Boundaries of composition and performance are challenged by a new generation of composers-performers, who in their writing propose a democratization of the creative process in favour of a bottom-up approach to practices deriving from different creative languages (i.e.: Jennifer Walshe, Du Yun, Ashley Fure.) In their output for the stage, their exploration of the embedded interface of the voice-body (in some cases their own) with different media nurtures their militant conceptions of artistic production, music theatre and spectatorship, and translates their ideological élan into modes of performance that envisage embodiment and audience’s participation as yet another layer of composition.
By focussing on stage works for voice and embedded use of technologies, techniques, and media borrowed from other performing arts, my paper proposes to explore in particular the political implications of the interface between voice-body and the role of remediation in the music theatre of composer Du Yun (1977). Hailing from Shanghai and currently based in New York, Du Yun pursues an integration of genres and styles encompassing orchestral, opera, chamber music, theatre, cabaret, oral tradition, public performances, sound installation, electronics and noise. While the repertoires she accesses to fashion her stage works span from Gregorian Chant to contemporary dance, her work also aims to provoke and stir audiences, while transversally embracing new types of spectatorship. In her view, space has a primary role in the making of live music, and the dialogue among different languages and types of performance is bound to create new performative devices while raising political awareness: “We’ll be able to do so many things in so many styles, and if the content calls for that, then let’s just try it.” (Du Yun interviewed by Steve Smith, National Sawdust Log, 2017).
I will be in particular looking at the operas Angel’s Bone (2011, 2015) and Zolle (2004-5), both addressing issues of societal value, respectively representing human trafficking and narrating the condition of migrants. Both staging are conceived as surreal and allegorical, and feature video projections and elaborate sound design. Ultimately, both works call for performance practices not conventionally associated with opera and music theatre, while maintaining recognizable elements of classical writing and scene setting, which allowed Du Yun to be nominated and eventually win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2017.
In a wider discussion of polystylism in contemporary music theatre production, I will base my observations in particular on insights acquired through my direct encounter with Du Yun, and will concurrently probe into an analysis of the staging and performance of her works, and their reflection on contemporary reception. While framing my discussion within theories of remediation and embodiment, I will explore evolving notions of liveness in performance, in particular examining the political implications deriving from the interweaving of languages and styles in contemporary composition and staging. Ultimately, I will examine the role of reception and media in the shaping of the language of this new generation of composers, examining the two-way thread characterizing their response to the production and performance of their work.