Lim spoke about aspects of Chinese culture in relation to Diaspora conditions showing examples from her works ‘Machine for Contacting the Dead’ (2000), and two operas ‘Moon Spirit Feasting’ (1999) and ‘The Navigator’ (2008). The talk focused on structures of slippage between categories (stories that ‘don’t add up’; the transactions of translation in relation to the third person pronoun in written Chinese; the archaeological site of the Marqui Yi Of Zeng (433 B.C.E.) about which knowledge that can only be partially excavated) and the magnification or intensification of boundary spaces as a way of admitting the presence and voices of the past (‘the dead’). Temporal multiplicity and conditions of turbulence are manifested in a music made up of a continually modulating sound world.
- Libretto from Scene 6 ‘Moon Spirit Feasting’; text by Beth Yahp
- Further part of libretto from ‘Moon Spirit Feasting’; text by Beth Yahp
- Walter Benjamin ‘Angel of History’ quotation
- Video clip: Excerpt for ‘The Navigator’ opera – The Angel of History
Deborah Kayser (soprano) and ELISION Ensemble conducted by Manuel Nawri
Text by Patricia Sykes
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