Please describe Leonardo in the most succinct sentence or two. We have, thus far, been describing the work as exploring “Leonardo’s search for the soul” (his search for the actual physical location in the body), but please re-frame or build upon that.
Leonardo attempts to capture the essence of an extraordinary man – not by harping on his creations or innovations, but rather by focusing on his persistent questions and his keen observations of the everyday. Through his fascination with the mundane Da Vinci sought to understand the ineffable.
What attracted you to da Vinci as a subject? Leonardo was at the intersection of art and science, and the same can be said for you. Is this part of what drew you to him? And why do you think such a major figure in history has not been the subject of an opera before?
Da Vinci is simultaneously too huge and too banal for opera. He managed to avoid scandal. While, indeed, Leonardo’s embodiment of the convergence of art and science has inspired me deeply, it is really the ordinary that attracts me here. This was a man who purchased caged birds in the market only to free them.
How would you describe the music of Leonardo? Is there a main musical motif, and if yes, how did you arrive at it?
Leonardo uses a very short musical phrase – only a few seconds long – of a sacred work by Grancinus Gaffurius, a contemporary of Leonardo who knew Leonardo in Milan and was the likely subject of Da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician. The reference is never explicit but rather provides an occasional quasi-Renaissance texture. Overall the music ranges from introspective to exuberant and attempts to capture Leonardo’s sense of wonderment.
Leonardo’s analysis of acoustics are thought to be among the earliest and most innovative. He was interested in sound waves, echoes, etc. Was this meaningful to you as you wrote the score?
DaVinci’s insightful observation (and sometimes incorrect hypotheses) about the nature of sound have spurred my interest in auditory perception and cognition. Although this is not the focus of Leonardo, his observation of the perceptual ambiguity and sonic complexity of a church bell is alluded to in the musical fabric of the piece,
Why/how did you choose the instrumentation you did, and can you say a bit about the different forces?
This is an embarrassing question. When the 92nd Street Y commissioned the work Hannah gave me free hand to select the ensemble. I literally chose my ‘dream team’ of musicians. I use the ensemble in multiple ways, occasionally orchestrally, but mostly as discrete chamber music units.
Can you say a bit about Tyler Duncan and your casting him in this pivotal role?
Around the time we were first discussing Leonardo, I heard Tyler sing Dichterliebe and was literally moved to tears. There was an intimacy that spoke directly to the sound ideal I was seeking in Leonardo – but then I experienced Duncan’s flair for theatricality and knew that this was an extraordinary artist who would deliver the wide range of music that I incorporate in the work.
Please say a bit about the texts. How did you select the ones you did? Our understanding is that every word is from Leonardo’s notebooks. Is there an aria that is at the center of the work?
The texts are all taken from Leonardo’s notebooks. Da Vinci posed basic questions which sometimes led him to deeply insightful observations. I integrate these questions gathered in bits and pieces throughout the notebooks to create a narrative about his search to understand the soul. Interspersed with this are excerpts from marginalia in the notebooks – literally reminders and to-do lists that underscore the simple and mundane side of the intellectual and artistic giant.