Search - Jocelyne Fleury (mezzo-soprano);Ensemble Prima;John Plant (piano) :: John Plant: Vocal Works in Eight Languages - La notte bella; Romance Sonambulo; Babel is a blessing; in the world of zero

La notte bella, written in the trenches during World War I, traces the mysterious emergence of joy out of the stagnation of despair. Given the extreme conciseness of the poem, much of this emotional progress is articulated by the cello and violin. A sombre and lyrical threnody at the heart of the piece yields to exuberant bell-like pizzicati and an ecstatic vocalise for the singer. The work was first performed in Montreal, at the Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur, in 2001. Romance sonámbulo, the finest of Lorca s Gypsy Ballads, has haunted me since adolescence. The narrative hinted at in its surrealistic imagery is that of a smuggler, pursued by the Civil Guard, trying to reach the house of the girl who is waiting for him. He meets the father, who is in a state of despair; the two of them ascend to the roof terrace, where they find the girl floating in the cistern, perhaps a suicide. I wanted to give this work an almost operatic dimension, while still maintaining the simplicity and lyrical impetuousness of the ballad form. In the conversations between the two men, I aimed to give each their own identity and character. The music associated with the word green, symbol of ardent desire, recurs throughout the work; in its varied guises, I have tried to convey the tragic and hallucinatory intensity of the action. This theme closes the work in the form of unfurling waves of sound, overwhelming the souls of the two men devastated by the death of the gypsy girl. Romance sonámbulo was first performed with full orchestra by the Montreal Chamber Orchestra under Wanda Kaluzny, in 1999. The chamber version was premiered by Ensemble Prima under Mélanie Léonard, in 2006. Babel is a blessing stems from my lifelong infatuation with languages. I date my vocation as a composer from the chance discovery of a bilingual libretto of Mozart s Marriage of Figaro at the age of ten. It is a collection of songs rather than a cycle, and the performers should feel free to choose among them and to order them as they please. An orchestral version of Babel was premiered by the Montreal Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Wanda Kaluzny in 2008. The voice/piano version was premiered by the present performers in November 2009 in Halifax. in the world of zero is about the crisis and rebirth which occur when one is ready to make a connection, to love. Love happens out of the matrix of ultimate alarm and results in a new birth, but also in the annihilation of the old self. There is a point - the point of zero- where nothing exists except the possibility of this new connection. All other connections, assumptions, beliefs, habits, identities, are suspended or disappear. The clusters and percussion of the beginning are a kind of inner Big Bang, the volcanic, tumultuous matrix from which love emerges. The work alternates between storm and elated peace; later, the storm itself becomes ecstatic and acquires its own song. We emerge, new, into the strangeness of a new universe. in the world of zero was first performed in Ottawa by L Ensemble du Jeu Présent, under the direction of Paolo Bellomia, in 1996.