This January sees the return of PROTOTYPE Festival (Jan 5-15) in New York City. The festival’s opening production of In Our Daughter’s Eyes is sure to illuminate each element of PROTOTYPE’s commitment to “surprising [their] audiences and confounding their expectations through content, form, and relevance.” I recently spoke with star baritone/co-creator Nathan Gunn, and co-producer Beth Morrison (Beth Morrison Projects) about the opera’s creation.
Nathan Gunn and Beth Morrison
Nathan Gunn describes the genesis of the project, which had its initial premiere in Los Angeles last April: “The idea was one that I came to Beth about. I was at a stage in my life where I thought maybe there’s more to this journey than what I’ve done so far. I said I have this idea about telling a story that encompasses more than just the journeys we normally take, but digs into the inner journey that a lot of us eventually come to—if we’re fortunate enough to get that far.”
A co-commission of Beth Morrison Projects (BMP), Trinity Church Wall Street, and Linda & Stuart Nelson followed, as did the search to assemble the work’s mighty, yet intimate creative team.
Morrison advises, “[In Our Daughter’s Eyes] fits very squarely in the mission of PROTOTYPE, in that we’re looking to constantly push boundaries and bring the form to new and different places. And we also are very deeply committed to working with women, and women composers and directors. This is the second piece we’ve done with Du Yun. Her first piece, Angel’s Bone was in PROTOYPE in 2016, and it won the Pulitzer.”
Morrison elaborates on bringing the composer and librettist/director on as co-creators, and explains: “You can always tell with the composers—some have their own voice, and some are searching for their own voice, and she [Du Yun] has her own voice—she always has. It’s vivid and it is incredibly expressive. Her music comes from her head, and it goes right into her heart, and then it comes right out of her fingers onto the page.”
Nathan Gunn and Du Yun
Gunn furthers: “We looked for a librettist and a director, and they happen to be the same person in Michael Joseph McQuilken. We both really love his work as a director, and it turns out he’s a heck of a playwright too.”
“Nathan was involved in all of the libretto,” Morrison notes. “We did a number of different libretto workshops that were just the four of us. Nathan had such an extraordinary contribution to that as a singer. And it was such a wonderful epiphany moment for me as a producer that, having lead artists—lead singers in on that step might be a really good thing to do, because Nathan knows what he needs to communicate. [Librettos] almost always need to be shrunk. And so Nathan was so spectacular in saying, “This is what I need to communicate this.” And that wisdom from having done so much singing—and also new work—really gave us the opportunity to engage with him in a way that singers aren’t generally. It was really exciting and really fun.”
Morrison furthers: “One of the really wonderful, and I think very exciting things about this piece is that it’s an amalgamation of Nathan’s stories, Du Yun’s stories, Michael McQuilken’s stories, and the overarching story.”
Gunn’s own story includes alcoholism and he shared about his own journey in recovery. I asked if the story’s treatment of addiction—one of the opera’s central themes—may be triggering for audience members:
“Some people might not be quite ready for it.” Gunn advises, “it might hit a little bit too hard—it might touch a little bit too close to the bone. But having said that, it is devastatingly beautiful and, you know, it’s like recovery. You can’t fake it or white knuckle it or any of that. You know, you gotta actually take a good, close look at where you are and what is in charge of your life.”
“I think that the piece is remarkably universal. So many people identified [with] the angle that you’re talking about now,” Morrison responds to Gunn, recalling audience reaction from the Los Angeles premiere, “but also…so many people identified with having gone through very, very challenging pregnancies. And so many people came up to us after the show and just said, “You know, this was hard for me, but I’m so glad I saw it.”
Morrison continues, “It’s strange—the recovery aspect, I mean, that’s something people will much more openly talk about than others about the pregnancy issue and, difficulty with having lost a child. A lot of people have said that they really appreciated the man’s perspective. The wife [in the story] is present—he talks about her all the time—so she’s very present. But it is the man’s perspective. It is the father’s perspective. And so many people commented on how you never hear the man’s perspective around pregnancy.”
Our conversation shifted to the musical forces necessary in producing In Our Daughter’s Eyes. Gunn spoke in detail about unusual—albethey healthily produced—special vocal effects in Du Yun’s score, and I reached out to conductor Kamna Gupta for more on what to expect:
“The ensemble is pretty unusual: violin, cello, trumpet, clarinet and saxophone, guitar, and percussion. But when I say percussion, it’s a massive setup. We’ve got drum kit, glockenspiel, zither, electronics… it’s quite a lot of sounds to play with! The sound designer is also a huge part of the equation; they are basically a member of the ensemble in terms of how crucial they are to making the music happen. There is such diversity of style in this piece. The music transports the audience from ASMR dreamscapes to Berlin lounges (where you can “smell the pee” — composer’s words!), to death metal. With a little nod to “classic” opera thrown in, for good measure. Du Yun is incredibly discerning in how she creates these sound worlds, especially in her use of electronics and in the way the sound design processes what the instrumentalists are playing. It’s quite an exciting sonic ride for the audience.”
Kamna Gupta
Gupta continues, elaborating on a performance component Gunn discussed—their use of singer/conductor in-ear piece communication in an operatic performance:
“The hardest part is the story…and it’s easy to lose sight of that because of how complicated the piece is on a technical level. But the challenges are rewarding. The music demands such agility and personality from all of the musicians, especially from Nathan. It’s a one-man show, so he is on the entire time. No breaks. The ensemble and I are behind him so we are communicating entirely through video monitors and the in-ear piece. Having an in-ear frees him up to really interact with the set. It’s a challenge to coordinate at times, but as a result the show feels much more intimate. It really feels like the audience is looking in on a man in his world.”
The East Coast premiere of In Our Daughter’s Eyes is poised to thrill audiences, eager to experience Gunn’s artistry as a master storyteller close up, in a setting more intimate than the Met Opera’s massive stage:
“I love singing in English. I love telling new stories. I love telling relevant stories, and I love doing it in a small venue. I personally find a smaller audience—people that can see you, that can really hear what’s going on, and be immersed into all of this—is the most fulfilling.”
For more information on In Our Daughter’s Eyes, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and ticket information, visit: https://prototypefestival.org/shows/in-our-daughters-eyes/
