SALVATION - The Opera
Writer Hampton Fancher’s notes on an early draft of the opera
the opera
An ingenious and unlikely trio alongside co-creator Mark DeChiazza are plotting a new sci-fi opera currently titled SALVATION. Librettist Hampton Fancher, the writer of Blade Runner, composer Noah K and singer Rosie K are on a mission to create something new.
We got together with them over zoom for an interview in the FUTURO VOL 1 edition. Read the full interview in the printed edition but we thought we’d share an excerpt to whet your appetite. One of the most incredible parts of this story is how long Noah and Hampton have known each other. Included in this interview is an actual recording between Hampton and Noah from 1993. Read on.
Puppet 4: “Why don’t you eat a sandwich made out of the dead birds of your dreams!”
Salvation is a new creation myth if the Creator didn't get their antipsychotic that day.
The Lab Mag: Let's talk about Salvation. What is it based on? What is the story of Salvation?
Hampton: I would say my life is music. It was music from the get-go. That's what's turned me on. Classical music and other music — a lot of ethnic music, flamenco, etcetera. Anyway, I teased them because I could tell Noah was hankering to do an opera, and he's a modern composer. I liked the idea of doing something out of the box. And then, he kind of sneakily did it, you know, pushed me into that. I didn't mean to do it.
And next thing I know, I said, what about this? And I started using characters that we had made up that we kind of liked. Also, I was curious about Rosie because I've been watching her sing for a while, and I was thinking, what if there was opera in that body, with her very different approach to things? And I became kind of a conduit as a writer for things that were suggested by the phenomena of their personas. Back in my mind somewhere, with Rosie, there was an Ophelia character, but an Ophelia that was going to kick ass. A new Ophelia, one for our times.
There were things like that that were turning me on. Also, I can't stand sacrosanct things. I like to fuck around with God, you know, because I think God's a dickhead. Stuff like those kinds of archetypal characters, you know? So we started writing those kinds of things, started improvising with that stuff, and it just kept going on, and it turned into Salvation. I don't believe in salvation. And so I wanted to do something really nasty about salvation. And I do want to be saved, you know, but I can't be. So we all kind of felt impulses along those lines. It sort of started like that.
Noah educated me. When I finally said, this is a good idea, we should do this, I said you go ahead and write it. Let me hear this opera, and then I'll write too, you know? And he said, no, no, no, no. He said, you first. That's how it works. I said, no, that's not fair, that's not right. I want to hear the music, and then I can write. But after that argument was lost on my part, then things started up. Next thing I know, an opera's being written.
Salvation score excerpt with notes
Noah I remember what got me very excited actually was that Hampton, Rosie, and I had done musical collaborations. And then we'd been working with Hampton on some of his projects, and one day, he said that he had had this amazing idea of this guy standing by a cactus with the number 16 branded on his back and that he'd had this image in his head. So that's where Salvation started, with that image, and then Hampton unravelling what it meant. And it ended up being through five other characters who encounter this person with the number 16, trying to figure out who he is and what he's doing there. Because the other key element to it is that this character doesn't speak, he can't speak, so the first act of the opera is these five insane onlookers that arrive and question this person, question each other, don't get the answers they're looking for, and increasingly get more and more agitated until the point that they murder him at the end of the act.
Hampton They can't get an answer. Now, who could resist that? I mean, who wouldn't want to do an opera on that idea. The epiphany was that. This angel kind of man, untouched, a virgin man, a man before this all began, standing there staring at a cactus, and he's got 16 imprinted on his back, embossed on his back. He's naked, and he hasn't got a dick even. He's not
a man, really. But that image went fuck me. And I told them that, and then they said, that's good.
Then the idea of the exterminating angel — the idea that they're going to kill you, man. You don't want to hang around this planet because they're going to want to know what you are up to. And if you can't answer them, you're dead. You know, we will kill you, we will stab you, we will murder your ass. You know, you can't live this innocent. We won't allow it. And that's it.
The Lab Mag Did that image come from a dream?
Hampton No, it just came. Well, I don't really remember. Often that happens, I dream something, and then it comes to be what I'm doing. But I can't remember if I dreamt that character. I've been writing that character for a long time. I used to call him Slim.
Rosie K rehearsing SALVATION with Mark DeChiazza directing
The Lab Mag And how far along are you? When are you expecting Salvation to be born into the world?
Noah On March 22nd, we had a showing of the whole opera. Mark DeChiazza, who's also been very involved in the development of the piece and who's our director, put together a minimal staging of it with some titles and these amazing characters that Hampton wrote.
Hampton You had a wild horse and Noah and Mark taught him how to run the race. What was coming out of my imagination was surreal, absurdist, and they kept me from going too far into the void. Mark’s logic and good dramatic thinking kept the narrative from looking like dreams gone astray.
Puppet heads of the character Gizborn
Noah There's a chorus of puppets that say crazy things that are also a very interesting commentary on the story. And Mark did these great digital talking heads, these puppet heads that speak and sing.
One of the characters has made a model of his own head. And at the end of the third act, he sings a trio with himself. He's with himself and the head. So it's two versions of himself and this digital head.
The Lab Mag You are really playing with opera, which is beautiful.
Hampton I mean, where else could you go? Go somewhere that hasn't been gone.
Rosie I think it's because of the relationship between Hampton and Noah. I am late to this relationship because they've known each other since Noah was six, and now it's many years later. So when Hampton says that they were talking and creating this story together, it's something that's been done between them for so many years. And they both have such a particular way, Hampton of writing and Noah of putting text to music, coming as a free jazz saxophone soloist. So, it's from time, and it's from knowing each other. There's a recording of them when Noah is six, and they're talking about a movie that they're going to write, and it could be the same.
Hampton I'm putting him on because I used to fuck with him a lot as a kid, all the time, because he'd believe anything I'd say, and he was so sincere and so eager and avid to be involved in anything, you know? And his mother would get mad at me, you know, don't do that to him. And one time, she showed me she had recorded a conversation he and I had. I just heard it recently. And I was floored, of course, and so was he, and so was Rosie.
Noah For me, every time that I've ever worked with Hampton, it's been incredibly inspiring. But this opera, the most. It's just sort of untangling Hampton's language. It feels natural to set his text to music because I'm very used to reading it, and I love it so much. I felt like it brought out all this new kind of music that I hadn't thought of before. From start to finish, it was exciting and inspiring. As a composer, I was thinking about — and this is part of the future of opera idea — how do you make the text as clearly audible as possible, almost as if you're watching a film, but also have it be musical? That was an issue that was dealt with a lot in the past with recitative, which is almost like speak-singing. Trying to figure out the balance between melodic singing and clearly audible words was a challenge and something that I hope is successful in the piece.
Co-creator Mark DeChiazza doing research and development for the puppet heads.
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