Black Feather Rising (2008) 75'

(Work in development)

Libretto by David Rudkin

Inspired by the collection of folkloric tales 'Healers on the Mountain' by Teresa Pijoan

Soloist(s): Soprano and Baritone

Orchestration: Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Harp, Violin dbl. Viola, Cello

Commissioned by Octopus, The Netherlands

First performance scheduled for October 24th 2008 at De Toneelschuur - Haarlem (NL), followed by a tour throughout the Netherlands. Performances abroad are currently subject to negotiations. Contact the Composer.

Cast: West-Wind-Rising: Charlotte Riedijk (soprano)
        Raven Caller: Alistair Shelton-Smith (baritone)

Musicians: include Peppie Wiersma (percussion) and Godelieve Schrama (harp)

Stage direction: Jos van Kan

TOUR DATES for the season 2008 - 09

BRIEF SYNOPSIS

At a tribal gathering, a young man and young woman see each other, and fall in love.  But she, West-Wind-Rising, is married with a child.  He, Raven Caller, is in subjection to a witch who, in her jealous fury, punishes him with the loss of his memory and magical powers.  But in his unconscious, his song of love sings on.  West-Wind-Rising, guided by it, sets out on a difficult and dangerous journey to find him.  Her way brings her toward the mysterious Black Feather Mountain, from where his song seems to be coming.  As she clambers down a sheer rock-face, a raven attacks her, and she falls.  Raven Caller finds her broken body almost lifeless.  Once, with his healing powers, he could have restored her.  Now he does not even recognize her; he cannot remember even his own name . . . In one continuous scene, the drama shows how they re-awaken each to the other, and by the miracle of love their lives and powers are restored.

The story is developed from a Native American legend, and is here re-worked as an inner dramatic journey for its two main characters.  Black Feather Mountain is music theatre with a quality of myth, inhabiting an elemental world of forest, rock, wind and birds, where human senses are still tuned in to the voices and wisdom of Nature around them, and song is everywhere.   The continuous action is an ascending curve of raw human emotion, from yearning, up through pain, terror, desolation, anger, to a climax of wonder and joy.   In a contemporary culture of noise, activity and ‘information’, it re-asserts the primacy of each individual human quest, the search within.

FROM THE COMPOSER'S DIARY
4 January 2008

In my previous opera Ion, birds were Ion’s companions at the temple. “The gods use birds as signs for mortals” declared Ion in his opening aria, and sure enough, as he read the signs and auguries during the Banquet, birds saved him from certain death. In Black Feather Rising birds are far more deeply embedded in the action; they lie at the heart of raw creative energy, powerful and elemental and the core of the Raven Caller’s identity. This connection, between Man and the Ravens, is a constant theme presented throughout the narrative as a source of vision, upliftment and strength. When the Raven Caller remembers his childhood dreams and his connection with the birds of all creation, he regains his wondrous healing power and overcomes the demonic energy that has turned him to stone.

LIBRETTO EXTRACT FROM THE OPENING:

                   [Along a high rocky edge a young woman searches in distress for a way down.  Her hair is roughly lopped, her clothing ripped, her hands arms face feet torn and bleeding.  A pouch hangs by a thong about her neck.]

She:

No way down.

From this high rock,

no path.

All my journey:

here it ends.

 

[She sinks aside, dispirited.]

 

Each step of my way the earth has fought me.

Turn back! the forest said.

Its branches sprang in my face:

         Turn back!

Its thickets ripped my hands and arms:

         Back to your people and your village,to your child . . .

Its thorns clawed at my hair:

How can you leave your husband and your child . . . 

         A woman does not do this.

I hagged my hair off to tear free of the thorns.

I do this.

I, West-Wind-Rising, I do this.

I go to find a man I do not know. 

All of him I know

is his song the night wind brings me . . .

But what way forward to him now? . . .

                   [She searches;  in vain . . .    Apart on the space, an obscure form like a mound of rags.  From it, a man’s voice begins to sing: ]

He: 
          Lady, hear me . . .  

Wherever you are,

hear me where I lie sleeping . . .  

 

She:

All next day long, my journey said
Go back!

High desert of rock . . .

upward . . . 

unending:

Go back!

Scorch of the Sun,

the searing wind:

         Go back to your husband and your baby!

The sharp rock tore at my feet:

         Back to your baby . . .

I fought the wind and the Sun and the knives of rock.

I come to find a man I do not know.

All I have of him

is in this pouch I carry:

a string of shells

one day a raven brought me . . .

a raven brought me . . . 

as I looked out from my husband’s door

across the world in yearning.

A string of shells

from around the neck of a man I do not know. 

         Only the once I ever saw him. 
         Across that wedding dance he looked at me.
         Our eyes met.
         He smiled.
           I knew. 

[Libretto Copyright © David Rudkin, 2007. Used by permission.] 

Links:
David Rudkin
Godelieve Schrama 

Language: English

For more information, please contact the composer or Stichting Octopus: stichting.octopus@xs4all.nl

See also:

• Ion (2000, rev.2003)
• Broken Strings (1992, rev.1995)
• Snatched by the Gods (1990)