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''Three Tales'' is a video-
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
in three acts (titled ''Hindenburg'', ''Bikini'' and ''Dolly'') with music by American composer
Steve Reich and visuals by
Beryl Korot
Beryl Korot (born September 17, 1945) is an American video artist.
Biography
Beryl Korot has pioneered the field of video art since the early 1970s. She was co-editor of ''Radical Software'' (1970), the first publication to discuss the possibiliti ...
, his wife. It is scored for two sopranos, three tenors, string quartet, percussion, keyboards, and pre-recorded audio. Its premiere was at the
Vienna Festival
__NOTOC__
The Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival) is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June. The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Alli ...
on May 12, 2002; the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
had commissioned a version for television broadcast four months later. The 12-minute tale ''Hindenburg'' had been written (and recorded) in 1998, while the remaining tales were completed (and recorded) in the year of the premiere.
The musical narrative of ''Three Tales'' follows "speech melodies" of pre-recorded interviews, and in many ways resembles Reich's works ''
The Cave'' (1990–1993), ''
City Life'' (1995) and ''
Different Trains'' (1988). The
libretto of ''Three Tales'' can be found on the website of the composer (see bottom of page).
''Three Tales'' is a response to nearly a hundred years of modern technology, concerning the
explosion of the ''Hindenburg'', nuclear testings on
Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Seco ...
, and the
cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...
of
Dolly the sheep
Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a ...
(drawing connections between
genetic engineering and artificial intelligence). The different stories are told from various perspectives, with speech culled from interviews with eyewitnesses, audiovisual documentary material of both the Hindenburg and Bikini tragedies, and experts in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
(e.g.
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, ...
and
Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick (born 9 February 1954) is an English engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University. He is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, and has also done ...
),
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
(
Rodney Brooks
Rodney Allen Brooks (born 30 December 1954) is an Australian roboticist, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, author, and robotics entrepreneur, most known for popularizing the actionist approach to robotics. He was a Panasonic Profes ...
), Rabbi
Adin Steinsaltz
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (11 July 19377 August 2020) ( he, עדין אבן-ישראל שטיינזלץ) was an Israeli Chabad Chasidic rabbi, teacher, philosopher, social critic, author, translator and publisher.
His '' Steinsaltz edi ...
, and
genetic engineering (
Richard Dawkins and
Robert Pollack).
Synopsis
The three tales (acts) divide into various sub-sections:
Act I – Hindenburg
: It could not have been a technical matter – Nibelung Zeppelin – A very impressive thing to see – I couldn't understand It
Act II – Bikini
: In the air I – The atoll I – On the ships I – In the air II – The atoll II – On the ships II – In the air III – The atoll III - On the ships III - Coda
Act III – Dolly
: Cloning - Dolly - Human body machine - Darwin - Interlude - Robots/Cyborgs/Immortality
Performers
* vocal quintet: 2 sopranos, 3 tenors
* 4 percussionists: 2 vibraphones, 2 snare drums, 2 pedal bass drums, suspended cymbal, large gong
* 2 pianos
* string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)
* pre-recorded tape or hard disk recorder
Reception
Andrew McGregor wrote a positive review for
BBC Music
BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network.
Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...
, stating that the video for the third act (“Dolly”) was the most effective and arguing that “Reich and Korot can't give you the answer
o where the human race is headed but they frame the questions more memorably and insistently than most.” Kila Packett also gave the opera a positive review in ''
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
''; she argued that the first act (“Hindenburg”) is the most musically satisfying and the third act the most thought-provoking, and interpreted the work as a “a bittersweet love letter romanticizing the tragic beauty of destruction and the inevitable folly of human achievement”, but she found Korot’s work on the first act to “lack visual imagination”. Andrew Clements of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' awarded ''Three Tales'' a full five stars, writing “The three movements get progressively weightier, more discursive, more visually inventive
..this piece represents a quantum leap in complexity and technological achievement.”
K Smith wrote an unfavorable review in
''Gramophone'', stating that Reich and Korot seem oblivious to “how the Faustian pact with technology that they decry in society has also affected their own work.” Smith argued, “In both its emotional evocations as well as its compositional process, ''Three Tales'' is highly manipulative.
..For artists so quick to criticise others for playing God, they prove vulnerable to the same temptation themselves.”
In 2016, Clements ranked the piece as one of Reich’s 10 greatest.
Recordings
* Steve Reich Ensemble. ''Three Tales''. Rec. June 2002. Judith Sherman, 2003 (audio)
* Three Tales. Dir.
Nick Mangano
Nick Mangano is an American stage actor and director. He is the chair and artistic director of the Department of Theatre Arts at Stony Brook University.
Education
Mangano studied in New York, attending Hunter College, where he achieved a BA in h ...
. Perf. Steve Reich Ensemble, Synergy Vocals. Videocassette. Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2002 (visual).
References
External links
SteveReich.com - ''Three Tales'' - opera libretto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Tales (Opera)
Operas
2002 operas
Operas by Steve Reich
Minimalist operas