These pages contain information about Gravity and Light, a one-act opera. It includes background information on who the characters are based on and the full libretto, which is annotated to explain aspects of how it relates to The Alexander Technique. Gravity and Light A one act opera based on the Alexander Technique Premiered on 20 th August 2004 7.45pm at Oxford Town Hall as part of Libretto by Carolyn Nicholls
Composed and conducted by Leon Coates Directed by Lee Warren This performance was dedicated by the librettist to Walter and DVD copies of the performance will be available by Christmas 2004 Video recording by George Robertson Excerpts from the programme How it happened… This short but succinct opera wrote itself whilst I was writing an academic thesis entitled “The Analysis of the Specialised Use of the Hands in Alexander Technique Teaching”. During the course of my research study I recorded interviews, both on tape and video, with Alexander teacher-trainers and training course students. The resultant material flooded my senses to such an extent that writing an opera libretto was one way of making sense of it all. All the characters in the opera are either ‘real’ people who took part in my study, or conglomerates of people. Many of the words and phrases used are those from the mouths of my study participants. I threaded the resultant libretto through my master’s thesis, having obtained special permission to do so from the bemused academic board of the University of East London (bless them for their open-mindedness) and that, thought I, was the end of it. I presented the 2003 F. M. Alexander Memorial Lecture (Candles and Onions) and, when mentioning the libretto was astonished to find people wanting to audition for the role of Emily-to compose the opera-to direct it-to make it happen. So, thanks to the enthusiastic help of many people, here it is… The tale , version 1. Emily wants to set the world to rights and is a seeker after the truth. She has heard of an old magician who held the secrets of a great spell of transformation and of Hardiman, a wise man that, she believes, the magician Frederick had initiated into his practices. Hardiman lives in a large rambling house surrounded by his helpers and pupils, all of whom speak a strange language. Keen to learn everything she can, Emily wanders through the house, meeting different characters that give her thoughtful directions. But in her haste Emily misunderstands them and she constantly finds herself climbing a spiral staircase that she thought she had already climbed, only to realise that actually, although it appears to be the same staircase, it looks different every time she climbs it, and the view is different the higher she goes. In time Emily realises that if she wants to learn the secrets of Fredericks ’ spell, she must stop looking where she has been looking and embark upon a strange and delightful journey into an unknown land and that the spiral staircase will take her there if she can understand its message. ..or version 2 This is what happens when you discover the Alexander Technique and decide to undertake the perilous task of training to teach it.
Orchestra Conducted by Leon Coates
Thanks are due to: Everyone who gave their time and their considerable talents freely and willingly. To the congress organisers for their support, to those wonderful invisible people who brought tea, water, and moped fevered brows and made life easier. And to F. M. Alexander who is responsible for all of us being here tonight.
The spell, transforming gravity into light, represents several things. First and foremost it represents the essence of the Alexander Technique, which is the ability to consciously use oneself in a free and elastic manner that allows one to be lengthening in stature throughout the whole body. To put it more simply it’s about ‘going up’. To achieve this happy state is simple but not easy, as Emily (and anyone else who explores it) discovers. So the spell represents good use of oneself and also acknowledges that this is a primary consideration in any attempt to teach another person the Alexander Technique. If you want to teach people to cast this spell for themselves, to transform gravity into light, to ‘go up’; you first of all must make sure that you yourself are able to perform that spell! You yourself must be able to ‘go up’ and to maintain your good use whilst you put your hands on another person and offer them the tools necessary to cast their own spell-to go up within themselves. Who are the opera characters based on? All the characters in the piece are loosley based on the people who kindly took part in the study Analysis of The Specialised Use of the Hands in Alexander Technique Teaching, which was my thesis title for my Masters degree. These people took part in video and tape recordings. Ron Colyer (who led the orchestra) was my Alexander Technique mentor for the study and was most helpful with encouragement and insightful comments when I was struggling with my material. Inevitably other people, AT teachers, students, pupils, and friends talked to me about what I was doing and gave me information, opinions and advise. Some people told me very forcibly what using the hands was about, others digressed into their own difficulties, but what was fascinating was the way in which similar images and concepts came up for everyone. These people in a sense became the chorus. Moments of realisations about their own and other people processes are reflected in the chorus words …and so you see----what can you do but nothing… FM himself does not appear in the opera, he is the force behind it. I cast him as a magician who has amazing spells to perform (incidentally, Lee Warren who directed the performance is also a magician!) He is referred to in the narration that is spoken over the overture as ‘a powerful magician named Frederick…who spent years locked in a room gazing in mirrors…’ This naturally refers to FM’s chapter 3 Evolution of a Technique in his book Use of the Self in which he describes his use of mirrors in discovering aspects of his work. This image of FM was also an echo of the image of the crystal cave that Merlin the magician at the court of King Arthur was said to have dwelt in. The Character of Emily is partly based on myself as a young trainee. She also represents the training journey with its elations and frustrations ‘You tell me what you have already told me’ she cries in frustration when two teachers tell her to stop and think yet again. Hardiman is clearly based on Walter Carrington. The ‘rambling house’ is 18 Lansdowne Road where I and many many other people trained to teach the Alexander Technique. This house must have seen thousands of Alexander lessons over decades of time. It is still a vibrant place of learning. Hardiman also has a touch of another magician about him-Sarastro from Mozarts Magic Flute. When I had decided that I would write a libretto I begged the loan of some librettos from a composer friend-to look at how they were laid out, what information was included and how the whole thing was presented. My friend lent me The Magic Flute and The Mikado (Gilbert & Sullivan) both of which I love and know reasonable well. In a way both librettos coloured my thinking. Anyone who knows Walter will recognise that he is both a ‘weighty’ figure with his huge depth of knowledge and experience and yet he shares it joyfully. Many of the phrases that crept into the libretto come from Walter over the 25 years I have known him. Ask yourself the question-which way am I going? is a phrase I have heard from Walter on many occasions. Alice is a conglomerate figure. She represents a high level on the spiral of learning. She is partly based on Dilys Carrington, who did so much to set me on the road that led (indirectly as all good things.) to the master’s degree and the opera. Alice also carries aspects of my self as a research practitioner. It is Alice who urges Emily to turn another spiral-learn again what you know-look in the mirror, again, again. When I spent a year as Dilys’s apprentice, learning how to teach the skill of using your hands in what we know as ‘hands-on groups’ Dilys would often say things like ‘let’s all free our knees shall we?’ This used to intrigue me because it revealed Dilys’s ability to operate on many levels at once. She was teaching the trainee to free her knees, she was reminding me that if I wanted to feel anything of what was going on under my hands when I was monitoring the trainee she was teaching, that I too should free my knees, and that for herself, as teacher trainer, master craftsman and generous instructor-the knees were there to be freed! Since those days I have trained established teachers to take ‘hands-on groups’ and I am always mindful of Dilys when I do so. Nicholas is loosely based on input from John Nicholls, who was the other teacher trainer in my study. John talked a great deal about how people question the state of their neck, trying to ‘feel’ it out. This came out in Emily’s plea …but my neck is free, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Nicholas’s line in the final chorus You can’t know a song by a singer who’s wrong is a paraphrase of Alexander’s You can’t know a thing by an instrument that’s wrong and represents Johns often humorous way of getting his teaching across. Shirley-Jane and Lisa are based on the trainees who took part in the study. These were both novice trainees (in the first term or two) and those about to graduate. The transcripts of the four interviews I did with trainees revealed some fascinating material, a subtle combination of understanding and awareness of distance and learning yet to cover. In the opera they are senior students or newly qualified teachers, so when Emily complains that she has lost her way they confidently tell her Up, up, up! Make no mistake the way is up!. But a bit later on, when Alice has spoken to Emily and told her to look again, Shirley-Jane and Lisa realise that now we are not so sure….. Programme Notes GRAVITY AND LIGHT, takes its title from the two opposing but complementary forces that stimulate the human postural mechanisms. We must contend with gravity as a downward force in our lives, holding us onto the planet, and yet we have an inbuilt urge to extend upwards. This urge is both physical and for many symbolic of an inner search for understanding, enlightenment, illumination. To grow towards the light is a fundamental urge for all most life forms, be they sentient creatures, or plants. Grappling with these two forces is a rewarding journey that can lead in many directions (mostly upwards!). This piece is the culmination of a twenty-year journey that the librettist both wittingly and unwittingly undertook. It explores a crystallisation of understanding, experience and practice that extends both into the past and the future. Outside the rambling house. Emily has found the house and desperately wants to explore it. She has many questions and hopes the people inside the house can enlighten her. What were Frederick ’s secrets? How did he transform gravity into light and could she do it too? Emily knew that the magician had written four scrolls, in which he committed his secret studies to parchment. She had managed to get copies of the scrolls and had tried to read them. But she was frustrated. The meaning of his words evaded her. She tried to do what he had done, to carry out the same experiments that he had carried out. She had to find out more. The Annotated Libretto The Mirrored Chamber (narrated over the overture) This is the story of Emily, a young girl who has a burning ambition to practise magic. She has heard of a powerful magician named Frederick, who had the ability to transform people with the touch of his hands. He was a mysterious figure, who had spent many years locked in a room gazing at his own reflection in mirrors. Mirrors were all around, revealing secrets that he alone could understand. He helped the lame to walk and the stutterer to speak. He freed the sick from their prison of pain, and helped the breathless to breathe. He enlivened the minds of the dull and caused the philosopher to think yet more deeply. He was a strange and powerful man, now partly wrapped in the mystery of the past; his innermost secrets known only to a few. His hands brought about the transformations he made, and Emily wondered if she too could perform his most powerful spell; transforming gravity into light.
References F.M’s four books Alexander 1932 The Use of the Self. ch.3 Evolution of a Technique. Alexander describes a ten-year period of self-observation using mirrors. Alexander 1932 The Use of The Self ch.4 The Stutterer Alexander 1995 Articles and lectures v A Respiratory Method Alexander 2002 Aphorisms. ‘I don’t care what man you bring up, Socrates or anyone else: you will find gaps and holes in his thinking. Let me co-ordinate him and you will not find gaps and holes in his thinking’.
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