The Nubian Word for Flowers
Carole Ione Lewis '59 recently premiered a major opera work in New York entitled The Nubian Word for Flowers; A Phantom Opera, written and directed by Lewis with music and sound design by her partner, the late Pauline Oliveros, a composer and pioneer in American electronic music.
The New York Times refers to the opera as a “surreal meditation on colonialism...an opera of chamber dimensions that will feel more epic in scope because of the intricate layering of acoustic and electronic sound.” Zachary Woolfe of the Times writes that “it was, by all accounts, a labor of love from artists who had known and worked with Ms. Oliveros, joined in finishing what she started and honoring her memory."
The opera premiered on November 30, 2017, at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY, to a sold-out, standing-room-only audience. The Ministry of Maåt received a prestigious MAP Fund Grant for this work, and joined by the Experiments in Opera and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), brought the project to its premiere performance.
Watch clips from the performance.
Watch the trailer for The Nubian Word for Flowers.