Review: LIFE REFLECTED by the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the Luminato Festival

Four incredible artists bring to life the stories of four powerful women. LIFE REFLECTED, presented by the National Arts Centre (NAC) is a multi-media journey examining the lives of four women using photography, film, spoken word and music. The NAC Orchestra takes us through four individual pieces, led by conductor and Artistic Director, Alexander Shelley. Shelley describes the works as being united in the way the women "learned to tread a new path and turn the tables on those who wanted to oppress them."

Layered projections form the foundation of the visual design, using a curtain of thin, hanging strips of material that run across the entire front of the stage. While one projection fills the entire background, a separate projection is able to come to life on the downstage curtain - achieving a mesmerizing three dimensional effect.

The first piece, Dear Life by Calgary-born composer and pianist, Zosha Di Castri is based on a short story by Alice Munro and examines the life of a young girl growing up in southern Ontario. "A reflection on memory, childhood and the formative stages of life," the piece communicates the psychological themes of recollection by dipping into atonality. Soprano Erin Wall (who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala) is tasked with singing the difficult, modern score. Vocal lines at times almost sound like a boiling kettle - crescendoing straight tone is employed while she wanders up a chromatic scale. The piece has moments that take effort to listen to - screeching violins howl, clashing with the rest of the orchestra as a voice speaks, "I was full of misery." The composition is accompanied by striking black and white photography and a recorded reading of the story by Martha Henry.

My Name is Amanda Todd by Manitoba-born Jocelyn Morlock uses bright, binary animated sequences to tell the story of Amanda Todd. Shifting from sorrow to an uplifting conclusion, the piece honours the memory of the "precocious" young girl. The third piece, Bondarsphere was composed by Nicole Lizée of Saskatchewan as a tribute to Dr. Roberta Bondar, the neurologist astronaut who became the first Canadian woman to fly in space. Composer Nicole Lizée is called a "brilliant musical scientist" with influences in turntabalism and rave culture. This is evident in her composition, a hypnotic orchestral trance paired with psychedelic projections.

LIFE REFLECTED ends with the gorgeous, tonal composition I Lost My Talk, by John Estacio of Newmarket, Ontario. The composition is accompanied by a majestic film directed by Barbara Willis Sweete and choreographed by Tekaronhiáhkhwa Santee Smith. Contemporary dances conveys the emotion of Rita Joe's poetry while the music captures the ethos of the Mi'kmaq people of Nova Scotia - the work opens with a haunting flute solo, like a lone loon on a still lake. The perfect end to an empowering, patriotic creation - actress Monique Mojica delivers the closing line of Joe's poem - "Let me find my talk, so I can teach you about me."

###

LIFE REFLECTED is a National Arts Centre Orchestra project conducted by Alexander Shelley and directed by Donna Feore.

Featured works:

Dear Life by Zosha Di Castri

My Name is Amanda Todd by Jocelyn Morlock

Bondarsphere by Nicole Lizée

I Lost My Talk by John Estacio

---

For more information, please visit https://luminatofestival.com/2017/Events/Life-Reflected

(photo credit: Dear Life in Life Reflected. Photo by Dwayne Brown.)

To post a comment, you must register and login.