AMIR MAHYAR TAFRESHIPOUR (b. 1974) : The Doll behind the Curtain (2015) A chamber opera in two acts. Jonathan von Schwanenflügel tenor, Signe Sneh Durholm soprano, Elenor Wiman mezzo-soprano, Jakob Bloch Jespersen bass-baritone, Per Bach Nissen bass, Thomas Storm baritone, Marie Dreisig soprano, Athelas Sinfonietta - Eirik Haukaas Ødegaard conductor

Catalogue Number: 02Y044

Label: BIS

Reference: BIS-2596

Format: CD

Price: $19.98

Description: The Doll behind the Curtain (2015) is a chamber opera with its libretto by Dominic Power, after a short story of the same title by the Iranian writer Sadegh Hedayat (1903–51). Hedayat was an important literary figure in Irán; he studied in France, made extensive studies, and translations, of Western literature, and introduced a vein of modernism into Iranian literature, publishing a significant number of short stories, novels, and other literary works. He committed suicide in Paris in 1951. The Doll behind the Curtain tells the story of a serious, introverted, morbidly sensitive young man, betrothed to his cousin in Irán. Studying in Le Havre, and temperamentally unable to indulge in the dissolute lifestyle of other young men, he conceives a delusional passion for a mannequin in a mysterious bric-a-brac shop, which he buys and takes home when he returns to Tehran. Absorbed by his imaginary relationship, he withdraws from his fiancée and family, flouting tradition; finding his position increasingly untenable he repeatedly tempts fate by playing Russian Roulette, but is spared every time. There is an element of ambiguity to the story; is there in fact a supernatural element, embodied in the storekeeper and his granddaughter, and the mannequin, or is the drama the result of delusion and psychological turmoil? The fiancée discovers his secret and attempts to win him back from her exquisite alabaster rival, with tragic consequences. The orchestral and ensemble works by Tafreshipour that we offered previously (01T060) drew on his Persian heritage in their modality and harmonic vocabulary; this work almost entirely avoids any explicit musical reference to the Middle East, even as aspects of the narrative hinge on customs and family norms of the region. With its four principals, three supporting characters, and chamber forces, the opera has something in common with the recent tradition of accessible and dramatically effective operas by Carlisle Floyd and his successors in America, though Tafreshipour's idiom, while still grounded in tonality, is less comfortably neo-romantic than the majority of his American counterparts. The narrative of the story is such that, rather than abounding in action throughout, the opera builds inexorably toward the final catastrophic scene - a narrative arc more obviously suited to print than the stage - so to avoid longeurs the tragedy of the protagonist's internal ambivalence and mental disintegration, and the reactions it evokes from those around him, are treated in the emotionally heightened monologues and exchanges of the grand operatic tradition. When the cataclysmic event finally occurs, the portrayal is both musically and emotionally shattering.

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