by Michael Zarathus-Cook
Over the past month there’s been a lot coverage on the process by which Pandora came fruition–and deservedly so, as Thursday May 23rd will mark the premiere of a project that began over two years ago. We’ve heard from the artistic director Amanda Smith and music director Adam Scime about how they got involved in the project. For the final post in this series, we turn the spotlight on the performers: pianist Darren Creech and singers Aaron Durand and Jonathan MacArthur.
Darren Creech is an award-winning innovative classical pianist known for “Carving a niche as the only queer classical pianist to fiercely highlight his identity on stage” (National Sawdust Log). He is FAWN Chamber Creative’s resident pianist and has premiered works by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Danika Lorèn and Norbert Palej.
Aaron Durand is a Canadian baritone who also frequently performs in musical theatre and contemporary music. The mantra for his work in opera, including his role in Pandora, is to “see it re-imagined as a cultural experience uniquely and intimately woven into the fabric of the local arts community. I aim for it to be both an escape from a bad day, and a rallying cry for those who are voiceless.”
Jonathan MacArthur is known as both a producer and performer in the Toronto arts scene. He has been a member of FAWN’s innovative productions from galleries to balconies, and basements to video studios. Jonathan is co-lyricist and frontman of his band DONNA, a pop-synth band trapped in the body of a mod era DJ set and is releasing a music video single in June. He has performed songs from Wolastoqiyik Lintuwokonawa in Jeremy Dutcher’s band: including shows at both the Polaris Prize and the Junos that were televised/livestreamed by the CBC. He has performed with Saskatoon Opera, Luminato Festival, Soundstreams, Toronto Masque Theatre, Stratford Summer Music Festival, Opera York, Opera 5, Against the Grain Theatre, Indian River Music Festival, Music Academy of the West and toured internationally with iSING Festival in China.
In anticipation of the the premiere of Pandora tomorrow evening, I got in touch with them to discuss how they became involved in the project and what excites them about its unique creative process.
Darren Creech — I first became involved with FAWN and Pandora during the devised creation process two years ago. Amanda and I had overlapped during our undergraduate studies, but reconnected once I moved to Toronto, and that was when I became involved with this project!
Aaron Durand — Amanda was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Toronto! We’ve collaborated on and off since then, but it wasn’t until this year that our schedules really aligned for something as big as Pandora. Feeling pretty happy about that. 🙂
Jonathan MacArthur — Amanda and I met at UofT Opera and we clicked over our mutual agreement that New Music and living Canadian opera composers/writers/creators were under represented, especially in the local scene. It’s incredible to think how different the scene in Toronto is now from five years ago when so many companies and individuals are beginning to re-prioritize the new creators we have here at home. And then through our mutual affinity for electronics and constant questioning of the place and practices of traditional western art music in our community of Toronto, we were a quick match.
Darren Creech — It’s been exciting to center improvisation in the development stage for the opera, during our devised creation phase, and it’s always a pleasure to be able to work so closely with the composers during any project when I’m premiering someone’s work.
Aaron Durand — In one sense, this process is non-linear. Even with new opera, a work mostly follows a trajectory from composer/librettist to director/conductor to the performers. With Pandora, the performers developed the piece in tandem with everyone else. The end result is something that is made of each and every one of us.
Jonathan MacArthur — When Amanda approached me to perform in Pandora, it was first as an improviser and in the workshop room to develop the concept. We moved, sang, expressed and it actually became quite personal at times. I drew on my own experiences and past as a human in this world and left a lot of what traditional opera training taught me behind. When I improvise, there is a flow that can be reached when the environment is safe and supportive and even though many in the room were relatively strangers, we were all interested in each others ideas which made collaborating electric.
Darren Creech — I’m looking forward to seeing how all the aesthetic teasers I’ve seen will coalesce into a beautiful and imaginative show, creating an otherworldly atmosphere and environment, while remaining grounded in a wholeheartedly human story. Integrating dance and electronics into the operatic and classical music world are necessary and important collaborations to contribute to telling this story!
Aaron Durand — Two things. I’m big on stories, and in Pandora we are given a series of concepts that, while superficially opposed, often arise together if we look closely. The beautiful and the dangerous, love and agony, creation and destruction. Nothing on earth is merely one of these things, and it’s from the swirling conflux of these pairs that our oldest art is made: the story. We were telling stories like this long before we knew how to make bread. That’s how integral this is.
Secondly, this has been such a collaborative effort, and it’s been with friends and people from all levels of the music community in Toronto. All of us coming together and contributing to the cultural garden of our city? That is awesome. 🙂
Jonathan MacArthur — What FAWN has the ability to do is take disparate music and ideas, and connect them together on a subtle level. Now, I’m eager to feel the flow of Pandora as it spans three composers’ languages under one united text. Uniquely, there are interludes which blend the larger works together where I sing with electronics and my character, Heph, has their own journey and their own playground to collect the marvellous curiosities of Pandora while experiencing both their pleasure and then later the insatiable appetite that it brings.
**all photos by Francesca Chudnoff (ft. Aaron Duran, Jonathan MacArthur and Jennifer Nichols)