parthenogenesis
Variations on Hebrew Themes
music by Sergei Prokofiev
Raising Sparks
music by James MacMillan
text by Michael Symmons Roberts
mezzo soprano Jean Rigby
and the world premiere of
PARTHENOGENESIS
music by James MacMillan
libretto by Michael Symmons Roberts
with Archbishop Rowan Williams
Britten Sinfonia
conducted by James MacMillan
Cambridge Corn Exchange
Tuesday 12 September 2000, 7:30pm
Followed by a presentation and discussion with James MacMillan, Michael Symmons Roberts and Rowan Williams.
> EDINBURGH FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE, August 2001
parthenogenesis
libretto: Michael Symmons Roberts
music: James MacMillan
It may just be my literary bias, but I'm convinced that when theology meets the arts, stories must come first and ideas second. Here is the story which kick-started us. One night in Hanover, Germany, in 1944, a young woman was caught on the streets in an Allied bombing raid. She was unable to find her way to a shelter, and was thrown to the pavement by the blast of a bomb in a nearby street. She recovered from minor injuries, but nine months later gave birth to a daughter. This baby girl had identical fingerprints, blood type, and other indicators to her mother. The woman adamantly maintained that she had not had sex, and medical tests supported her claim. How was the child conceived? Examining doctors hypothesised that the shock of the bomb may have jarred a dormant body cell within the woman's womb, triggering parthenogenesis - nonsexual reproduction.
Although this case (as with all claims of human parthenogenesis) was never fully proven, the issues it raises, and the poetic power of the story, captivated me. Parthenogenesis is a strange form of reproduction which occasionally occurs in plants and animals. The word comes from the Greek parthenos ('virgin'), to signify that in parthenogenesis there is no mixing of parental genes - all the genes come from one parent organism. The offspring is produced by action within a single cell. In effect, it is cloning by nature. The product of a spontaneous human parthenogenesis would be female, and may not live beyond birth. However, this rare natural cloning has been the spur for generations of scientists to try to achieve this by design, rather than by accident. Throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries, scientists have been fascinated by the possibility of parthenogenesis in animals. Famous (and infamous) experiments were performed on seahorses, insects, frogs, etc. with mixed results.
The Hanover story is rich and resonant, poetically and dramatically. Poetically it is the shadow side of the incarnation: a virgin birth in opposites with not God but human evil as the 'father' - a sort of negative-print of the nativity. Dramatically it has tremendous power and intrigue: a human clone born into a Germany obsessed by genetic experimentation and theory; or a virgin birth in a Germany where so many were praying for divine deliverance. For different reasons and with different intentions, this mother and child would be hunted. Either way, the power of the story, the fascination of the relationship between mother and 'cloned' child, and the gathering pace of genetic research towards its holy grail (or ultimate blasphemy) of human cloning combine to make 'Parthenogenesis' a very live story.
At the first meeting of our Theology Through the Arts 'pod' Group, I told James and Rowan the Hanover story and all three of us felt it opened up strong possibilities for us. After many hours of wide-ranging conversation, a shape began to emerge, and I was able to start work on the libretto. Parthenogenesis is a small-scale, intimate music theatre piece, comprising three voices, soprano, baritone and actress/speaker. It takes the dark parallelism of the Hanover event with the incarnation back a stage further, to the annunciation. The soprano voice is that of Kristel - mother-to-be of the clone-child. She knows nothing of what is to happen to her. The baritone voice is that of Bruno, a flawed, falling, ambiguous angel; in love with Kristel and with the world. The spoken female voice is that of Anna, the imagined voice of the future clone-child, bitter and torn apart by her origins, by her status as her mother's doppelganger.
On one level it is a story of seduction, but through the angel's lust for the world, Kristel's pity for him, and Anna's bitter commentary on this dark parodic 'annunciation', Parthenogenesis also explores questions of identity and the roots of individuality. In the tension between a pure, angelic plane and the messy, risky business of human life and death there is a metaphor for the genetics debate, in which utopia offers the end of illness, deformity, even of death; but at the cost (at least) of freedom, diversity, and risk. Parthenogenesis explores some of the questions of liberty and control, life and death, utopia and dystopia, which circle around the breathtaking developments of modern genetics. Everyone agrees that the pace of science is outstripping the rest of the culture in absorbing and responding to these developments which raise profound philosophical, theological and human questions.
Michael Symmons Roberts
raising sparks
Libretto: Michael Symmons Roberts
Music: James MacMillan
I first came across this story in a second hand Theology Bookshop in London. It was a book in a series called The Classics of Western Spirituality, which looks at great spiritual masters. This particular book was about Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl (1730 - 97). Menahem Nahum was a great writer and teacher in the Hasidic Jewish tradition, and this book focused on one of his works called The Light of the Eyes. Hasidism is one of the richest religious and philosophical traditions, full of mystical and poetic treasures. The theologian Martin Buber considered Hasidism the most significant phenomenon in the past 250 years of religion. I have long been interested in Jewish theology and mysticism, but had not come across Menahem Nahum, so I bought this book.
At the centre of the book is the creation and redemption story concerning the shattering of the divine light of creation, and the raising of sparks, or fragments of that light. In short, it depicts an act of self-limiting or withdrawal on the part of God, holding back his power and light to make space to create something other than himself - Zimzum. Then into this space God shines his light of creation, but that light is so intense that it smashes the clay vessels intended to capture it - Shevira. This cataclysm results in fragments of divine light - sparks - being scattered across the world, landing in accessible and inaccessible places. Sometimes these sparks were concealed by shards of the clay vessels. The whole thing then becomes a very powerful metaphor. Sparks can be found (and thus raised) in trivial encounters, small acts of mercy. They are just as likely to be found in the eyes of a stranger as the eyes of your children. It also carries with it the idea that re-creating the divine light, the ultimate aim of this redemptive process, can only be achieved if everyone (every Hasidic Jew in its original form) plays his or her role. There are certain sparks that only you can raise, and your whole life may be building towards that end, without your knowledge. This stresses the need for vigilance and purpose even in apparently minor duties and encounters.
But within the story is also the promise that God is gracious, and will lead you to the situations and people where your sparks lie hidden. In the back of my mind when writing the sequence inspired by this creation/redemption story was its dark twin. We all know Chernobyl for something other than its history as a great Hasidic centre and home of Menahem Nahum. Yet the parallels between the imagery of Raising Sparks and the nuclear disaster are chilling to say the least - the breaking of the vessels, the shattering of the light, the fallout across the world. The narrative voice of the poems is the voice of a woman, a mother, an exile.
© Michael Symmons Roberts
The two central concepts at the heart of this creation and redemption story in both Menahem Nahum's book and Michael Symmons Roberts' poetry are Zimzum - the holding back of God's power and light to make space for something other than Himself, and Shevira - the smashing of the clay vessels intended to capture the intense light of God's creation. The two words form the basis of a refrain that recurs between each song, binding the poems into a single seamless entity. Another binding ingredient is a little cell of three notes involving the rise of a minor third and a falling semitone (and variations and developments of this) which control and generate much of the song-cycles material. The first song includes some very fragile and tentative music for both singer and ensemble. The effect is mystical and introductory, preparing the way for Songs II and III in which the cycle's greatest weight and through-composed musical argument is contained. The style of these two songs is narrative and dramatic, covering a wide range of feelings, concepts and images from the everyday to the transcendent. Song IV has a sense of danger and evil, and a whiff of pogrom. The atmosphere is created by special effects on piano and harp and with a mournful, incantory melody on viola and cello. The 'catherine wheels' at the end of the poem spark off an incendiary instrumental interlude which, in turn, leads to Song V which is intimate, sparse and recitative-like. The final song introduces the familiar popular archetypes of chorale, folksong and folkdance before fading to a calm but mysterious close.
©James MacMillan
James MacMillan
James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland, settling in Glasgow where he teaches part-time at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. In 1990, the successful premiere of Tryst at the St Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. MacMillan is also Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Discovery series of 20th century music. MacMillan's music is notable for its extraordinary directness, energy and emotional power. References to Scottish folk music imbue MacMillan's work with a strong sense of the vernacular, while strongly-held religious and political beliefs coupled with community concerns inform both the spirit and subject matter of his music.
In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan's international career at the BBC Proms in 1990, his orchestral output includes the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, composed for Evelyn Glennie, which has rapidly been taken into the repertoire. The work has received over 150 performances to date and has been programmed by leading international orchestras and conductors. MacMillan's music has been programmed extensively at international music festivals, most notably the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, and the Bergen Festival in 1997, and the South Bank Centre's 1997 Raising Sparks festival in London, devoted to his music. Other works by MacMillan include Seven Last Words from the Cross for chorus and string orchestra, screened on BBC TV during Holy Week 1994, InŽs de Castro, premiered by Scottish Opera at the Edinburgh Festival and being staged again in 1999, and a triptych of orchestral works commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra: The World's Ransoming, a Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, and Symphony: 'Vigil' premiered under the baton of Rostropovich in 1997. In terms of recordings, the Koch Schwann disc of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Tryst won the 1993 Gramophone Contemporary Music Record of the Year Award, and the BMG recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel won the 1993 Classic CD Award for Contemporary Music. A second recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel has recently been released on the Naxos label, featuring Colin Currie, and a series of new MacMillan discs is planned for release this year by BIS, including the complete Triduum series of orchestral works. MacMillan's current projects include a new work for The Hilliard Ensemble and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Andrew Davis, with performances scheduled in London and Philadelphia.
Michael Symmons Roberts
Born 1963 in Preston, Lancashire, Michael studied Philosophy and Theology at Oxford University, then worked in journalism before joining the BBC in 1989. Since then, he has combined working as a BBC radio and TV documentary-maker with writing and reviewing. He won the major Gregory Award from Society of Authors, for British poets under 30, and was also Prizewinner/Commended in the National Poetry Competition, the Arvon International Poetry Competition, the TLS Poetry Competition and the Cheltenham Festival Competition. Michael's poems are published widely, including in the TLS, London Review of Books, the Independent, PN Review, Verse, Poetry Wales, London Magazine, Ambit; and broadcast on Radio 3 'Nightwaves', Radio 4 'Kaleidoscope', and the World Service. He also reviews of other people's poetry for the TLS.
In 1993 his first full collection - 'Soft Keys'- was published by Secker & Warburg. The Observer wrote of it : 'Michael Symmons Roberts' poems are intense and sensual explorations of the moment when the soul quickens to some ice-cracking life.' In 1997 'Raising Sparks', was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, with further performances at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and the Queens Hall Edinburgh. 1999 saw the publication by Jonathan Cape of the collection - 'Raising Sparks' - published by Jonathan Cape, about which The Guardian wrote 'He reflects on the world in a way that is informed by a sense of grace, of transcendence, but the pieces are grounded in detail, beautifully expressed, subtly luminous.' A further collaboration with James MacMillan led to 'Quickening' - A choral commission for the BBC Proms, premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, performed by the Hilliard Ensemble, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and the Westminster Cathedral Choir. Co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
Rowan Williams
Elected to be the 11th Archbishop of Wales in December 1999, Rowan Williams studied at Christ's College, Cambridge and at Christ Church and Waham College in Oxford, gaining his Dphil in 1975 and a DD in 1989. He lectured at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield from 1975 until his ordination as deacon two years later. After his ordination as a priest in 1978, he served as honorary curate at St George's, Chesterton. After being chaplain, tutor and director of studies at Westcott House in Cambridge for three years, he took up a new post as University Lecturer in Divinity. In 1984 he also took on the role of dean of Clare College. Two years later, he moved to Oxford to become Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and canon of Christ Church. He was appointed canon theologian at Leicester Cathedral in 1981 and examining chaplain to the Bishop of Manchester in 1987.
He relinquished all these roles in 1992 when he was made Bishop of Monmouth. Since that year he has also chaired the Church in Wales Division for Social Responsibility. In 1994 he was made an honorary fellow of the University College of Swansea (now University of Wales Swansea) and of Clare College, Cambridge. He is the author of The Wound of Knowledge (1979), Resurrection (1982), The Truce of God (1983), Beginning Now: Peacemaking /theology (1984) with Mark Collier, Arius: Heresy and Tradition (1987), Teresa of Avila (1991), Open to Judgement and After Silent Centuries (both 1994) and Sergii Bulgakov: Towards a Russian Political Theology (1998). He also edited The Making of Orthodoxy (1989). He has been married since 1981 and has a son and a daughter.
Britten Sinfonia
The Britten Sinfonia, under Artistic Director Nicholas Cleobury and the management of David Butcher, features some of the most talented young musicians in the country, many of whom perform as soloists in their own right, such as violinist Pauline Lowbury who leads the orchestra, oboist Nicholas Daniel and the Haffner Wind Ensemble who make up the wind section of the orchestra. The Britten Sinfonia is the musical ambassador for the Eastern region and has established an enviable reputation at the forefront of British orchestral music, which was highlighted when the orchestra received a 1996 Gramophone Award for its debut CD on EMI. The orchestra performs regularly throughout Britain and abroad and has been featured at many of the UK's most prestigious festivals. The orchestra's aims are spearheaded by education work and introducing music to new audiences. Their Education Department offers radical programmes of workshops and creative music activities as well as informative pre-concert talks for the general public and imaginatively presented children's concerts. Recent projects have included the world premiere of a children's opera Snail Dreaming involving over 200 primary school children at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. The Britten Sinfonia broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and is in demand with recording companies. The orchestra made six recordings in 1997 alone and their recent recording of the Mozart wind concertos featuring soloists from the orchestra was described by Norman Lebrecht in The Daily Telegraph as 'the finest I have heard from British soloists in a decade'.
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
SCOTTISH PREMIERE of Parthenogenesis
The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Sunday 19th August 2001
Lisa Milne sang the part of Kristel, the mother-to-be. Christopher Purves took the role of Bruno, the fallen angel. The daughter, Anna, was played by Anastasia Hille.
The performance, with the Britten Sinfonia, was conducted by James MacMillan.
Reviews:
'The performance, with the Britten Sinfonia conducted by the composer, must be deemed faultless, and the intensity that Lisa Milne (mother), Christopher Purves (angel) and Anastasia Hille (daughter) brought to their interpretations was definitely operatic.'
The Times
'Typical of MacMillan, and his librettist Michael Symmons Robert, the religious considerations of this phenomenon - which both use to reinforce the concept of religious Annunciation - find a deep-rooted presence in this one-hour piece. Robert's punchy text is engaging, allusive and teasingly ambiguous, while MacMillan's music adds a tortuous dimension, wracked with turbulent open emotions, and periods of gorgeous serenity. In this concert performance . . . the attention was solely focused on the three characters: the mother Kristel, sung by the soprano Lisa Milne; the unborn daughter Anna, spoken by actress Anastasia Hille; and Bruno, a fallen angel, performed by baritone Chistopher Purves. The slow and steady unfolding of their thoughts is the linchpin of the work, illuminated by a busy and volatile instrumental score - played here with seething conviction by the Britten Sinfonia. It is vintage MacMillan in that the music shifts between simple and beautiful harmonies and deafening outbursts of flashing anger . . . The craftsmanship, as always, is exemplary. All three of Sunday's soloists lent sonority and rigidity to the text. Milne's towering portrayal encapsulated the confusion and mixed euphoria of the mother. Purves's enigmatic angel had a menacing ambiguity, unlike the strangely perceptive innocence of Hille as the child.'
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