VOYAGE

Premiered at the SF International Art Festival on June 3-4, 2017, VOYAGE is a 70-minute ritual music drama utilizing video and interactive electronics, composed by Richard Marriott and Made Subandi to a libretto by Ruth Margraff, with Pamela Z, Carla Fabrizio and Sarah Willner. Voyage is inspired by a Balinese ritual called Calonarang, and is about crossing over the boundaries between nations, the crossroads between cultures, and the territory between life and death.

The text of VOYAGE is drawn from the memoirs of migrants and refugees from many eras, including our own. The vocalists, Made Subandi and Pamela Z, virtuosos with wildly different techniques, deliver conversations and confrontations in which travelers encounter forces seeking to stop their journeys. The librettist is Ruth Margraff, a renowned playwright who serves on the Creative Writing faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The dramaturg is Rachel Cooper. Rachel is Director of Global Performing Arts and Cultural Initiatives at the Asia Society and co-founder of Gamelan Sekar Jaya.