Vastation - Opera Labs from Calgary Opera
Vastation is a reconsideration of a previously composed opera. Samy Moussa’s Vastation premiered in 2014 at Munich Biennial - a festival of contemporary opera and music theatre. Moussa, still in his 20s when he wrote the piece, was not entirely satisfied with this first venture into composing opera. Having established his reputation internationally in the intervening years as well as growing as a composer, this workshop was a chance to reassess the composition with consideration to revision for future productions. Vastation is an examination of power - democratic, military and personal - and the forces that seek to corrupt them. This Calgary Opera project takes us deep inside the composer's process to examine the effect that criticism, personal doubt, and a drive to excel play in determining the fate of a work whose debut wasn't as successful as was hoped. It also explores the important role that collaboration plays in the composition process.