Architect

Composed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lewis Spratlan with librettist and electroacoustic composers Jenny Kallick and John Downey, ARCHITECT is an exploration of the relationship between the aural and visual, how they interact, intertwine, and define each other. Based on the life and work of renowned twentieth-century architect Louis I. Kahn, the opera portrays the powerful emotions that inspire his creative journey as he seeks to discover the principles that will guide his life’s work, namely, the relationships between sound and space, connections between the past and present, and the incorporation of a material’s innate characteristics into a larger whole. Deftly blending instrumental and vocal music with electroacoustic segments drawn from recordings created onsite at Kahn’s buildings, Spratlan, Kallick, and Downey unfold a sprawling, powerful, and evocative landscape that brings his work to life and demonstrates the architect’s assertion that “to hear a sound is to see a space.” ARCHITECT includes a full audio album; an Enhanced DVD featuring the critically acclaimed Architect film with original watercolors by Michiko Theurer; the complete performance materials and guidelines; and extensive background on the project history, including essays, biographies, source recordings, and much more.