Truth is a Four Letter Word

“Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive.”

                                                Molière

Last year I was chatting to my brother Christopher on the phone when he said, a propos of nothing much, “maybe I should commission an opera from you”. I laughed and pointed out that this would, alas, involve rather a prohibitive budget, and we moved on to other things. The following morning I received an email from Fabien Simon, the director of the French festival Sons d’Hiver, proposing that they commission an opera. To say I was delighted and astonished, both by the commission and the serendipity, would be an understatement! 

I asked my long-time compañera and co-conspirator Heike Liss, if she would be on board to do the scenography and we put our heads together, exchanged ideas, threw names around, and came up with a title: Truth is a Four Letter Word. In exploring initial ideas about the Theatre of the Absurd and our current post-truth universe I immediately thought of asking my friend, the French-Swiss writer and film-maker Julie Gilbert, for the libretto. She has created a wonderful kind of science fiction retelling of the story of Echo and Narcissus from the strangely distorted point of view of modern-day social media (and the apparent willingness of just about anyone to believe just about anything). 

I’ve invited a fabulous line-up of some of my favorite musicians and singers to join us, all of whom touched me greatly by committing to the project without even asking about money! The group includes Lotte Anker (saxes), Alexandre Cahen (piano), Camille Emaille (percussion), Xavière Fertin (clarinets), Ada Gosling-Pozo (violin), Karoline Höfler (double bass), Garth Knox (viola), Ikue Mori (electronics), Tilman Müller (trumpet), Zeena Parkins (harp), Paula Sanchez (cello) and Gabriel Valtchev (tuned percussion), with Léopold Gilloots-Laforge (counter-tenor) and Clara Weil (contralto). 

Meanwhile, it hasn’t taken long to realize that the budget we have, entirely reasonable though it appeared at the outset, will not cover certain essential elements that are emerging as we collaboratively develop our ideas—lighting design, video design, costumes, engaging extra musicians for pre-recorded sections of the work, and much else besides. This is a “pocket opera” not a huge theatrical production, and the money I’m asking for will be used to make sure all the participants are properly paid and those missing details filled in. The first performances are in France in February 2023, with further possibilities being explored later in the year. Any help, however small, will be enormously appreciated—thank you!