This is interesting...Lisa Randall, a leading scientist at Harvard’s Jefferson Laboratory, is not only an expert in particle physics, but has completed a libretto for an upcoming contemporary opera to be premiered in France this summer.
Professor Randall has won acclaim for her 2005 mass-market book “Warped Passages” which explains the unexplainable theory of multiple dimensions beyond the three we generally experience in every-day life.
Her opera – titled “Hypermusic Prologue: A projective opera in seven planes” - is in seven acts, spans one hour, and was developed in collaboration with a young Spanish composer named Hèctor Parra. Parra, who is relatively unknown to American audiences, has an impressive bio for someone his age:
Hèctor Parra (Barcelona, 1976) studied in theConservatorium of Barcelona and later studied composition with David Padros, Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey, as well as with Michael Jarrell at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva. He received a Master in Composition from the Paris-VIII University, Annual Cursus on Composition at Ircam and Post-Cursus in the CNSMD Lyon.
Hèctor Parra has received commissions from the French government, the Ircam-Centre Pompidou, the Spanish Ministry of Culture as well as the Berlin Academy of Arts, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Strasbourg Festival and Klangforum Wien among others.
Ensembles that have performed his work include The Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, Musikfabrik, the Philarmonic Orchestra of Liège, National Orchestra of Ile-de-France and Holland Symfonia have premiered his work at the international festivals of Lucerne, Avignon, Agora-Ircam, Stuttgart Opera House, Philharmonie Luxembourg,Strasbourg, San Sebastián and Berlin to name a few.
The opera is to debut in Paris at the Georges Pompidou Centre this summer, then travel throughout Europe in the fall. I’m sure we will be hearing more about it, since the subject matter is very intriguing.
Links:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/12/14/a_talk_with_lisa_randall/
http://www.amazon.com/Warped-Passages-Unraveling-Mysteries-Dimensions/dp/0060531096/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229290532&sr=1-1
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