Rumor
VISION OF THE WORK
Opera in 15 scenes
Christian Jost based the libretto for Rumour on the famous novel The Sweet Smell of Death by Mexican author Guillermo Arriaga. The writer, screenwriter and director is also known for his films such as 21 Grams and Babel.
In a remote Mexican village, a girl named Adela is found murdered. She had only recently moved to this place with her family. The villagers take the investigation into their own hands, as there is no other moral authority. Wild rumours immediately begin to circulate, including one that Adela had been having an affair with the young innkeeper Ramón. Although he only knew Adela casually, he was deeply in love with her and therefore does not deny the rumours. When it emerges that Adela had an affair with a married man, Ramón becomes increasingly entangled in the story. Although the murder cannot be solved, the alleged perpetrator is quickly found: the travelling merchant Gitano is said to have been seen with a woman. Ramón agrees to kill him to avenge his supposed lover.
Jost heavily edited the original with the author’s consent and set his own priorities in his libretto. Questions about the meaning of reality, the power of rumours and, above all, revenge are at the forefront. For him, Rumor is ‘an opera in which illusion becomes truth, rumours become facts, lust and desire culminate in a hunt, an angel of death must die once again, and love is able to transcend the boundaries of time and space’. (Christian Jost) Jost supplements the classical orchestra with electric bass, vibraphone, celesta and marimba. With its highly differentiated tonal and harmonic nuances, the music paints an impressive psychogram of the psychological and emotional abysses of the characters, who are inevitably drawn into the maelstrom of tragic entanglements. The vocal parts are as rewarding as they are demanding and effective.
THE WORK IN THE MEDIA