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FULL A Time for Life (Robert Kyr) Oratorio Movie Portland OR 2021
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: A Time for Life
- Composer: Kyr Robert
- Libretto: adapted from various sources
- Venue & Opera Company: Portland, Oregon
- Recorded: 2021
- Type: Movie
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
A TIME FOR LIFE BY ROBERT KYR
Program note by the composer
One of the most urgent issues facing the world today
is the ecological crisis caused by humanity’s inability
to live in harmony with the natural world. My
collaboration with Cappella Romana grew out of our
mutual concern about this potentially catastrophic
situation. After many discussions, I decided to create
an environmental oratorio in order to address this
crucial topic from a variety of perspectives.
A Time for Life (2007) was created for eight of the
principal singers of Cappella Romana, Alexander
Lingas (its director), and the ensemble Medieval
Strings with a later version (2008) for modern
instruments (Third Angle New Music). The work
features each of its vocalists as a soloist, a chamber
musician (a member of duo- and trio-formations),
and a chorister (part of the full eight-voice choral
texture). I know the artists of Cappella Romana
well and so I created the oratorio expressly for
them so that they could explore the full range of
their abilities. In this sense, A Time for Life is a
musical play in which each “character” (singer or
instrumentalist) performs a variety of roles. In a live
performance, this play is also enacted through both
the music and a simple choral choreography; the
movement of the performers through the concert
space is a journey that embodies the meaning of the
text.
The composite text for A Time for Life was adapted
from a wide range of sources that explore the
relationship of humanity to nature. The work is
structured in three large-scale parts.