Studio Sibling

La Loba is an opera score for voice and light, a space in which two bodies seek out a new aria beyond gender stereotypes, in between vibrato and howl. It's a manifesto for fluidity of masculinity and femininity, of human and animal, of tenor and soprano. It's an exercise in crying from the depths. La Loba takes inspiration from the Northern Mexican mythology of the Wolf Woman, the collector of bones, as analyzed by Clarissa Pinkola Estés in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves. The Wolf Woman is an old witch who sings above bones that were once lost. Through the power of her song, the bones resurrect as a howling wolf. The howling wolf, we realize, was a laughing, wild woman all along.

Two bodies roam an opera machine made up of light and dark. Two voices move through and against vocal role patterns. Two solos search for the duet, with and in spite of one another. Two wolf pups help each other weep. La Loba is a plea to set our inner wolf free.

credits

Concept Hélène Vrijdag Composition & performance Timo Tembuyser & Hélène Vrijdag (studio sibling) Additional composition Georg Friedrich Händel, Sergej Rachmaninov Costume design & MUA Sara Schoon Light scenography Erik van de Wijdeven

This performance was a graduation project produced by Festival Cement in co-production with Viazuid. It premiered at Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch in 2021.