“Hair-raising” and “paralyzingly beautiful”
— New Classic LA
UNSEAL UNSEAM: AN ELECTROACOUSTIC OPERA
Unseal Unseam is a retelling of Béla Bartók's classic opera, Bluebeard's Castle, viewed through the eyes of his wife, Judith. In this piece we examine the too-often invisible world of domestic violence in order to hold space for healing and solidarity. Using a combination of extended vocal techniques, noise and electronic music, composer Sharon Chohi Kim and sound artist Micaela Tobin create a lustrous cacophony of amplified objects and operatic singing. Director Shannon Knox and librettist Cordelia Istel reimagine Judith travelling through her own psychological purgatory to reclaim her life.
reviews
New Classic LA’s Review: Shannon Knox, Micaela Tobin, Sharon Chohi Kim’s Unseal Unseam is not easily forgotten
Chohi Kim and Tobin’s music itself is built from a balanced palette of hypnotic, cyclical vocal ostinati, lyrical aria duets, earthy classically-structured cello lines, atmospheric electronic manipulation of acoustic phenomena (bowed and rubbed metal, amplified water, rubbing a steel wool-like substance over a microphone) and aggressive metallic percussion (throwing metal objects into a resonant tin). The music is very clearly workshopped, organically developed to flow between performers. It breathes. When the singers do let their full bel canto powers unfurl a few feet from audience members after such restraint, the effect is either hair-raising or paralyzingly beautiful, or perhaps both.
