ÉVARISTE (2015)
for five singers and quartet
Music by Helgi R. Ingvarsson
Words by Lori Ann Stephens
ÉVARISTE, commissioned by The Courtauld Gallery and Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD) in September 2012, is based on the last three years of the life of French mathematician Évariste Galois, who died in 1832 at only twenty years of age. Premiered in The Courtauld gallery, Somerset house, London in June 2015. The photos below are from Téte a Téte opera festival London in July same year.
Genesis
“In the fog of a Paris dawn in 1832, Évariste Galois, the 20-‐year-‐old founder of modern algebra, was shot and killed in a duel. That gunshot marked the end of one era in mathematics and the beginning of another. The eighteenth-century mathematicians were idealized as child-like, eternally curious, and uniquely suited to reveal the hidden harmonies of the world. But in the nineteenth century, brilliant mathematicians like Galois became Romantic heroes like poets, artists, and musicians. The ideal mathematician was now an alienated loner, driven to despondency by an uncomprehending world”
– Duel at Dawn, Amir Alexander.
SYNOPSIS
MAY 10, 1832, 4AM – PARIS, FRANCE
Évariste Galois, a hot-‐headed twenty-‐year-‐old mathematical genius, is sitting at a desk in his room, feverishly writing. His great passion, maths, has been sabotaged by his first crushing experience of love. Now, he is more fervent than ever about being understood, being important, being accepted. Frustrated with an illogical world, Évariste will embrace early death by duel in fourteen hours, as long as he completes his ground-breaking theorem, where the only remaining beauty resides. As he starts a goodbye letter to his friend, Auguste, explaining both his work and grave situation, memories of past events – his failed examination at the Polytechnique institute and his short love affair with Stéphanie du Motel– start to haunt him.
The opera is based on real events.
Excerpt from “String quartet no.1: Évariste” by Ingvarsson (2013) (live)
2015 PREMIERE CAST:
Director: Shirley Keane Designer: Friðþjófur Þorsteinsson (Fiffi) Rehearsal pianist: Michelle Marie Santiago Stand-‐in pianists: Pierre Riley, Héléne Favre-‐Bulle Évariste Galois: Jonathan Hyde Stéphanie du Motel: Freya Jacklin Examiner Pochon: Callie Swarbrick Examiner Boulier: Claire Bournez Examiner Dinet: Christian Valle Auguste Chevalier: Jack Holton Flute: Jenni Hogan Clarinet: Alex Roberts Guitar: Julian Vickers Cello: Andrew Power