Aquarius (opera)
Aquarius is an opera for eight sopranos, eight baritones, and orchestra by Karel Goeyvaerts. It was begun in 1983 and completed in April 1992, to a libretto by the composer in eight languages, incorporating lines from the Book of Revelation. History. "Aquarius" in its final form is an opera, but its composition involved a number of preliminary pieces for various forces, so that Goeyvaerts preferred to speak of the ""Aquarius" project". Goeyvaerts's inspiration came from principally four sources: Marilyn Ferguson's book "The Aquarian Conspiracy" (which he was given in 1983 by his friend Boudewijn Buckinx), the  astrological theory of epochs, the Revelation of St. John, and the commentary on the Apocalypse by the 8th-century exegete Beatus of Liébana Because no large, single commission for the entire opera was initially offered, Goeyvaerts set about composing the components separately, often for smaller forces than he intended for the definitive version. In this way, nearly all of his works from 1983 onward are related to "Aquarius" in one way or another. At last a commission from the Brussels Opera and deSingel, later joined by Antwerp '93, enabled Goeyvaerts to complete the opera in April 1992. When he suddenly  died on 3 February 1993, he had not finished correcting the manuscript for publication. This task was carried out by Mark De Smet. Libretto. The libretto does not consist of the conventional succession of vocal monologues, dialogues, and ensembles, and there is no narrative structure to the text. Goeyvaerts wrote most of the text himself, setting out at the beginning of the opera with non-semantic nonsense syllables and onomatopoeias, moving gradually to the use of more suggested and meaningful words until, in the final scene, coherent lines from the Revelation of St. John are sung in eight languages (Latin , Greek, Dutch, French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian). In this way there is a progression of increasing comprehensibility toward the final scene, which is the only part of the entire libretto where one can reasonably speak of the semantic use of language. Premiere cast. The staged premiere on Tuesday, 9 June 2009, in Antwerp was a co-production of the Holland Festival and the Vlaamse Opera. On 21 June 2009 the production was brought to the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam. The performers were the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and the Nederlands Kamerkoor, conducted by Alejo Pérez. Synopsis. "Aquarius" concerns  the search for and experience of a new and better society in the Age of Aquarius. The leading feature of this new society is perfect harmony between everyone's abilities his/her place in society. Goeyvaerts found the essential issue not to be the arrival of the traditional idea of the Aquarian society, but that a new society will replace the existing one. "Aquarius" is intended as a kind of initiational ritual into the secrets of this new society for everyone attending a performance. According to the composer, "Aquarius" is not about the individual's experiences or conflicts, but rather  is a drama of society—today's society, viewed as being in a gradual transition to new relationships between people which can already be observed sporadically. Society is represented on the stage by groups of dancers and singers, and the relationships within these groups represent the evolving structure of society. In Goeyvaerts's own words: References. Sources