Founder and Director, New Resonance Orchestra
Music Director, Marigny Opera Ballet
Over Coffee
by Sharon O'Brien
At CC’s on Esplanade Avenue, Francis Scully is reflecting on
a range of topics – from his singular approach to classical music to the
special challenges of being music director for the Marigny Opera Ballet’s
“Giselle Deslondes.”
What’s particularly refreshing about Scully is the breadth
of his vision and his willingness to leave the confines and silos of
traditional classical music to engage and create with dance companies, theaters,
and visual artists. As he sees it, “with
classical music, we need to stimulate our own creativity. It’s really
exhilarating to connect with artists in other disciplines. It moves us forward
to the next thing. It helps us think in different ways.”
Ultimately, “our goal is to reach new listeners. We're
telling them 'this music is about you, it touches on your concerns, and it's
made by people like you.' We're not messing with the music of great composers,
but we are saying that the listener is the hero."
In many ways the antithesis of twentieth century conductors
like Toscanini, Scully thinks of conducting differently. “It’s a larger
umbrella than just waving the hands. It encompasses all sorts of administrative
things, pre-concert planning, creative strategy and curatorial functions. You know, I think a lot about how to respond
to the challenges of being a conductor in 2016. Maybe this isn’t just about
music, but also this idea of collaboration. . . . “
Scully didn’t have a classical music background growing up.
He listened to rock, letting himself free range through different musical eras
and genres, coming to classical music in his teens. Like others of his generation, he benefitted
from technology that disrupted the old ways of listening to music. Prior to digitalization, music was strictly
classified and categorized by type, genre and delivery mechanism (e.g., live,
radio, record stores, tape). “These
categories – socially and from an access standpoint -- are disintegrating. If you have the interest in say Balinese
music, you can find it. “
The Norfolk, VA native studied violin in public school and
went on to an undergraduate degree in violin performance from Catholic
University and a master’s in conducting from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns
Hopkins University. After graduation he landed an internship with the Berlin
Philharmonic and traveled through Europe listening and learning. “I first went
to Berlin in 2000. I wasn’t there in the
1990s, but there was this sense of a huge upheaval all at once. Artists were there, experimenting, throwing
off all of this creative energy.”
A 2007 trip to visit his parents in New Orleans became
another inflection point. "Getting
off the plane from frigid Berlin, I went straight to a Mardi Gras parade in
70-degree weather." What he felt in
New Orleans was a blast of the creative energy he’d experienced in Berlin. Then, there was the chance to be part of
rebuilding the city after the storm. “It felt like a place that was uniquely
open to experiment at that moment."
No surprise then that Scully’s first project was a
Post-Katrina piece, Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.” It seemed to answer questions he always asks
himself about his work, “How do you celebrate what’s happening here? How do you express the spirit of this
community? The Idea is always to connect classical music with whatever’s going
on. . . . We have to come up with a good
reason for why in 2016 are we doing this.”
More than just a conventional concert, this 2008 “Rebuilding
Appalachian Spring” was a multimedia show with actors, dancers, video
projections and the debut performance of his New Resonance Orchestra. The
composition of New Resonance, which draws from the ranks of LPO, NOCCA faculty
and freelance professional musicians, varies with each production. And so do Scully’s collaborators. For “Haydn Seek,” Scully’s June 2016
production at Marigny Opera House, he partnered with Goat in the Road
Productions to literally bring in the clowns for chase scenes and broad
physical comedy in eight Haydn symphonies.
Was the 18th century Austrian composer rolling in
his grave? Scully doesn’t think so. In an interview with Dean Shapiro in The
New Orleans Advocate, he explained that somewhere in the 1760s and 1770s, Haydn
started the practice of using symphonic music for theatrical performances,
possibly even for comedy interludes in between the acts. Scully also finds
evidence that seems to indicate that Haydn was thinking about theatrical
gestures and timing. “So it seemed like we could put together a fun program of
some of these really unusual works that are specifically theatrical and add our
own little touches to it.”
Scully’s association with Marigny Opera House dates to 2009
when it was still Holy Trinity Church, a deconsecrated neighborhood place of
worship soon to be acquired by Dave Hurlbert and Scott King. Since then, Scully
has been a frequent collaborator with Hurlbert, Tucker Fuller, and others on a
dazzling variety of productions.
For “Giselle Deslondes,” Scully thinks of himself as sort of
the second level in the creative process, following what composer Tucker Fuller
and choreographer Maya Taylor have already devised. That said, the challenges are ample. “We’ve
never heard this piece before. No one hears it until the very first night of
rehearsal with the orchestra.
"The ballet company has been working with computer generated
music for rehearsals and does not experience the full orchestra until a week
before opening. So there are different tempos, different sounds from what the
dancers are accustomed to. So, how can I
put this together -- how I can take what everyone else has already contributed
and make it work. That’s my challenge now.”
You can hear the New Resonance Chamber
Orchestra at the world premiere of “Giselle Deslondes” featuring choreography
by Maya Taylor and score by Tucker Fuller November 17-20 at the Marigny Opera House. http://www.newresonanceorchestra.org/
