Tri-Stan
a sit-trag/concert monodrama
Music by Eric Moe
Text by David Foster Wallace
Video Projection by Suzie Silver
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Hear the song of the three-headed siren! ! Visit Sissee Nar on the set of Beach-Blanket Endymion! Spend a quiet domestic moment with Stasis, God of Passive Reception, sharing an oat-intensive breakfast at home with his spouse Codependae! Thrill to the strains of the USC fight song with Sissee Nar’s sisters, Leigh and Coleptic, post-vestal attendants at the Saturday temple of the padded gods Ra & Sisboomba! And much more...
Tri-Stan (50’) a sit-trag/concert monodrama for mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger and ten players (flute, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, horn, trumpet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, and cello), is a setting of “Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko” by David Foster Wallace, a piece of short fiction from his collection Brief interviews with hideous men, an updated retelling of the myth of Echo and Narcissus. The classical myth is imbedded in a complex (and very funny) matrix of mass-media and high culture; 1980’s-TV meets grand opera, featuring video projections by multi-media artist Suzie Silver.
Dramatis Personae
mortals:
Agon M. Nar - head of Recombinant Programming at Tri-Stan Entertainment, founder of the Satyr-Nymph Network (S-NN)daughters of Agon M. Nar:
Nar, Sissee - aspiring thespian, star of Beach Blanket Endymion
Nar, Leigh &
Nar, Coleptic - USC cheerleadersReggie Ecko of Venice - former head of Recombinant Programming at Tri-Stan
Stanley,
Stanley,
Stanley - CEOs of Tri-Stan Entertainment Unltd., a member of the Sturm & Drang Family of Exceptionally Fine Companies (also Codependae in disguise)Ted of Atlanta - CEO, Hit or Myth Network (HoMN)
Vanna of the White Hands - actress
in disguise:
Robert Vaughn - actor and host of Hair Loss Update (Erythema)
Domino’s Pizza deliveryman - (Codependae)
an assertive associate of Javier J., chemical creditor - (Nature)chroniclers
Ovid the Obtuse
Dirk of Fresnodeities
Stasis - God of Passive Reception, chairman of the board of Sturm & Drang
Codependae - Stasis’s S.O., Queen Goddess of the fluorescent basin
Nature - a goddess, her friend
Erythema - demiurge, member of Codep’s Support Group
Herm “Afro” Deight, M.D. - God of Surgical Enhancement
Ra &
Sisboomba - the Padded Gods
Emme - Winged Goddess of Victory
setting: medieval CA’s fluorescent basin, Before Cable
REVIEWS
FROM Musicworks
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
The evening’s biggest event, Eric Moe’s 50-minute “Tri-Stan,” could be called a one-woman opera, a blockbuster…It’s based on an arch story by David Foster Wallace that casts modern Hollywood as a Greek myth for our time (featuring a hero named Agon M. Nar). Mr. Moe took this as a way to probe the boundaries between high and low culture. He responded to social parody with musical parody (with quotations ranging from Strauss’s “Elektra” to the theme from “The Brady Bunch”), and he created a tour de force for the gifted mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger (who had to deliver everything from spoken recitative to Wagner excerpts, and did it well) and subversively inscribed classical music into pop culture.
-- Anne Midgette, The New York Times, April 2, 2005
FROM THE PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE
Short Takes: Moe's marvelous 'Tri-Stan' pokes fun at pop and high art
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteWhoever decided classical music can't be funny and certainly shouldn't be entertaining would have been dismayed at the multitude of belly laughs Sunday night at Bellefield Hall Auditorium.
The chief instigator was a probing but comedic new work by Pitt composer Eric Moe. The world premiere of "Tri-Stan" was the highlight of a concert by visiting ensemble Sequitur, presented by Pitt's Music on the Edge series.
"Tri-Stan" is a setting for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra of a David Foster Wallace short story, "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko." In whimsical, fast-moving prose, Wallace pokes equal fun at pop culture's repeating of itself and high culture's lingering snobbishness, ultimately showing the two to be pretty darn similar.
The twisted plot, purposefully laden with furbelow academic terms, bad puns and mixed mythology, follows the tragic demise of a media mogul's (Agon M. Nar) actress daughter (Sissee), shot by a demented stalker (Ecko). A pithy synopsis does little justice to the double-entendres and slippery humor of its depiction of how Nar succeeded by recycling the same sitcom, from "Brady Bunch" to "Family Ties" to "The Cosby Show." Then there's the ridiculousness of sexy Sissee becoming the star of a cable hit, "Beach Blanket Endymion," even though all she does is sleep in every episode.
Faced with such an air-tight text, Moe's creation was a marvel. Influenced by composer David Del Tredici's vocal works, the structure of "Tri-Stan" aided the manic text immensely. Mary Nessinger excellently delivered the wordy recitatives and exquisite arias. Under Paul Hostetter, Sequitur oscillated between background ambience and foreground description with fluidity, seamlessly incorporating quotes ranging from TV show themes to Wagner. A wonderfully kitschy video prepared and played by CMU's Suzie Silver offered "ultra-titles" -- a mix of text and images...
"Tri-Stan" is a major work for Moe, not just in size (50 minutes), but because it's a culmination of several strands of his compositional aesthetic. For an audience, it is one of those rare works that transcends the cultural divide while still being rooted in both sides. People of differing backgrounds can enjoy and, yes, be edified by its cautionary tale.
-- Review by Andrew Druckenbrod
Post-Gazette classical music critic