Scene 1: In the gardens of Kublai Khan, the emperor mourns the loss of his empire
Scene 2: Marco Polo tells of the tale of Isidora, a city of desire
and loss
Scene 3: The ambassadors regale Kublai of their travels in
foreign tongues
Scene 3: Marco Polo remembers his own past through his travels
Music / Libretto
Based on the novel by
Conductor
Chorus Master
Musical Preparation
Kublai Khan
First Woman
Second Woman
Marco Polo
Christopher Cerrone
Based on the novel by Italo Calvino
David Wroe
Charles F. Prestinari
Susan Caldwell
Marcus DeLoach
Anya Matanovic
Janara Kellerman
Robert Mack
Christopher Cerrone is a composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music residing in New Haven, CT. Currently perusing graduate studies with Martin Bresnick and Ingram Marshall at the Yale School of Music (where he is the Virgil Thompson Fellow), he received his undergraduate degree in 2007 from the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Fueting. Show more
This past year Christopher Cerrone has received performances in the US and Europe from the Orchestra National de Lorraine (Metz, France), Flexible Music (New York), the Yale Philharmonia, the Manhattan Composers' Orchestra (New York), the New Music Collective (Charleston, SC), the New Music Institute at the Hochshule fur Musik, Berlin, saxophonist Eliot Gattegno, the Grenzelos Ensemble (New York/Berlin/Melbourne), the Zwo Concert series (Berlin), as well as Red Light New Music, the New York City-based ensemble and concert series that he co-directs. This past summer, he was a fellow at the Centre Acanthes in Metz, France.
He has been the recipient of awards and scholarships from the Lumina String Quartet, TACTUS, The Manhattan School of Music, the Cantemus Choir, New York University, Yale School of Music, among others and has been invited to present his music to composers including Pierre Boulez, Salvatore Sciarrino, Ezra Laderman, Fabien Levy, Christopher Theofanidis, Richard Danielpour, Steven Schick, Julia Wolfe, and Carlo Pari.
Mr. Cerrone is also an enthusiastic writer on the topic of music and has corresponded frequently for Opera News, specializing in contemporary and world music. He also remains active as a performer and lecturer, having performed as a guest artist with Alarm Will Sound, TACTUS, and the Manhattan School Percussion Ensemble this past year. He has taught music theory at the Manhattan School of Music, lectured on contemporary music at Columbia University and the Berlin University of the Arts, and currently teaches electronic music at Yale College. More information can be found at www.christophercerone.com. Show less
American opera, like opera itself, is a bastard genre. Opera was born in the sixteenth century when a group of Florentine noblemen misinterpreted the tenets of Greek drama. In turn, American composers have been misinterpreting—often in startlingly original ways (I think particularly of the works of Harry Partch and Steve Reich)—the tenets of a European dramatic tradition for almost one hundred years now. To me, this is American opera’s strength: its distance from the center of tradition has allowed the sounds and concepts from new worlds, from the transcriptions of speech to found sounds to prepared pianos, to find their way into a dramatic form that perhaps never expected it—only to form a new tradition.
In the gardens of Kublai Khan, the young explorer Marco Polo tells the emperor of his travels. Khan, who has sensed the end of his empire is coming soon, looks to Polo to prevent this fall. But instead Polo tells him stories of the many cities he visited, hoping to illuminate, piece by piece, why the fall of Khan’s empire is his destiny. For Polo, the travels were not only a journey to far-reaching lands, but a journey in his memory, to his home in Venice, and his search for the truth of his homeland in his travels. Show more
Scene 1: Prologue
The imperial garden. As Khan sifts through his thoughts and memories, he is joined by the Two Women and Marco Polo. The Two Women serve as narrator and chorus, revealing the hidden desires and prejudices of both Khan and Polo. Khan looks to Marco Polo for the reason behind his empire’s decline, and the key to its future.
Scene 2: Isidora
Marco Polo tells the Great Khan of the city of Isidora. A beautiful woman enters. She pauses, removes a compact and lipstick from her purse, applies the lipstick, and crosses to exit.
Scene 3: Language
Several months before. The Women, now dressed as Ambassadors, detail their travels. Khan, frustrated with this, asks Polo, who is yet unfamiliar with Khan’s language, to express as he can his report. Polo draws objects, each symbolizing a city, from his baggage. Finally, Polo masters the Khan’s language. He tells Khan that in each city he visits he finds a life that could have been his, and that all traveling is an accumulation of past lives. But Khan finds Polo’s vagueness unsatisfying. Polo reverts to the systems of symbols and signs. Khan finally asks: “When I know all these symbols, will I possess my empire at last?” Polo enigmatically replies: “Sire, do not believe, on that day, you will be an emblem among emblems.” Show less
