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Cezanne's
Doubt
1995 - 2002
Interactive computer and video sets for chamber opera.
Approximate total running time for performance: 40:00
Cézanne’s Doubt is an opera by the composer Daniel
Rothman. The piece takes its title and inspiration from an essay
by the philosopher of Phenomology, Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In his
essay Merleau-Ponty examines Cézanne’s obsession with
painting and the act of seeing. Cézanne’s desire was
to paint nature objectively, as it exists. His doubt and fear was
that form of his work was the result of an artifact of his vision.
Merleau-Ponty
argues that we always exist in this state of perceptual doubt —that
we cannot witness the world as it is. The world presents itself
as such and we construct it through our process of cognition and
perception.
The set for the opera consists of a large-scale video projection
behind the performers. The performers in the piece are four musicians
and voice. Video cameras are focused on them. A computer processes
images of their movements and translates them into “clouds” of
color that float across the image. These “clouds” are
woven together with prerecorded video images stored on the computer.
The stored video images are
gathered from the site where the piece is being performed.
The artist controls all of the elements of the sets real-time.
Watching the performance unfold, the artist manipulates all
the effects on and changes in the image. These effects include
the degree of noise in the image; the combination of images; the
size, color, movement and speed of the clouds.
The video set differs in each performance because of the interactive
and
site-specific elements. The images are designed to create perpetual
doubt in the eyes and mind of the viewer by being on the edge of
a fully recognizable form. The viewer witnesses images in the flux
of becoming and disappearing.
Performances:
2002 - Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
1998 - Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
1998 - Scottish Rites Hall, Oakland, California
1996 – Merkin Hall, New York, New York
1996 - Stierischer Herbst 96, Graz Austria
1995 - California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
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