"Orson Rehearsed" - new Opera by Daron Hagen

[Wellesnet]

Operawire magazine Q&A with composer Daron Hagen:
http://operawire.com/q-a-composer-daron ... -set-ever/

Here is a previous interview with Mr. Hagen posted here a couple of months ago by Magadizer:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2851&p=23716&hilit=daron+hagen#p23716

[magadizer]

Thanks for sharing the interview again. I think that this has potential to be a really interesting project for Welles fans, in the vein of Welles's more experimental works.

[Wellesnet]

"Orson Rehearsed" will debut at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago on 15-16 September 2018:
http://fifth-house.com/event-articles/o ... hearsed-2/

[Wellesnet]

Trailer for the production now online:
http://www.wellesnet.com/trailer-orson-rehearsed/

[tonyw]

Operatic versions of movies seem to be common these days as seen with MARNIE and the PRETTY WOMAN musical. I'm sure most of Welles's work can be adapted, not necessarily MACBETH, OTHELLO, and THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR since Verdi got there first!

[Wellesnet]

Wellesnet interview with the composer:
http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-rehearsed-daron-hagen/

[Wellesnet]

Leading Welles scholar Jonathan Rosenbaum had this to say a day after the September 15th world-premiere performance of Daron Hagen's opera, "Orson Rehearsed":
"This is good enough and exciting enough to see & hear twice, so I'm making a return trip today!"

Here is an interactive website with music, images and libretto from the production:
https://www.orsonrehearsed.art/

Still pictures from the first performance in Chicago (Mr. Hagen refers to it as an "iteration"):
https://www.orsonrehearsed.art/chicago- ... u2h85yepbj

[Wellesnet]

First edited footage from the planned Video iteration of Daron Hagen's opera. This is the "Lament For Jacare" section, which utilizes video footage taken from the recent Chicago performances. Hagen hopes to market the completed video to various festivals:
https://vimeo.com/293662125

[Le Chiffre]

Classical Classroom, Episode 181: The Magicians – Daron Hagen on Orson Welles:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.housto ... elles/amp/

[Wellesnet]

https://www.operasense.com/daron-hagen/

Q: You’ve got a very exciting project underway called Orson Rehearsed, due to premiere in September 2018. From what I’ve read, you have a deep, almost personal connection to Orson Welles. What is it about Welles that you connect with so profoundly?

DH: I admire the mature, intelligent, sophisticated ferocity with which Welles confronted the intersection between Life and Art. I admire the character he displayed in his public calls for social justice, the ebullience of his manifold creative gifts—a true American polymath—and the searing lifelong ache of a man who had made what is arguably the finest film ever made at the very start of a long career. I am moved by the man’s lifelong struggle as an artist to get his work paid for. He understood the ultimately unforgivable damage that an enfant terrible wreaks on those about him.

Q: Orson Rehearsed “examines in a non-linear narrative the American Story by limning the memories and half-remembered dreams of actor, director, writer, and painter Orson Welles during the last few moments of his life.” Tell us a bit about how Orson Rehearsed is organized as an operatic work: are there acts? Are there arias? Is there spoken dialogue? In short, what can audiences expect when they go to see it?

DH: Likening the dramaturgy to the dealing of cards in a magic trick, each character in an iteration of the piece (it can vary from none to six, plus chorus) is dealt one solo aria; opening and closing ensembles for everyone are pre-dealt. Everything else unfolds from decisions made on the fly, in performance. The work can last as few as 60 and as long as 240 minutes, depending on how many impromptu cards are dealt between the pre-dealt cards. If one does the math, then—assuming an aria or ensemble lasts from between 3-5 minutes—that percentage of the total duration of that iteration is predetermined. The work has everything in it, including spoken language—electro-acoustic soundscapes, instrumentalists singing, everyone creating non-verbal vocalizations, improvisations based on pre-determined “rules of engagement” that vary from one “card” to the next.

Q: I read the following about Orson Rehearsed: it is “an accordion-shaped opera whose cast and scale can be as elaborate or as small as each producer wishes, and which may be performed in any space.” How is such a thing possible?

DH: Such a thing is possible because the central conceit of the work allows for radical and wide-ranging reinterpretation from one iteration to the next. Technology enables me to retool it from a version for six singers, pre-recorded soundscapes, and Fifth House Ensemble to full orchestra, chorus and six principals in a little over a week. Each soundscape exists outside of the standard notational grid, but a Sibelius file exists that can underlie it for coordinated performance, if desired in the iteration at hand. Once the New Mercury Collective or Fifth House Ensemble have the work in hand, they will be able to reinterpret the work with whatever forces are available for each venue and / or audience by simply telling me the new instrumentation. At a certain point, Fifth House, for example, won’t even need to involve me, as their familiarity with the underlying soundscapes will be so intimate that the creative ownership will be complete—the way that a long-run cast of a commercial play develops ownership of their roles. I look forward to seeing an iteration of the work down the road with which I have nothing to do except show up. Putting this vehicle into the hands of another director will be very, very interesting and… fun.

[Wellesnet]

"Orson Rehearsed" to become a film; now in post-production:
https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-rehears ... XD85j4c4BA

[RayKelly]

The filmed ORSON REHEARSED opera has been picking up festival awards. Congrats to Daron Hagen on its success. Read his comments on the project.
https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-rehearsed-film-awards/

[Wellesnet]

Daron Hagen's music score for "Orson Rehearsed" is now available on CD from the Naxos label:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/p ... nUEALw_wcB