# Visitations at Bing Concert Hall, April 12, 2013

[Visitations](https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~brg/visitations/): _Theotokia_ & _The War Reporter_, Two Chamber Operas (World premiere Stanford commissions)  
2013-04-12  
Bing Concert Hall  
[Stanford University, 327 Lasuen St, Palo Alto, CA](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Stanford+University,+327+Lasuen+St,+Palo+Alto,+CA&hl=en)  
8:00 PM, Friday, April 12, 2013

## Set One: Theotokia

[7:58 PM, seated and ready to go! 8:03 PM, lights down]

1. Mother Anne, spiritual leader of the Shakers, invites Leon and her congregants to obtain a secret knowledge.
2. The Yeti Mother, an imaginary mother of God, calls to Leon from her cave in the Himalayas, promising to call him home to her.
3. Leon, an institutionalized schizophrenic, compulsively beats out a rhythm on his own body.
4. Leon’s mother visits and tells the story of her son’s illness, concluding accusatorily, “How could he do this to me?”
5. Leon obsessively reiterates his mother’s question, his speech transforming into glossolalia as he invokes the Yeti Mother.
6. The Yeti Mother answers Leon’s distress with a song in celebration of excrement.
7. The Yeti Mother reveals that she is Leon’s true mother, and that she, along with her congregation of yetis, will help Leon transcend his physical limitations.
8. The Yeti Mother and her yeti children transform into Mother Anne and her congregants once again, soothing Leon with the knowledge that he is now in possession of a secret knowledge. In a rare and painful moment of lucidity, however, Leon realizes that he is alone and suffering from his mental illness.  
[8:40 PM work ends]

### Vocalists

* [Heather Buck](http://www.barrettvantage.com/artist.php?id=hbuck) as _Mother Anne_, _Leon's mother_, and _Yeti Mother_: soprano vox;

.  
**♂ [New York Polyphony](http://www.newyorkpolyphony.com/) ♂**

* Christopher Dylan Herbert as _congregant_: baritone vox;
* Craig Phillips as _congregant_: bass vox;
* Geoffrey Williams as _Leon_: countertenor vox;
* Steven Caldicott Wilson as _congregant_: tenor vox;

## Set Two: The War Reporter

[9:04 PM performers enter]

1. Mogadishu
2. Columbia University
3. Johannesburg
4. Mosul
5. Phoenix  
[9:56 PM work ends]

### Vocalists

* [Heather Buck](http://www.barrettvantage.com/artist.php?id=hbuck) as _Honderich_ and one of _Paul's inner voices_: soprano vox;

.  
**♂ [New York Polyphony](http://www.newyorkpolyphony.com/) ♂**

* Christopher Dylan Herbert as _Paul Watson_: baritone vox;
* Craig Phillips as _Cleveland_: bass vox;
* Geoffrey Williams as one of _Paul's inner voices_: countertenor vox;
* Steven Caldicott Wilson as _Cleveland's Brother_ and one of _Paul's inner voices_: tenor vox.


## Performers

### St. Lawrence String Quartet

[St. Lawrence String Quartet](http://slsq.com/)

* Christopher Costanza: cello;
* Geoff Nutall: violin;
* Lesley Robertson: viola;
* Scott St. John: violin;

### Supporting performers

* [Pascal Archer](http://www.pascalarcher.com/): clarinet;
* [Pedja Muzijevic](http://www.pedjamuzijevic.com/): piano;
* Tara Helen O’Connor: flute;
* Steven Schick: percussion
* Stephen Tramontozzi: bass;

### Production credits

* [Jonathan Berger](https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~brg/): composer;
* [Mark DeChiazza](http://markdechiazza.com/): videography;
* [Rinde Eckert](http://www.rindeeckert.com/): director;
* [Dan O’Brien](http://www.danobrien.org/): librettist;
* Christopher Rountree: conductor.


## ☺ Notes ☺ 

Tonight we enjoyed our best seats of the season thus far -- smack dab in the middle of row H, a great vantage point to observe the theatrics of tonight's two works. And the sound tonight was excellent, except for one very important issue, which is that the singing was not especially intelligible. I can't say whether this is a matter of enunciation on the part of the singers, acoustic issues with the hall, or a simply failure of hearing on our part, but no matter the cause, it was quite annoying! As both Ting and Tom mentioned during the intermission, it would have really helped to have supertitles projected up on the walls.

For my part, I enjoyed both works, and found the music to be consistently interesting, if not necessarily tuneful or memorable (as many sections of interstitial music seemed to consist more of sound effects rather than melodies or harmonic development of the songs). I was also surprised at the absence of any significant arias -- in fact, it seems like a rather startling omission, but I suppose that was a conscious decision, made for brevity's sake.

Mark Dechiazza has posted links to several videos from these two works on his [website](http://markdechiazza.com/visitations-theotokia-and-the-war-reporter/).

[Stanford Live promo article](https://arts.stanford.edu/visitations-theotokia-and-the-war-reporter-chamber-operas-by-jonathan-berger-and-landfall-a-collaboration-between-laurie-anderson-and-kronos-quartet/)

[Jesse Hamlin's promo for SFCV](http://www.sfcv.org/article/can-you-compose-a-hallucination)

[Rebecca Wallace' promo for Palo Alto Weekly](http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=18663)

{{tag>music multimedia Theotokia The_War_Reporter Bing_Concert_Hall Jonathan_Berger Rinde_Eckert Dan_O’Brien Christopher_Rountree Heather_Buck New_York_Polyphony St._Lawrence_String_Quartet Geoffrey_Williams Steven_Caldicott_Wilson Christopher_Dylan_Herbert Craig_Phillips Christopher_Costanza Geoff_Nutall; Lesley_Robertson Scott_St._John Pascal_Archer Pedja_Muzijevic Tara_Helen_O’Connor Steven_Schick Stephen_Tramontozzi }}