Report by Li-E Chen, 7 June 2015

How many dimensions of time in your works? Do you work with time in a literature

form, a visual form or a musical form?

Conversation with Dr F Jane Schopf (programme director, opera studies)

Summary of discussion:

The questions came up when I woke up before coming to this #DDOpera event and my reflection seeing Beckett's plays at Barbican Centre on Beckett's season last night. Beckett's works seems so easy to understand now in comparing the old time, I believe. It was simply working with dimensions of time in a literature form. Then I became curious what music, words, visual arts would make from dealing with dimensions of time that we experience the world.

In the morning, Phelim actually talked about one of the open space principles “whenever happens it is the right time.”, “creativity doesn't run by the time clock… ” in an open space we follow our own time/sense of time which is different to the reality time.

LC: how many dimensions of time in Beckett's waiting for godot? Two?

FS: Audience real time (watching the play), Actors play time (playing on stage), Within the play (story of two characters, Vladimir and Estragon passing time), …

FS suggested about a book by Boris Wong “Two orders of times” and Rose Bruford's online learning course on opera.

I hope I would be able to work with people who are exploring different dimensions of time in their works. This would be my next action plan for this.

Tags:

Music, Time, time, Beckett, visual art, music, open space principle, literature