Earlier, he made for Chamber opera house Zwolle the performance Being Arthur, in which the famous knights of the round table travel across the country by coach. On Friday, September 4, you will sail during the Zwolle city festival by boat to the premiere of his latest opera, I'm leaving. A love couple leaves the hectic world behind and returns to nature, where the man falls back into his primal instincts and the woman goes wandering in her mind. - Five questions to composer Lucas Wiegerink (Amsterdam, 1985).
Was it your own idea to compose an opera on the theme of back to nature?‘
Not quite. When I was commissioned by Kameroperahuis, I started thinking about what we wanted to make with librettist Annemarie Slotboom, director Karin Netten, designer Calle de Hoog and costume designer Dymph Boss. We felt it was important for each discipline to have a need, and for the different disciplines together to form a coherent whole. Because all the creators were involved in it from the very beginning, it became our 'baby' and everyone puts a lot of love into it.
While brainstorming, we came across a shared fascination with people who leave everything behind to start all over again. Many of us fantasise about changing course drastically, but the couple from the opera goes one step further. To completely turn their backs on the hectic and superficial world, they go to an uninhabited place in nature. After all, only there can you really leave (consumer) society behind. But we ask ourselves: to what extent has it not already become a part of ourselves? Is it possible to escape from it? And can you really escape from yourself?
What draws you to this topic?
'The theme of I'm leaving is totally contemporary and it suits me well. I strongly question the amount of stuff, energy and food we consume as a society. How long can you continue to deplete our planet? In doing so, I also take a critical look at myself. I am a vegetarian, but still like to bathe and am far from always knowing the origin of what I buy - maybe a rainforest was cut down for it. I wouldn't flee society any time soon, but sometimes I would like to.'
You are of a relatively young generation, are you concerned about the increasing hectic pace of our lives?
'I don't really worry about that, but sometimes it's hard. Especially that people now want (and maybe have to) be good at everything: their work, the household, their relationship, raising children... And it all has to be fun too, but life is not always fun, although it might seem that way when you open Facebook. That is brimming with people doing nice things while you sit at your computer or mobile phone. That creates a certain pressure. I am only active on Facebook and avoid other social media. Simply because otherwise it becomes too much for me - although sometimes I am quite curious about Twitter.'
How do you translate all those themes into music?
'I tried to give voice to the hectic by changing tempo and range a lot. Sometimes you hear soothing sounds on the gong or in the chimes, then fast, contrapuntal movements in cello and flute. Quite at the beginning of the performance, the woman is told the rules of the island, which upsets her so much that a mush of words blur up in all registers of her voice. I also deploy live electronics, manipulating and multiplying voices and sounds.
In addition, I use other strategies. For instance, choruses on lyrics like pling, ting, ratatata!, sounds that help remind the woman why she left. I also sometimes depict nature quite literally: the ensemble makes animal sounds. Or I look for it in open and quiet sounds that I associate with nature. The woman constantly wanders around in her inner rooms, while the man is busy with practical matters: how to survive in nature, back to 'primal'.
I didn't try to capture those primal instincts in the music so much as they are mostly expressed in Karin Netten's staging: the man is fishing, exploring the island, pitching the tent. Only in the second part of the performance does he get to sing more. In his 'Primal aria', he takes out his frustrations on his wife, who has very different ideas about 'primal'. It is an aria with many words and fierceness, with a Balkan-like rhythm and percussion.
‘
'Although the two characters do not have their own recognisable themes, I did try to give them their own character. The woman's music, for instance, is lighter, even somewhat ethereal towards the end. The man's has an earthy 'primal' sound, with a more percussive accompaniment and firm rhythms. The woman hears voices on the island. These sound sometimes sweet, sometimes understanding and accommodating. Sometimes they are alienating, for instance through the use of raunchy lyrics, as they might sound in your head.
The instrumentation is small, with only three singers, percussion, harp, flute and cello. While composing, I was inspired by different types of music. For instance, you can hear influences from early and romantic music, but also from Stravinsky and from the so-called 'Hague School' around Louis Andriessen. I studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with him and with his former pupil Martijn Padding. But I tried to make it an organic whole, it should not become a mishmash.'
Does the opera have anything to do with the television series Ik Vertrek?
'Indeed, I like that programme and the theme is similar: a couple wants to start a new life somewhere far away. But in our show, it happens a bit more extreme: the husband and wife really leave everything behind and move to a totally deserted place in nature. After much brainstorming, we found I'm leaving the most beautiful title, because it covers it on several fronts.'
I Leave will be performed in 'the last piece of untouched nature in Zwolle' and is a co-production of Kameroperahuis and the Nederlandse Reisopera. The performance list can be found at here.
Postscript August 2016: the opera will be repeated twice in the NJO Music Summer, on Sunday 14 and Monday 15 August in Open-air theatre De Pinkenberg, Velp.
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