Horse Ape Bird (2022) — david coonan

Horse Ape Bird (2022)

image: Ruth Medjber

a one-act youth opera, in three parts [60’]
written for Irish National Opera & Music Generation

music — David Coonan
libretto — Carys D. Coburn

roles & instrumentation

One (soprano) / Two (mezzo) / Three (actor/sign-performer) / Youth Chorus — all play multiple characters
cl / tpt / trom / perc (2 players — 1: triangle, woodblocks, snare, crotales [C4-C6], sus.cymbals, glock, castanets; 2: vib) / hrp / pno / strings (11111)

details

commissioned by Irish National Opera, Music Generation Kildare, & Music Generation Meath — first production by Irish National Opera, Music Generation Kildare & Meath, and the Solstice Arts Centre, in partnership with Maynooth University, supported by St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth — first performed by Irish National Opera with Music Generation Kildare & Meath Youth Chorus, at the Solstice Arts Centre, on Friday June 24, and at Maynooth University, on Sunday June 26, 2022

links

ino: horse ape bird | programme booklet | rté article | ino interview

audio | score

Ape I(b): ‘Robert Yerkes’ | Bird (d): ‘Right on time…’

note

Can horses do maths? 
Can apes learn to sign?? 
Can parrots conceptualise the colour blue???

A youth opera structured as a triptych on the theme of understanding animals and animals understanding us, Horse Ape Bird traverses the histories of famous animals who tried to speak with humans (or, perhaps more importantly, with whom humans tried to speak…). Clever Hans the Mathematical Horse, Nim Chimpsky the Ape, and Alex the African Grey Parrot all appear as we skip through the history of animal language studies — as do the nameless extras, the numbered subjects, the siblings mysteriously missing from the family portrait. Experienced as the unfolding documentary of a group of young teenage filmmakers, it tells true stories of scientists adopting animals, treating them like humans, and abandoning them when they fail to learn to act like humans.

But who is really failing here? Are animals animals because they lack something we possess, or vice versa? Ambitious, playful, thoughtful, weird, Horse Ape Bird is for anyone who has ever wondered if their dog loves them back.

Carys Coburn & David Coonan

video