I Collect Stories 2


Since I started writing operas I found myself paying attention to stories that could be set to music.

I listen to stories, I read them, I try to find hidden stories under the meaningless speech of everyday life. I keep stories in a large storage space that I have inside my head.

There are so many unknown possibilities in the operatic genre… I begun reviewing the stories I know. I started a search for the ideal dramatic tale, a plot that may be set to music and yet stay relevant, as an experience of discovery through life.

I have talked to writers. I am always searching for creative partners, librettists that could bless me with words on paper, so I can put them to music. Random friends also started telling me stories that are always interesting in many ways. Tales that may become part of a larger story, or the hidden motif that may cause a character to act. Details of tales that may change to fit in a bigger picture.

Someone told me that there aren’t that many stories. Is that true or not? I feel that there are so many little tales, but maybe they all relate to some bigger archetype. Maybe there are original myths waiting to be discovered, and these new stories may shape the life of generations to come, if we can tell them the right way. Or maybe just a change in the development of a particular situation could bring out new meaning to an old story.

Inside these stories I meet characters who sometimes become like friends and real people, with their own life and opinions. I like these people, I become very affectionate with them. I can feel the anger of a murderer and the pain of a mother who lost her child. There is much life in the world of imagination.

So I keep collecting stories. Hoping that inside my mind they will blossom, or just keep me company on cold nights.

If you have a story that could become an opera, or a little part of an opera. Please let me know about it. If you write verse that could become an opera, please send me a sample.

Right now I am wrapping up a new opera: Penelope’s Plastic Flowers, the story of a woman who waits for love.