Backwards From Winter—Monodrama for Soprano, E-Cello, Video & Computer

Backwards from Winter is an hour long operatic monodrama exploring a single woman’s reflection on a love relationship as seen through various elemental filters of seasons, colour, nature, emotion and memory and told through live voice, live electronic/computer music and multiple video streams. She traces the past year with her beloved, moving backwards through time: from deep winter where she is i

n grief over his death, to autumn, where she experiences the sharp pain of losing him in a storm, through the summer’s heat of their passion, to the heart-opening birth of their love in spring. Just as our conventional experience of linear time can be disrupted by deep grief or joy, this operatic work destabilises theatrical conventions of narrative, character, psychology, conflict, language and setting as it explores impermanence, loss and love. CREATIVE TEAM
Composer – Douglas Knehans
Librettist – Juanita Rockwell
Soprano – Marjjje van Stralen
Actor – Niels Gomperts (for performances in the Netherlands)
E – Cellist – Antonis Pratsinakis
Design & Direction – Konstantin Koukias
Projection Design – Cazerine Barry
Digital Mapping & Surveillance Design – Eelco Viel
Lighting Design – Yaron Abulafia
Associate Designer – Bastien Forestier
Sound Design – Evert de C**k (for performances in the Netherlands)
Sound Design – Greg Gurr (for performances in the Australia)