LIBRETTO Text from the opera SOUND FILES Extracts in RealAudio INTERVIEW with the Composers "I AM YOUR SPY" by Vanunu MORDECHAI VANUNU Information and links RECORDINGS Available from?
In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu revealed to Britain's Sunday Times, corroborated with photographic evidence gathered while employed as a technician in Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, that Israel was engaged in the production of offensive nuclear weapons, unknown to the rest of the world and unknown to the population of Israel itself. He was kidnapped by Israel's secret service and returned to face trial. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and is currently in his 6th year of solitary confinement.
The story of Vanunu embraces a comprehensive array of 20th Century obsessions and phobias - nuclear war, technology, religion, racism, human rights, democracy - in particular raising questions about the meaning of democracy without freedom of information and freedom of speech. It also embodies issues of individual conscience, risk, sacrifice and the enactment of ideology.
The "Vanunu" aural/operatic piece maps out the fatal journey of its subject - Vanunu the person, Vanunu the embodiment of the concepts described above and Vanunu as a metaphor for global society nearing the end of the 20th Century - its choices, its political and spiritual dilemmas and the possibility of a disastrous fate.
A layering of music, sound and text, it takes its form echoing the dualities, pluralities and forks in the road of Vanunu's journey, a journey across physical and psychic terrains, across numerous geographic and cultural sites, from North Africa to Israel, through the Himalayas and South East Asia to Australia*. Underlying this shifting scenery is Vanunu's vacillation over the choice to act, over the polarities of his Arab and Jewish identity, his rejection of Judaism and adoption of Christianity and the significance of its tenets underscoring his decision to bear witness.
This complex of tensions reflects in the process by which the Vanunu piece formed, in the simultaneity of various musical motifs, in the chemistry and conflict of two composers, of acoustic versus electronic sound, tonal against atonal composition, spoken text against song.
*(It was during his period living in Kings Cross in Sydney that the weight of repressed conscience a range of influences - a comparatively liberating political climate, the pacifist and anti-nuclear values held by the society of St John's parish in Darlinghurst, the influence of those seeking to make money from his story - lead him to reveal his knowledge of the Israeli military's secret and perilous activities to the world, and to Israel itself.)
"Vanunu" was first broadcast on July 25 1994 on ABC FM's The Listening Room. Music composed and performed by Robert Iolini and David Nerlich with a libretto by David Nerlich. Mezzo-soprano, Yolanda Podolski; Bass-baritone, Clive Birch.The producer for the Listening Room was Andrew McLennan; engineer, Jon Jacobs.
David Nerlich composes and performs mainly with electronics, in electro-acoustic or music-theatrical ensembles. Recent performances have been at Performance Space in Sydney, and in Brisbane at Livid Festival and International Music Festival Fringe.He has produced two other pieces for the Listening Room, "Dark Star - A Shadow on the Sun" and "Rare Frequencies".
Robert Iolini spent many years working within the realms of improvisation, exploring the idioms of dance and ethnic music through to electronic/computer music. During this time he also extensively studied and performed music from Africa. In 1991 Robert decided to concentrate on a more rigorous structural approach to composition. He began studying with composer Richard Vella writing a series of instrumental pieces which blend systemic procedures and rhytmic organisation with a variety of musical idioms. Recently performed works include the instrumental pieces 'Carne Bianca' and 'Lingo Babel' for violin, saxophone, clarinet and piano, commissioned by austraLYSIS and in October this year Synergy Percussion performed 'Congo' and 'Zimbabwe' scored for three marimbas and vibraphone. Currently Robert is doing research for a Master of Arts degree in composition at Macquarie University .
Visit the MESH page - a current live performance project by David and Robert.
