- CONCEIVED, WRITTEN, AND DIRECTED BY MIKEL ROUSE
OCT 4—7 AT 7:30PM
BAM HARVEY THEATER
TICKETS: $20, 30, 40, 45
BAMDIALOGUE WITH MIKEL ROUSE
OCT 5, POST-SHOW
(FREE FOR TICKET HOLDERS)
"[A] composer many believe to be the best of his generation."—The New York Times
We've become accustomed to experiencing media in bits and pieces. Whatever the form—music videos, reality TV, Hollywood blockbusters, formulaic sitcoms—we are adept at making some kind of sense of what we see, no matter how brief the snippet. How did this happen? And how, asks composer Mikel Rouse in his groundbreaking pop-opera
The End Of Cinematics, has the rise of corporate-controlled entertainment affected how we experience the art of cinema?
Inspired by two of Susan Sontag's essays on film,
Cinematics is the final installment of Rouse's "opera verité" trilogy that addresses Americans' attitudes about religion, spirituality, and pop culture. The first two components,
Failing Kansas and
Dennis Cleveland (hailed by
The Village Voice as "the most exciting and innovative new opera since
Einstein on the Beach..."), looked at the societal ramifications of mass communications.
Cinematics turns to the apotheosis of entertainment media—film— while employing innovative three-dimensional technology to redefine both cinema and theater for a new century.
A sensual multimedia discourse drawing from cinema's bygone silent era and today's omnipresent hyper-reality of surround sound and kaleidoscopic images,
Cinematics juxtaposes walls of layered vocals, hard-driving alt-rock beats, and gorgeous visuals: city streets, subways, skies, nighttime Paris, and people, whose onscreen images are echoed by onstage performers. The effect is at once seductive and chilling. If we're drawn to anything that flickers, story or not, what does that say about us?
APX. RUNNING TIME: 80MIN, NO INTERMISSION
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY MIKEL ROUSE
SET DESIGN BY THOMAS KAMM
LIGHTING DESIGN BY HIDEAKI TSUTSUI
COSTUME DESIGN BY ANNE KENNEY
SOUND DESIGN BY CHRISTOPHER THOMAS ERICSON
VIDEO SYSTEMS DESIGN BY JEFF SUGG
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY RICHARD CONNORS
Commissioned by The University of Illinois Swanlund Initiative for the Performing Arts in the College of Fine and Applied Arts with support from the Office of the Provost; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008; Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts/ University of California, Davis; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Florida, Gainesville; Miami Performing Arts Center; BAM with funds provided by the Mary Flagler Charitable Trust; the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund; and UCLA Live/University of California, Los Angeles. Additional support provided by St. Ann’s Warehouse.