About this project
OCEANIC VERSES
a VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects World Premiere.
created & composed by PAOLA PRESTINI
video by ALI HOSSAINI
libretto by DONNA DI NOVELLI
directed by KEVIN NEWBURY
conducted by JULIAN WACHNER
with the Washington Chorus, Novus NY & the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
projection design by S. KATY TUCKER
costume and set design by VITA TZYKUN
lighting design by BRUCE STEINBERG
OCEANIC VERSES Performances
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, May 14-18, 2012
The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. June 23, 2012; The River to River Festival, New York, NY, June 26, 2012; The Barbican Centre/BBC Orchestra, London, UK May 2013
Originally Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Official Selection New York City Opera VOX 2010, excerpts performed on 21c Liederabend 2011 at the Kitchen with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Oceanic Verses is currently being expanded from a 35′ oratorio to an evening length production to premiere at the Kennedy Center and River to River summer 2012 with the Washington Chorus. Barbican Centre with the BBC orchestra May 2013.
OCEANIC VERSES is a multimedia opera created by acclaimed new music composer Paola Prestini in collaboration with film artist Ali Hossaini and librettist Donna Di Novelli. Through OCEANIC VERSES, Prestini fiercely plumbs the lineage of her own Italian ancestry, imagining a synthesis of the rich and vast folkloric traditions of the Mediterranean through an eccentric and evocative modern lens. Originally a commission from Carnegie Hall, it is now being re-envisioned for a premiere at the Kennedy Center and the Barbican. OCEANIC VERSES follows four separate arcs as a Sailor (folksinger Claudio Prima) gets lost at sea; a Scholar investigating immigration (improviser Helga Davis) loses her suitcase; a Mother (soprano Hila Plitmann) goes hungry and finds her voice; and a Soldier (Chris Burchett) crawls through a war zone and finds his love. All four characters are joined by their yearning to uncover the past.
OCEANIC VERSES musically paints a picture of Italy as it once was, a cross section of cultures expressed through song. By examining and researching the Salento region, and allowing the inspiration of this land to serve as a metaphor for fading civilizations and rebirth, Prestini creates a work that illuminates the complex ethnic mosaic that has shaped her cultural heritage. The story is derived from lost languages, texts of ancient songs, and found poems, woven into a beautiful literary tapestry by librettist Donna Di Novelli. Using a technique of undulating video, Hossaini creates a visual music onscreen that presents the inner lives of the characters on an ultrawide screen that curves around the stage. Players and audience will be immersed in the folkloric landscape that inspired OCEANIC VERSES.
A few updates here to answer some questions being asked:
the VisionIntoArt CD's can be previewed here:
http://paolaprestini.com/store/
And, the prints are of the Leaning Queen, and Queen in Waves. I will post them in an update! The podcast reward for $10 is a special audio visual recording by Ali Hossaini from Oceanic only available to Kickstarter supporters:)
ALL PLEDGES ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE. These funds will be used for commissioning purposes: ie for the composer, librettist, filmmaker, costumes, and directing fees. The Presenters are covering production costs but not commissioning-which can be typical as an emerging composer. You have to take the opportunity and then make the funds happen! For your records, the tax identification number of VisionIntoArt Presents Inc. is EIN 13 - 4158573. VisionIntoArt Presents Inc. is a non-profit organization registered as an incorporated entity at the New York State Department Division of Corporations and State Records.
FAQ
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on January 5.
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a special download of podcast by Hossaini for Oceanic Verses.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
an Oceanic Verses fine quality print
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
2 Oceanic Verses fine quality prints Leaning Queen, and Queen in Waves
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
1 print of choice, Tickets to River to River, the Kennedy Center, and a special seat to previews in May 2012
Project By
Connected as Paola Prestini (3526 friends)
PAOLA PRESTINI is a composer, and the director and co-founder of VisionIntoArt, an interdisciplinary production company that has created over 50 multimedia productions worldwide and garnered the title “Best of 2009″ in classical and opera performances by TimeOut NY. VisionIntoArt has been called “always intriguing and frequently beguiling…” by the New York Times, and its partnership with organizations such as Beth Morrison Projects, Opera on Tap, The American Composers Orchestra and Young Audiences has created riveting programs.
Named by NPR as one of the Top 100 composers in the World under 40, her compositions have been deemed “radiant…[and] amorously evocative” by The New York Times, and praised by composers such as Terry Riley, ” music [that] speaks from the heart and inspires…” and by Osvaldo Golijov, “wrenching and tender and luminous and pure and exuberant: always vivid and always generous…” Her 2009 Tzadik release BODY MAPS has been featured on WQXR and Q2 and showcases new music’s great soloists. She has been commissioned and performed by ACME, Ensemble ACJW, Carnegie Hall, ETHEL, the Kronos Quartet, MATA, New York City Opera (VOX), and WNYC and performed by soloists such as Helga Davis, Rinde Eckert, and Hila Plitmann. Her interdisciplinary collaborations with artists Erika Harrsch, Ali Hossaini, Carmen Kordas, and S. Katy Tucker have been lauded by TimeOut NY as “Ingeniously staged concert pieces that gracefully walk the line between opera and performance art.” Her work has been presented worldwide, in venues ranging from Zankel Hall, The Kitchen, The Whitney Museum, Le Poisson Rouge, PS 122, and the Stone in New York, to Etnafest, Milano’s Teatro Manzoni and Sound Res in Italy, and BEMUS in Belgrade, Serbia.
Current projects include ARMENIA at BAM Next Wave festival for the Kronos Quartet; a work for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Music Now series; A DEGREE OF DIFFERENCE, a residency at the Krannert Center; LABYRINTH, a new work for cellist Maya Beiser; OCEANIC VERSES, a folk opera commissioned by Carnegie Hall, expanded to premiere at the Kennedy Center with Julian Wachner and the Washington Chorus; DE DEO, an opera with librettist Donna Di Novelli that inaugurated New York City Opera’s Word First Program; and AN AGING MAGICIAN, a multimedia song cycle with text by Jonathan Safran Foer starring Rinde Eckert and Gabriel Kahane.
Ms. Prestini has been featured in composition residencies throughout the US and abroad: from the Ucross Foundation, Dickinson College, North Carolina School of the Arts, UCLA and Presbyterian University to colleges and residencies in Sicily, and Puglia, in Italy, as well as in Mexico and in Venezuela. Her film collaborations have made the New York Times Critic’s Pick, and have won first prize and made official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and Austin Film Festival, among others. She has directed education programs at VisionIntoArt Young Visionaries (Director), the American Composers Orchestra (Director), and the New York Youth Symphony Making Score (Assoc. Director), and has taught and created curricula for the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, and the American Symphony Orchestra League in addition to designing web education projects for Carnegie Hall (The Leon Fleisher Schubert project). She is a founding member of the Very Young Composers program at the New York Philharmonic for which she edited a book and has taught world-wide, from inner city schools in NY, to El Sistema in Venezuela.
Ms. Prestini’s commissions, grants and awards have come from the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the BMI Fund, NYSCA (two Individual Artist grants), the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Concert Artist Guild, The Cary Trust, and the ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award. 2011 saw the inauguration of Mexico Canta! a new opera lab she is co-directing through VisionIntoArt with author Magda Bogin in Tepoztlan, Mexico. She received her BM and MM at the Juilliard School and has studied with Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. She is a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, and a 2010 Sundance Fellow.
