Lampedusa: Behind the curtain

Set in a parallel Shakespearean universe, Eduardo Miranda鈥檚 opera 'Lampedusa' will be performed by the BBC Singers at the Contemporary Music Festival
Ariel - Behind the curtain

Eduardo R. Miranda's opera 'Lampedusa' is set in a parallel Shakespearean universe. 

The plot takes place before the arrival of Prospero and Miranda in Lampedusa, allegedly the island portrayed in Shakespeare鈥檚 play 'The Tempest'. 

Due to premiere at the Contemporary Music Festival Gala Concert on Saturday 23 February, we take a look at the making of 'Lampedusa', the costumes and the cast that will be involved.


Lampedusa by Kaz Rahman

V艒v: The language created for Lampedusa

"Creating a new language from scratch adds another dimension to the creative process: a dimension that has hardly ever been explored in opera before." 

David J.Peterson, one of the world鈥檚 most famous language creators, renowned for inventing the Dothraki language for HBO鈥檚 'Game of Thrones' and the language used in Walt Disney film 'Thor: The Dark World' - also invented the mythical language V艒v for Professor Eduardo Miranda's opera, 'Lampedusa', soon to be premiered at the Contemporary Music Festival Gala Concert and performed by the BBC Singers.

"The idea to create an opera with a libretto in an artificial language first emerged when I met David at the EG 10 Conference in California in April 2016, and in just three months he had created a work-in progress version of V艒v. He wrote the lyrics for my experimental musical composition which premiered at The Peninsula Arts Contemporary Musical Festival 2017 and has continued to develop this language ever since."

- Professor Eduardo R. Miranda

鈥淚t鈥檚 a really fun and bizarre piece and I think you鈥檒l like it. What we are seeing is a language which is outside of time. And what you will see in the opera is a human who is able to learn the language and use it. It raises an interesting question of what might have happened if humanity had gone in a different direction, using this language as its base.鈥

鈥 David J. Peterson

Watch David, speaking from his home in California in the video below, discuss the evolution of V艒v and what he used to write the libretto for 'Lampedusa'.

Eduardo and David Peterson
Music piece for Vov - Lampedusa聽
V艒v brought to live on stage at the University's Contemporary Music Festival.
English translations of Vov聽

Playing Ariel

Hayley Bentley, stars in 鈥楲ampedusa鈥 as Ariel, a reworking of the original character from Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥楾he Tempest鈥.

A final year BA (Hons) Dance Theatre student with Plymouth Conservatoire, Hayley is excited to be performing alongside the BBC Singers in the Contemporary Music Festival Gala Concert.

鈥淚鈥檓 finding the whole process really interesting, particularly working within the guideline. I think sometimes we have a lot of freedom but working within a guideline is really pushing my movement vocabulary.鈥

Performing in an opera

鈥淲hen I first heard the word 鈥榦pera鈥, I thought 鈥極k, I really don鈥檛 know much about this鈥, and it鈥檚 interesting for me to have that kind of reaction because I work with music the most. It鈥檚 less and less daunting as the process goes on because it鈥檚 given me a new way of considering the music and the phrasing of it. I鈥檝e also been working more inter-disciplinary recently, which has opened me up to new ways of using music - and I鈥檓 excited for how they balance out.鈥

Enhancing my University experience

鈥淏eing involved with the Contemporary Music Festival has given me a huge insight into networking and engaging in the professional world outside of Uni. It鈥檚 both complimented and contrasted from my experience here, because I鈥檝e taken all the things I鈥檝e learnt through the years and then thought 鈥極k I鈥檓 still in the safety of Uni and I can use these guys to support me through it鈥.鈥

鈥淎t this Uni there鈥檚 an ethos of working collaboratively which we鈥檝e had this since first year, and I think it鈥檚 great to be given these opportunities to try something experimental, try something collaborative, and explore your skills. I came into first year not wanting to do any acting or speaking on stage, and I鈥檝e managed to do that, so this is my next step really.鈥

Watch Hayley's interview alongside Josh Slater, choreographer, and Victor Ladron de Guevara, director.

Cast and Creatives

  • Eduardo R. Miranda聽

    Writer and Composer: Eduardo R. Miranda

  • David J. Peterson聽

    Creator of V艒v: David J. Peterson

  • Victor Guevara

    Director: Victor Ladron de Guevara

  • Kaz Rahman

    Visual design: Kaz Rahman

  • Hedy Hurban

    Costume designer: Hedy Hurban

  • Josh Slater

    Choreographer: Josh Slater

  • Nicholas Chalmers

    Conductor: Nicholas Chalmers

  • Hayley Bentley

    Ariel: Hayley Bentley

  • Edward - BBC SINGERS聽

    Caliban: Edward Price (BBC Singers)

  • Emma - BBC SINGERS聽

    Sycorax: Emma Tring (BBC Singers)

Costume design

CMF 2019聽
Sycorax
Caliban - collage聽
Caliban

"I wanted to bring out something unique and contemporary to create more of an avant-garde interpretation of these characters..."  

Hedy Hurban, Costume designer for Lampedusa, explains in her interview alongside Kaz Rahman - Visual designer, that she has seen many iterations and interpretations of Shakespeare鈥檚 'The Tempest' on stage, many of them portraying the main characters, Sycorax and Caliban, as strange looking. Hedy admits that 'Lampedusa' will show them in a very different light.

Caliban's costume

"Caliban is half-fish, half-human. I was interested in sourcing textiles that reflected this sea creature by manipulating the fabrics to look as though he has just come from the sea, but in a more flamboyant, colourful way. He鈥檚 actually beautiful."

Sycorax's costume 

"To tie in with Kaz鈥檚 stage design, I wanted to make the costumes speak for themselves. Sycorax is a witch and is normally portrayed as this outlandish character with lots of makeup. However as 'Lampedusa' is more of a surreal interpretation of 鈥楾he Tempest鈥 I wanted to create a mystical, magical quality to her clothing."

As a Postgraduate Research student in Computer Music at the University, Hedy has been examining how smart technology can be integrated into garments and reveals her excitement at using her research to combine fashion and technology into her costume designs.

"Over the last year, I have spent time researching textiles from Turkey, I was specifically looking at the Ottoman Turkish costume. As a result, all of the fabrics for 'Lampedusa' were sourced there. I wanted to bring out this beautiful texture in the costumes." 

Ariel's costume

"Ariel鈥檚 costume will be implemented with technology. We鈥檙e going to combine the fabrics with embedded sensors and conductive thread, an interesting leap from my research to doing something that highlights this idea of combining fashion and technology. This is a chance to showcase it in front of an audience; to see how it works and how the audience responds to it."

Ariel 1 - CMF2019
Ariel
Ariel 2 - CMF2019
Ariel 3 - CMF2019
Ariel 4 - CMF2019
Contemporary Music Festival Lampedusa

Contemporary Music Festival 2019: MULTIVERSE

MULTIVERSE is the theme of 抖阴短视频 Contemporary Music Festival (CMF) 2019, which celebrates the internationally renowned research combining music, engineering and the life sciences developed at the 抖阴短视频鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR).

MULTIVERSE proposes a weekend of musical interpretations of the quantum world.