Rostotsky, Svetlana Zlobina, Olga Reutova
- Conductor: JEREMY WALKER
- Orchestra: ART MUSIC
- Stage Director: Elizaveta Korneeva, Asya Chashchinskaya
- Stage Designer: Yulia Staroverova, Tatyana Azarova
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Lyrica Classic Entertainment
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Missy Mazzoly “Proving Up” (2016) libretto by Royce Vavrek
A one-act horror opera based on the story of the same name by Karen Russell for 6 soloists, 7 acoustic guitars, 8 harmonicas, harpsichord and chamber orchestra.
The opera tells the story of the American dream, the ephemeral pursuit of which is shown through the story of the Zegner family, settlers in Nebraska in the 1870s. The family dreams of “proving” and receiving a document to own the land. They obsessively list the requirements of the Homestead Act: five years of harvest, a sod house and, perhaps the most elusive element, a glass window. Glass was incredibly rare, but without it the house couldn’t be a home and the surveyor wouldn’t approve the acreage.
Ma and Pa Zegner send their youngest child, Miles, on a mission to share valuable glass with their distant neighbors awaiting a visit from a government inspector. Miles mounts his gray mare, whose window is covered with burlap, and gallops along the ground. But the elements, natural and otherwise, have other plans, and Miles comes face to face with a strange man who turns out to be the ghost of a nearby farmer driven mad by demands to “prove.” The lithe figure knows all too well the price of the American dream, and soon the window becomes a broken mirror reflecting a great tragedy.
ALINA PODZOROVA, “PERIODIC SYSTEM” (2021) libretto by Asya Chashchinskaya
One-act opera-parable based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi for 4 soloists, vocal ensemble and chamber orchestra.
The performance presents Sergei Filatov’s original instrument “Duofluctus”, a participant in the program of the 58th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2019.
The opera is based on the relationship between two characters: Primo Levi and the head of the chemical laboratory in Auschwitz, Dr. Lothar Müller. Fate brought them together again in the post-war period – 20 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.
The history of the opera consists of 6 chapters reflecting the world of the hero, who knows his roots from the 16th century and cannot find support in the 20th century.
OXYGEN. Birth. First breath. The smell of spring. Breath of freedom
• Scene I – Primo’s memories of his life: childhood in sunny Italy, youth and studies at the University of Turin, war and ending up in Auschwitz.
CARBON. Carbon-based life forms. Equality of all people on Earth
• Scene II – In the concentration camp, Primo is forced to work in a chemical laboratory under the direction of Dr. Lothar Müller.
GOLD. Power, Love (for a person, for one’s business, for an idea, for humanity)
Primo Levi meets laboratory assistant Irit.
LEAD. Hatred. Destruction
Dr. Müller, who at first seemed to be Primo’s savior from extermination in the death camp, gradually reveals himself as a convinced fascist.
ARSENIC. Fear of death. Fire. Agony
• Scene III – 20 years pass. Business negotiations with a German company again accidentally bring Primo Levi into contact with Dr. Müller, who worked in the Auschwitz laboratory during the war. A correspondence begins between them.
Primo sends Muller the book “Is This a Man?”, which was published in 1947. Reading it, Muller falls into memories of his time working in the laboratory with Primo Levi, trying to calm his conscience, but to no avail. Some time after reading the book, Muller begins his death throes.
SODIUM CHLORIDE. Salt. Tears. Memory.
• Scene IV – Primo remembers how he and Irit tried to find a way out of the camp at the moment the Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. But only one Primo remained alive.
This scene is the apotheosis of chemical transformations in the opera, and uses motifs from the “parable of the Pillar of Salt” from the Old Testament. According to the plot of the scene, Irit (the name of Lot’s wife in the Torah) was unable to leave the camp, succumbing to the temptation of a cruel memory. Her story is about how you can be “frozen like a pillar of salt,” when the pain of the past blocks volitional impulses and paralyzes the soul striving to change the future.