related works

octavia. trepanation : Opera based on the tragedy "Octavia", attributed to Seneca and Trotsky's essay on Lenin / Dmitri Kourliandski; libretto: Boris Yukhananov and Dmitri Kourliandski

Genre: Opera, musical theatre
Subgenre: Opera
Scoring: soloists GK4 tape

L’uomo dal fiore in bocca : Opera in one act / Luc Brewaeys; libretto by the composer after Luigi Pirandello / Torquato Tasso

Genre: Opera, musical theatre
Subgenre: Opera
Scoring: voc 2fl(picc, fl-a) ob eh 2cl(cl-b) 2fg 4h 3trp 2trb tb-b 3perc hp str

De spiegel uit Venetië / Hendrik Andriessen

Genre: Opera, musical theatre
Subgenre: Opera
Scoring: 2sopr 2alt 2ten bar bas 2222 2200 timp perc cemb str

The mother of black-winged dreams : opera in one movement, 1995 / libretto: Paul Goodman, Hanna Kulenty

Genre: Opera, musical theatre
Subgenre: Opera
Scoring: 3sopr 2actress bas-bar fl(fl-a) cl perc pf vl vc cb tape

composition

octavia. trepanation : Opera based on the tragedy "Octavia", attributed to Seneca and Trotsky's essay on Lenin / Dmitri Kourliandski; libretto: Boris Yukhananov and Dmitri Kourliandski

Author(s):
Kourliandski, Dmitri (Composer)
Description:
In conducting our trepanation of revolution, we open a forehead and discover death, blood and tiranny. We sanitize it and graft a Buddha into the cavity, then we sew the forehead back up. We remove the source of the bloody revolution to seal off the notion of war forever. We transform a tyrant and send him to Nirvana.
Boris Yukhananov

The Opera’s music is based on the opening phrases of the revolutionary song Varshavyanika, but streches them out in almost 100 times. The temporal transformation of the song reveals various harmonic and melodic metamorphoses that become “nutritional material” for the 80-voice chorus, soloists and live electronic music thus arises a hermetic, self-referential construction that feeds on itself.
Dmitri Kourliandski