Composition Commission issued to Travis Just

Borealis, Bergen, Norway

 

IT’S ALL TRUE is an opera based on the complete live recording of the concerts of the cult underground band Fugazi. There were more than 1000 of these concerts between 1987 and 2003. Supported by the EvS Music Foundation the opera comes from the pen of the composer Travis Just.

For this opera the composer uses everything from the recordings – with the exception of the band’s songs: exchanges on stage, calls from the audience, guitar feedback, random and uncoordinated strikes on the drums. Fugazi has allowed Travis Just to use the material without any restrictions but is otherwise not involved in the project at all.

“[…] The music for this opera will use a combination of experimental vocal techniques, language set to music / noted-down language and live instruments to produce a multi-faceted, inconsistent acoustic surface […],” says the composer describing his work.

IT’S ALL TRUE is an 80-minute, entirely staged opera composed for an ensemble of four voices, four electric guitars and two percussionists. The libretto comes care of the director and author Kara Feely. As part of the premiere at the Borealis Festival – a festival for experimental music in Bergen – both a workshop with the composer and a panel discussion will be held.

 

March 10/11, 2016
Cornerteatret, Bergen

May 2016
TBC New York Live Arts, New York
TBC Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York

 

Further Information
www.borealisfestival.no