Peter Eötvös: Love and other Demons haunt Glyndebourne

August 5th 2008, by Tobias |

Hungarian “composer, conductor and teacher” Peter Eötvös is putting the finishing touches to his latest opera. Scheduled for a world premiere on August 10th at Glyndebourne Festival in the UK, “Love and other Demons” is the sonic pendant to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ novel by the same name. “A novel set in the tropical and magical world of 18th century Colombia by Nobel-prizewinner, Gabriel García Márquez” according to Glyndebourne organisors, Eötvös’ work deals with the intersections between the tangible and intangible, between mere passion and utter obsession, between love and hate and between superstition and its fatal consequences. In a Columbian village, the marquis’ daughter is bitten by a rabid dog. She escapes the incident outwardly unhurt, but is soon regarded as being posessed by demons. Exorcist Cayetano Delaura, sent in to free her from her from these very demons, subsequently falls head over heels for her, causing all kinds of disasters. With a cast and production team consisting of Vladimir Jurowski (Music Director), the London Philharmonic, Marisol Montalvo (Soprano) Nathan Gunn (Baritone), Peter Eötvös has found a high-caliber cast to perfectly realise his vision for “Love and other Demons.

A couple of factors turn “Love and other Demons” into a special opera for Peter Eötvös. It is is his first stage work to be conceived with a libretto from a novel. Secondly, the inclusion of the London Philharmonic Orchestra allowed Eötvös complete freedom in terms of composing: “I know that the London Philharmonic is the highest class orchestra, as I have conducted them myself, so I can write what I want as everything is possible for them”, he said in an interview for the folks at Glyndebourne, “In Love and Other Demons, I use a standard sized orchestra but I have divided it into two halves, left and right, like stereo speakers. Many dramatic possibilities come from this idea. For example, the principal wind players are all on the left and the second wind players are on the right so this creates a dialogue. Not a duo but a permanent dialogue situation between two orchestras. Glyndebourne is so wonderful acoustically that this was my first idea.”

And finally, as with all of his operas, “Love and other Demons” was written especially for the Glyndebourne Festival. “I know the Glyndebourne audience as I have conducted here (The Makropoulos Case /Festival 2001)”, .Peter Eötvös explained, “I had considered many other ideas but Márquez's story is one that will touch immediately the Glyndebourne audience, especially the central issues of faith and different cultures. Most interesting of all is the element of fantasy. My other operas Angels in America and Le Balcon were more theatre pieces – theatre with music, cabaret – but in Love and Other Demons I tried to avoid concrete elements.”

The care put into the pre-concetr presentation by the Glyndebourne is – frankly – amazing. Next to biographies on Peter Eötvös, Marquez and all of the cast, there is also video footage of conductor Vladimir Jurowski and Eötvös talking about production details. Firmly rooted in Internet culture and with a well-maintained Facebook profile, Glyndebourne is set to take “Love and other Demons” straight into the next millenium.

Image by Helmut Stürmer

Homepage: Peter Eötvös
Homepage: Glyndebourne Festival