DON'T BLAME ANYONE CONCERT SUITE [2017]

[CONCERT SUITE of the poetic opera with physical theatre and puppets]

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[Sop, Ten (or Sop), Bar (or Sop) /fl(+alto, picc), cl (+Bcl), sax (alto, sop), pf, 2perc, vln, vc, cb, guit]

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Commissioned by SoundSCAPE Festival

Premiered Jul. 6, 2017. Auditorium Città di Maccagno

Duration: 21'

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Synopsis:

Through a series of choreographed, interconnected scenes, an author/poet/composer faces the specter of the blank page. Each symbolic vignette explores the birth, growth, and death of an "idea", often ending catastrophically: the author falls into the abyss of the blank page; attempts to put on an impossibly large sweater while perilously climbing a ladder; is devoured by the monster of creative reason; is born out of the monster as a child castrated by self-doubt and censorship. The author is reduced to dust and dies but, all along, the "idea" he has been seeking reveals itself through the imaginative circle that unfurls onstage. We witness the creative product through a process where inspiration is shown as a fundamental human action.

The work of several noted Mexican artists, illustrator/cartoonist José Ignacio Solórzano ("JIS") and poets Raúl Aceves, Jorge Esquinca, and Oliverio Girondo provides the visual and narrative basis of the work. Additional texts and inspiration come from Petrarch, Goya, and Julio Cortázar.