Kate Soper & Nigel Maister, I Was Here I Was I
I Was Here I Was I is a unique opera, created both for and about the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who commissioned the work. It tells a story that crosses thousands of years, looking at how we make our mark on the world, and let those who come after us know that we were here. The premiere production at the Temple of Dendur featured composer Kate Soper as 19th Century Egyptologist Amelia Edwards, alongside Alarm Will Sound musicians who both play instruments and portray characters in the drama.
HighlightsNew York Times - Zachary Woolfe
"The most striking passages were those featuring the Nubian brothers, who are given eerily pure harmonies, akin to medieval plainchants, over shimmering accompaniment." "Each of these characters is associated in Ms. Soper’s flickering, agile score with a different instrument, “Peter and the Wolf” style, most notably the flutist (an excellent Erin Lesser) paired with Amelia Edwards and the bumptious trombonist pegged to the contemporary tourist. Mr. Maister’s libretto tends toward lugubrious musings on history (“to lose the future is to lose the compass of the present”), but his direction was more inspired, with the characters moving dreamily through the space." |
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Notable Performances
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Temple of Dendur, New York, NY
2014
From the Artistic Director
There’s a corner you turn in the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum where the labyrinth of museum galleries suddenly opens up into a staggering vista of the Temple of Dendur. Even when I know what I’m about to see, turning that corner is still a powerful experience. Every time I turned that corner during the process of creating I Was Here I Was I, I was struck by what an incredible thing it is to be creating art at the Metropolitan Museum. We created this work expressly for the Temple of Dendur, using the Temple not only as venue but as subject.
The piece weaves together multiple layers of the story of the Temple—the myth of its creation, a nineteenth century novelist’s recounting of her visit, the project that led to its relocation to New York, and an unintentional visit by a young contemporary tourist—and uses those materials to look at what we take from the places we visit and how we impact them. The project was the culmination of Alarm Will Sound’s year-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum. The Metropolitan Museum—with its extraordinary spaces, collection, and stories—offered us an unparalleled sandbox for creating just this sort of work.
The piece weaves together multiple layers of the story of the Temple—the myth of its creation, a nineteenth century novelist’s recounting of her visit, the project that led to its relocation to New York, and an unintentional visit by a young contemporary tourist—and uses those materials to look at what we take from the places we visit and how we impact them. The project was the culmination of Alarm Will Sound’s year-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum. The Metropolitan Museum—with its extraordinary spaces, collection, and stories—offered us an unparalleled sandbox for creating just this sort of work.
Credits
composer Kate Soper
conductor & artistic director Alan Pierson
staging director Nigel Maister
ensemble Alarm Will Sound
conductor & artistic director Alan Pierson
staging director Nigel Maister
ensemble Alarm Will Sound