Discography

2006 Diamant Award - Opèra Magazine

“...the highlights are Lonely Child, essentially a long keening melody, beautifully sung by Susan Narucki; and the extraordinary final number “Do you believe in the immortality of the Soul’ where Vivier’s own words foresee his death by stabbing. A little goes a long way in performances as dedicated as these.”
BBC Music Magazine

“Susan Narucki, a singer Bay Area audiences know well, gives what may be the performance of her career with this “Lonely Child”, which takes naked human sadness to limits few other singers could. You may watch these DVDs more often than you want to. As de Leeuw says, “You can almost feel the music on your skin.” Tim Pfaff, Bay Area Reporter

Many consider Claude Vivier the greatest composer Canada has yet produced. György Ligeti once called him 'the finest French composer of his generation'. A pupil under Gilles Tremblay and Karlheinz Stockhausen, he soon created his own dazzling vocal and orchestral language, profoundly marked by his travels to the Far East. The interweaving of his personal and professional life, of the real and the imaginary, reveals a compelling global awareness, deep human compassion and a universal quest for ultimate enlightenment. Vivier himself pursued this journey of discovery, until his tragic murder in Paris at the age of thirty-four.

The two parts of Rêves d’un Marco Polo are like shadow and light, forming a dreamlike ritualistic experience and encompassing stage productions of his finest compositions. Pierre Audi's superb and moving staging is complemented by refined, passionate musical direction from Reinbert de Leeuw, leading the soloists, the Asko Ensemble and the Schönberg Ensemble to great heights.

Repertoire:
The ultimate collection of Vivier’s mature works in a dramatic and spellbinding staging featuring:

• Kopernikus, opéra rituel de mort in two parts (1980) In this ‘mystic tale’ the central character Agni calls on historical and mythical figures: Lewis Carroll, Merlin, a witch, the Queen of the Night, a blind prophet, an old monk, Tristan, Isolde, Mozart, the Lord of the Waters, Kopernikus and his mother
• Marco Polo An ‘opéra fleuve’: a series of tableaux about Marco Polo, some vocal, others instrumental:
• Prologue pour un Marco Polo ‘Marco Polo’s Last Will and Testament – * Vision of Zipangu’ (1981)
• Shiraz ‘A First Glimpse of the Adventure’ (1977) * Lonely Child ‘The Youth of Marco Polo’ (1980)
• Zipangu The symbol of immeasurable inner treasures that are so difficult to accumulate (1980)
• Wo bist du Licht! A meditation about human suffering (1981)
• Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele Do you believe in the immortality of the soul (1983 - unfinished)

Special Features:

• Claude Vivier - a spellbinding and insightful 60-minute documentary by Cherry Duyns, from his acclaimed contemporary composer portrait series, on the life and work of Claude Vivier, including rare footage, interviews with conductor Reinbert de Leeuw and people close to Vivier and his music
• Introductions to the work by Pierre Audi and Reinbert de Leeuw

“One of art’s many functions is to make myths from myths. Likewise, with opera, myths of myths are made every time a composer offers us a work. In the case of Claude Vivier, we are invited into an operating theater in which the human body, soul and mind (body, soul and mind are often referred to in mystical literature as forming the ‘trinity of love’), triumphantly and fearlessly leading us into the kingdom of death. The result is an oeuvre that is both deeply personal and original, and one that demands from performer and listener alike that they put aside all known preconceptions when approaching it. The ritual that emerges has no specific spiritual affiliation or message but adds up to an emotional experience which, by dealing directly with the description of death, is simply celebrating life and death as a single experience as infinite as the cosmos.” From the notes by Pierre Audi