The Second Violinist

GENERALI
Prize for Opera 2017
Winner

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The Second Violonist - FEDORA 10 Years - Winner of the FEDORA - GENERALI Prize for Opera 2017 © i

*The white circle on the image is a graphic translation of the emotions conveyed by the project. This visual representation has been generated thanks to generative artificial intelligence within a campaign designed by our partner Landor & Fitch, the world's largest specialist brand and design group, to celebrate FEDORA's 10-year anniversary. Learn more.

Presentation

«The opera focuses on the character of the second violinist in an ensemble. We examine this man as he experiences a mental breakdown as a major performance looms. He gets pulled further and further into darkness. The stage will be divided into 3 areas. The orchestra pit – which he climbs out of, on stage – a wide space representing his apartment and above this space, a forest. Initially there’s just music as we watch how he lives. We present him as the most ordinary of men. He’s been unsuccessfully dating women he’s met online. We see an encounter with a woman (and another woman). It’s quietly, hilariously, disastrous. We see a vision of him earlier in life. He meets with the same woman - and they sing. He tries to knit together a love story. This search for beauty becomes his obsession. Meanwhile cracks appear in his everyday life. Beneath them we sense a volatile dangerous soul. In moments of desperation a single voice reaches out from his screen and we read the typed correspondence. It’s the only part of his reality that makes any sense. He finally escapes to the forest above him. There he meets the voice that was reaching out to him. It’s a 14-year-old girl who has come to meet a 14 year old boy. Before she knows it - we sense he’s going to kill her. Maybe this is him finding and experiencing a pure beauty. But then – perhaps not.» Enda Walsh

«Musically, the score focuses on a thread made of deconstructed, re-fashioned strains of Gesualdo. The main protagonist’s fascination with the music of Gesualdo is sporadically made explicit in the actual text (especially in the projected text messages) but it carries even greater focus in the score. These strains become ever more radiant as the opera proceeds, creating a friction between the almost ecstatic luminosity of the score and the brutal reality of the plot. This contradiction of course lies at the heart of the real-life story of Gesualdo, which finds contemporary resonance in The Second Violinist.» Donnacha Dennehy