Bondari

I’m typing this post from my hotel in Athens, Greece, where I am unbelievably able to pick up a wireless internet connection (with only one bar of signal!). Two years ago, when I made my first trip to Greece, I wrote a post right before I left. This time, I’m a little behind.

I’m returning to the Oiniades Theatre Festival as a guest composer, this time for a modern adaptation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. As before, Dennis Christilles (a professor of theatre at KU) is creating the adaptation and directing the play, and I am composing music for the choruses and interludes. I’ve written some of the music already, but will write the rest in Greece.

I love this Greek experience because it is truly unique. The vocal abilities of the actors, plus the instruments involved, vary each time, and somehow I have to create a musical score that works with the forces we have available. It is truly a show custom-created for the ensemble.

Last time we produced The Bacchae by Euripides. This time it is Agamemnon. Unlike last year, I will not be playing an acting role - only a musical one. So what’s the premise of the show? In a nutshell, Agamemnon has been gone for ten years, laying siege to Troy in order to capture and bring back Helen. At the beginning of the play, a watchman notices that signal fires have been lit, signaling the fall of Troy. A herald eventually arrives, bringing news that Troy has been destroyed and that Agamemnon and his surviving forces should return home soon.

One would expect this to be good news, especially to Clytemnestra (Agamemnon’s wife), but one must remember that she has been at home brooding for ten years. Not only did her husband abandon her for a decade in a “rescue” effort that sapped Greece of its resources, he also sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia in order to receive favorable winds for their passage to Troy. To make matters worse, Agamemnon returns with a pretty Trojan prophetess as his concubine (Cassandra). To put it lightly, Clytemnestra is just a bit “peeved.”

Clytemnestra welcomes Agamemnon home, insisting that he walk on a red carpet into the palace. Agamemnon is hesitant not to seem prideful or arrogant, but eventually concedes. He goes into the palace and is murdered in the bath by Clytemnestra. Cassandra prophecies about her own death to the unbelieving chorus, then walks into the palace and is also slain by the raging Clytemnestra.

The play ends with Clytemnestra attempting to justify her actions while Aegisthus delivers a boastful speech that nearly ends in a brawl. Clytemnestra chastises him, stating that there has already been enough blood spilled today. The chorus then drops a foreboding hint that Orestes (the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra) will surely return in order to seek vengeance for his father’s murder. Yes, Agamemnon is the first in a trilogy of plays about the cursed House of Atreus. If you want to read further, start with an overiew of the Oresteia.

I leave you (for now) with this, the supposed “death mask” of Agamemnon, which is on display in a museum in Athens.

I have limited internet access in the village of Katohi at Oiniades, but will create at least one new post and upload some pictures in July. Until then, my best wishes to all of you.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to St. Louis to attend the premiere of my new composition, titled “Div.” It should be a fun trip since I’m traveling with some members of the KU Helianthus ensemble, namely Mike Kirkendoll, Mary Fukushima, and Nathanael May. I’ve worked with Mike and Mary before, since they performed a piece of mine in Carnegie Hall last year.

In other news, this is an exciting upcoming week. On April 1st, my 10-piece chamber ensemble composition, titled “Feridoun,” will be premiered on the “Stack the Dectet” concert in Atlanta with my friend Daniel Swilley conducting.

Also in early April is the run of the play “Keely and Du” at KU, for which I wrote some music for the beginning and the ending. I’ll attend the show on opening night. More on that later.

Here are the program notes that I wrote for “Div.”

Inspired by stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Persian Book of Kings), Div is a work depicting the dual facets of these colorful beings.

A “div” (pronunciation: deev) often has negative associations, and in Persian mythology is an evil spirit akin to a demon that loves to cause harm and destruction. However, some divs may actually be helpful and benign. Unlike in Judeo-Christian tradition, a div is a physical being, often pictured with combined human and animal features. Though they have two arms and legs like humans, often they feature tufted tails like a lion, hairy, multicolored bodies, and bestial faces. Divs are frequently mentioned in the Shahnameh; one famous story involves the struggle between the Persian hero Rostam and the Akvan Div, a white demon whose name means “evil mind.”

Musically, the first half of the piece represents the malevolent side of divs, whereas the latter half represents their benign nature. Subtitled Ahura, a Farsi word representing the “right” kind of divinity and the moral opposite of evil, this latter half utilizes much of the same melodic content, though slightly transformed. Does the work end in a pure, righteous state, or do some elements of the “evil” div mischievously return? The listener may fully decide.

Div was commissioned by the KU Helianthus Contemporary ensemble.

After over 24 hours of travel, we made it back home from Greece. After our show closed (which was a success), we had a lot of free time. There was time to go to the beach, drink coffee, have long dinners, spend several days on the island of Kathalonia, and most importantly, extract parts for “Persepolis.” More on that shortly.

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Greetings from Katohi, Greece. I found a few minutes to spare in an internet café, so here is an update. I finished all the music for the production a couple weeks ago, and for the past month we’ve been in the midst of rehearsals for The Bacchae.

Tomorrow, we perform the show in the ancient theatre here (Oiniades). Our production is just over an hour in duration, and this includes about 25 minutes of music. I look forward to the show, and feel it will be a success.

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Tomorrow morning Kat and I take off for Greece. It will be a looong series of flights, but a couple of days from this posting, I should be in Athens. We’ll stay there for a few days, and then it’s off to Katohi, which will be the main location of our stay.

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