Story:
«Ukraine – Terra Incognita» is an opera-myth about a Warrior at the edge of the land. Heprotects all the precious things: Home, Ancestry, Love. Through the images and themes a woman's voice sprouts like a shoot. It sings, whispers, lulls and calls the Iron Heart in a moment of danger.
Who or what is it? A Woman of the Ancestry? A Bird? A Song? A Land?
It is all together and all simultaneously. This is a Terra Incognita. A land mysterious for strangers and so native for us. We feel her intangible impulses coming under, through and over… It is something what prevents us from giving this land away.
Myths come to life before our eyes.
Now at this moment, The Warrior with an Iron Heart defends Home, Ancestry and Love in the Steppe where every generation could try and find itself.
Destination:
Young Opera «Ukraine — Terra Incognita» is a combination of the Ukrainian song tradition, the modern symphonic and improvisational music.
Libretto is created for the solo female voice, the female and male voices, saxophone, percussion and orchestra. Libretto is formed from the Ukrainian authentic songs, folk texts (whispering, children games, fairy-tales) and author’s text of Valentyn Moroz “Iron Melodies” (dedicated to the known Ukrainian dissident Mykhailo Soroka).
The opera is based on the principles of Ukrainian poetic movie. Each individual fragment is a self-sufficient composition. This is a composition of microforms, where the plot is not linear, but three-dimensional. The songs in the opera are the content and simultaneously support the plot line.
Roles:
- Solo female voice – Terra Incognita
- Soprano saxophone – Iron heart
- Percussion – Steppe
- Female voices – Ancestry, Love
- Male voice – Warriors
- Orchestra – Home
ANCESTRY
The Ancestry is a complex ornament. Interweaving of codes, signs, and information passed down from generation to generation. "From generation to generation" - this phrase already has a rhythm.
The rhythm of the feet in the dance, the rhythm of simple work, the rhythm of the hands kneading the dough in the bowl, the rhythm of ritual songs, the rhythm of prolonging life. Hits of the fate. Cyclic circle of the year. And life is like an endless dance.
Maiden songs, wedding wailing, spring calls and prayers ...
These are rituals that balance the physical, mental and spiritual meanings.
Ancestry is also a tree. Retaining roots. The trunk that drives the juices. Crown that gives color and fruit… The Myth of Ancestry is dedicated to the feminine, because the ancestry in Ukrainian originates from “giving a birth”. It is no coincidence that all ritual songs in Ukraine were sung by girls and women (spring songs, wedding songs, bathing (Cupala) songs, Christmas carols). Women have a strong connection to the body. They performed all the rituals associated with birth, cyclicity, nature and home. They were responsible for passing on knowledge to the next generation…
HOME
Home is the beginning and the source of everything. The first steps, the first sounds-utterances, the first emotions - the preface of life... These are monologues in silence and a lullaby for the universe.
Through the songs and utterances in the Myth of Home the forgotten world is manifested. We hardly hear these songs anymore, but our being responds and recognizes them. Something inside us begins to sing and recall itself.
What does our body and soul remember? The dream-myth of our ancestors about the perfect home.
"And our master has a new gate, and golden pillars, and yew tables. And the saints with feather pens sit at those tables. Paradise has developed!”
It is a desire to bring the divine closer to the real world through the whispering, congratulations, and lullabies.
This dream was passed down from generation to generation and became a reality during the holidays, when the whole family is together in a large room. Or in the moments of sacred domestic silence, when the mother lulls the child, when the heavenly and earthly meet inside the person…
LOVE
Love is a multi-dimensional and existing everywhere
It has boundless calm and explosive power. It is the cause of everything.
There are so many songs about love and affection created by Ukrainians. The subtlest vibrations of this feeling with the mad passion and body paradise are poetically sung.
There are also songs that glorify the feeling of eternal female waiting, the feeling of enveloping unconditional love. There is one pervasive universal myth for humanity. Formation of the hero and his exploits. So the hero in our opera raises in love…
STEPPE
The sky is high, the field is wide, the sun is hot, the tree is a Warrior on the edge of the land.
The Myth of Steppe is dedicated to the male spirit. The steppe is an area of challenge, a personal platform for the spirit, a landscape of freedom.
The battlefield is perfect for us, for returning to ourselves, to our Home.
The battle continues… The battle is over a thousand years old. This land, Terra Incognita, gave us a steppe where each generation could try, find themselves and give a chance to the next.
And when you dare to challenge fear and despair, and consciously go to the test, there is a chance to melt the being and harden the spirit…
IRON HEART
Trials are coming. They want to take away everything dear to you. You may lose the opportunity to pass on the dream of an ideal home that has been nurtured for generations.
Your Land, your Ancestry and your Love call you…
At this point, the unseen power of the people rises, the secret efforts and volumes. In the moments of danger they seem to emerge from nowhere. This is a different order of memory. It is a recollection of the power when everything seems to be lost. Then the hearts begin to beat like one Iron Heart. Find the Iron Heart that can save Home, Ancestry and Love.
It is close. Inside of you.
"And we have found him. He has been pulsing for more than a thousand years and cannot stop. And he must look for the palms strong enough to keep the weight of the stone. And he must look for the breasts tempered enough to resist a fire. He must! Because the people are disappearing if no one knows how to wear the Iron Heart. He gets angry and takes a sword from those who are not strong enough to move it. "
(V. Moroz)
… Myths come to life. And you are among them.