Sivan Eldar
Composer, USA
Sivan Eldar (b. 1985) holds a B.A. in composition from the New England Conservatory, and a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Berkeley, under the direction of Franck Bedrossian and Edmund Campion. She also studied computer music at CNMAT (Centre for New Music and Audio Technologies - University of Berkeley) and at Ircam (Cursus 2016-17) with Hèctor Parra.
Sivan's work includes close collaborations with musicians from the classical and non-classical world, as well as with artists in the fields of theater, dance and visual arts. Her projects have been supported by the Fulbright, Civitella Ranieri and Royaumont Foundations, among others, as well as the Cité Internationale des Arts, IRCAM, ENOA (European Network of Opera Academies), Snape Maltings, MacDowell Colony and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. More recently, her compositions have been performed at the festivals ManiFeste du Centre Pompidou, Rainy Days of the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Présences de la Maison de la Radio, Ultraschall Berlin, Donaueschingen and Prague Spring.
Since autumn 2019, Sivan is composer in-residence with the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, where she also conducts workshops for emerging opera creators. In collaboration with the writer Cordelia Lynn, she is currently developing the opera Like flesh, a commission from the Opéra de Lille in co-production with the Operas of Nancy and Montpellier, IRCAM and Ensemble Le Balcon. Her music is published by Éditions Durand/Universal Music Classical.
Like flesh
Opéra de Lille and co-producers Opéra Orchestre national de Montpellier, Opéra national de Lorraine (Nancy), Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Antwerp), Le Balcon and IRCAM present a new multimedia chamber opera, Like flesh. A subversion of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Like flesh is a dark contemporary myth informed by queer politics and environmental sciences. It offers an urgent warning against our destructive relationships with each other and our world.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage, a woman mourns the devastation of the forest around her. An unexpected affair instigates an explosive metamorphosis, and she finds perfect release as a tree. But the world is a dangerous place for trees, and deep in the forest a student and a forester lay claim to a body of wood and leaf, one for money and one for love.