Mélanie, The Desert, & All The Possibilities of The Universe - An interview with multidisciplinary artist Maisie-Nour Symon Henry
As we wind down our pandemic-instigated podcast, ‘The Drop & The Turning,’ we’re experimenting with new ways of presenting artist interviews in audio-based formats. This interview is the first episode of a new podcast called ‘Traceries’. These podcasts will be 30-min in length, and feature conversations between NWC Artistic Director rebecca bruton and various artists we feature on the season.
In this episode, Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist Maisie-Nour Symon Henry speaks with rebecca about their upcoming opera Le Désert Mauve, which NWC will present in Calgary on March 23rd and 24th 2023.
a portrait of composer Maisie-Nour Symon Henry. Photo by Bijuriya.
Opéra Le Désert Mauve
On March 23rd and 24th New Works Calgary presents, 'Le Désert Mauve,' an experimental queer opera (en Français!) by Montréal composer, writer, and visual artist Maisie-Nour Symon Henry (they/them). This interdisciplinary performance work is based on the iconic Québécois dreamscape novel 'Mauve Desert,' by Governor General award-winning francophone poet Nicole Brossard. Through original paintings, sound, choreography, and music, Henry has created a performance 'translation' of the original text, resulting in a rich re-imagination of the iridescent harmonic textures of Brossard's literary sonic environment. The opera will run for two nights only at CSpace King Edward.
March 23rd – 7:30PM (1hour, no intermission)
March 24th – 7:30PM (1 hour, no intermission), followed by an artist Q & A
Student and PWYC ticket options available.
+ Symon Henry Interdisciplinary Creation Workshop
On March 21st Symon will be offering a 2-hour workshop on interdisciplinary performance creation. During the workshop Symon will share a short presentation on their work and process, followed by an interactive workshop wherein participants will either perform a section of Symon’s work, or create their own graphic scores.
Open to all ages; no professional artistic experience required. Workshop will be facilitated in English.
At New Works Calgary we are working towards fostering safe and supportive artistic creation spaces; no forms of racism, sexism, transphobia/homophobia/biphobia will be tolerated during the workshop.
March 21st - 6:30-8:30PM
The Abattoir Studio at cSpace King Edward
Workshop is $15 or PWYC
