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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 18 January 2018
Run by women, Prototype Festival showcases diverse composers

By RONALD BLUM risky projects than they lyzed oil rig worker encour-
Associated Press are a 10-minute orchestral ages his wife to have sex
NEW YORK (AP) — In an art commission or a 10-minute with other men, was first
form dominated by men, string quartet. ... Men are seen in 2016 at the Opera
a small organization run by often given opportunities Philadelphia, where Sarah
four women is transforming based on their potential, Williams is new works ad-
opera with cutting-edge but women are often giv- ministrator. Mazzoli’s “Prov-
work. en opportunities based on ing Up,” the story of Nebras-
The Prototype Festival is pre- their past experiences.” ka families trying to claim
senting its sixth edition this Morrison, a former adminis- land under the Homestead
month in venues around trator at Boston University’s Act, debuts this weekend
New York. Two years ago Tanglewood Institute and at the Washington Nation-
it premiered Du Yun’s “An- producer of New York City al Opera under artistic di-
gel’s Bone,” a story of child Opera’s contemporary rector Francesa Zambello.
trafficking that won the showcase VOX, runs the Reid and Mazzoli founded
2017 Pulitzer Prize for mu- festival with Kristin Marting Luna Composition Lab,
sic. Last year it staged Missy and Kim Whitener of HERE, a not-for-profit that pairs This image released by DotDotDotMusic shows Beth Morrison,
Mazzoli’s “Breaking the dedicated to hybrid live teenage girls with promi- from left, Jecca Barry, Kim Whitener, and Kristin Marting, direc-
Waves,” among the most performances in theater, nent female mentors who tors of The Prototype Festival running through Jan. 20 in New
acclaimed compositions of dance, music and visual are composers. She made York.
the 21st century, based on art, and with Jecca Barry, a connection between Associated Press
the Lars von Trier film. the executive director of opera and the “Me Too” a very productive discus- treated, particularly in ac-
This year’s typically preco- Beth Morrison Projects. movement. sion about the changing ademia and large institu-
cious program includes “People say that there’s “My hope is that the focus culture first,” Mazzoli said. tions, and the very culture
Gregory Spears’ “Fellow just white men composers, on abuse and these sort “The next step needs to be of young men. And hope-
Travelers,” adopted from but it’s just not true,” Mart- of grotesque stories that a fundamental change in fully that will lead to a dis-
Thomas Mallon’s novel ing said. “There are artists are coming out will lead to the way that women are cussion of opportunity.”q
about an affair involving a working at scale and vision
gay State Department of- of all different colors and all
ficial during the McCarthy different genders.”
era. An initial $400,000 budget,
“The sort of standard tra- half provided by the An-
jectory for a composer of drew W. Mellon Founda-
the past would have been tion, has risen to $750,000.
to wait until they may be Future projects include El-
40 or something and they len Reid’s “Prism,” which
have had lots of things will be shown by Prototype
under their belt and they and the LA Opera next sea-
have large institutions who son. “It’s so much easier to
are supporting them and commission John Adams.
then they get a big com- It is a household name.”
mission,” said Beth Morri- Du Yun said. “For organi-
son, Prototype’s founding zations like the Met, first of
director. “Well, this genera- all they feel like they have
tion of composers wasn’t to sell tickets, and major
interested in that.” art presenters, they always
Among 10 works presented worry about that first. So it’s
through Saturday before like they say, ‘Who is big
audiences of 77 to 600 is already? And who is a star
Alicia Hall Moran’s avant- name?’ They always think
garde “Breaking Ice: The that our audience is not
Battle of the Carmens,” ready.”
mounted on an ice rink with Protoype coincides with
performers and a portion of conferences of music in-
the audience on skates, a dustry executives in New
nod to Debi Thomas’ 1988 York. “I think it’s a radical
Olympic competition with point of intervention,” LA
Katarina Witt. Opera chief executive
That is a stark contrast with Christopher Koelsch said. “It
the Metropolitan Opera, is a genuinely experimental
which has presented just festival which gives oppor-
two staged operas com- tunities to emerging artists,
posed by women in its which is hugely important
135-year history: Ethel M. inside the ecosystem and
Smyth’s “Der Wald (The For- then I think as critically cre-
est)” in 1903 and Kaija Saa- ates opportunities for those
riaho’s “L’Amour de Loin works to live beyond the
(Love from Afar)” in 2016. one-off.”
“That alone is a cause for Mazzoli said women ad-
a revolution and a cause ministrators are more likely
for real anger and outcry,” to back compositions by
Mazzoli said. “Women are women. “Breaking the
less likely to be given big Waves,” in which a para-