DEAD BEAT ESCAPEMENT
a chamber opera

Opera as a form of art has throughout its existence reflected its own times through historical events and mythology. Power, revenge, deceit and desire are just a few of the prime ingredients in opera; through these opera uses dramatic form to address deeper ethical dilemmas that people and society must face. Dead Beat Escapement follows this tradition.

What does it mean to be civilized? This was a question which presented itself at an early stage of working on Dead Beat Escapement, and it was fundamental for the choice of theme and for the further development of textual material for the opera. The desire was to address a topic which was both current and which had strong roots in our history. Thus death penalty was chosen as the theme, with all the implications this method of punishment has for the individual and for society.

And so began a laborious period of research. Shelves of literature on death penalty were read. There are books written by the families of condemned prisoners, and books written by the families of the prisoners’ victims. And there are books by executioners, prison guards and judges, and books written by cooks who prepared last meals. Last but not least there are books by the condemned themselves, both those who were guilty of their crime and those who were innocent. Where execution is used as a method of punishment, very many people are involved in and affected by its process. As the gathering of material neared a conclusion, there was one source of texts which stood out among all the others. These were words spoken and written by the condemned prisoners themselves: their ‘final words’ and their orders for a ‘last meal’.

Throughout this process I worked together with dramaturge and librettist Bibbi Moslet at the Norwegian National Opera. We discussed, discarded, and discussed some more. We adapted and developed the texts. In the end we were left with the essence of the final words and last meals of the condemned. It was necessary to adapt the texts since they were to become part of a music-dramatic context. In the course of this process an overall form began to reveal itself: A life-cycle. That is why Dead Beat Escapement begins with a children’s rhyme Humpty Dumpty and closes with Harold Pinter’s poem Death.

Once the libretto of Dead Beat Escapement had reached a satisfactory stage of development, the composition process could begin. A conventional orchestra was rejected in favour of human sounds: coughing, hawking, slurping, gulping, breathing, and the sound of heartbeats etc. These soundtracks play through eight loudspeakers surrounding the audience. On the stage there are thirteen men: six singers, six dancers and one master of ceremonies. The idea was to create a Gesamtkunstwerk in which song, dance and theatre mutually influenced each other. Therefore a stage director, choreographer, scenographer and light designer have been involved early on in the creative process.

The title Dead Beat Escapement refers to the part of the works of a clock which keeps it from missing a beat. The title is used as a metaphor for the longing of the condemned to escape death.

What does it mean to be civilized? When lives are taken in the name of the state, is it execution or is it murder? What becomes of the citizens in a society where the government kills? Can violence cure violence when we know that brutality invariably provokes more brutality? Can revenge be just? Is it at all possible to take peoples’ lives in a refined, civilized manner? Is it civilized to take lives?

Cecilie Ore

Dead Beat Escapement was commissioned by The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet. 

Worldpremier October 17th 2008 during the Ultima Festival in Oslo.