- Du Yun
A Cockroach's Tarantella (2008)
- Channel Du Yun Publishing (World)
Commissioned by Chamber Music America
A Cockroach's Tarantella and Zolle may be performed as an evening-length diptych.
- narr + 2vn.va.vc
- Narrator
- 20 min
- the composer
- Chinese, English
Programme Note
Composer note
In 2004, I wrote my first chamber opera, Zolle, which was a story on the afterlife. As I was finishing Zolle, I fabricated another piece that would serve as a life-before fable, which became A Cockroach's Tarantella. At this time, I was living in a government subsidized student apartment. When I would take breaks from my work, particularly in the early hours, I would talk to the many cockroaches that shared my residence. Both stories are steeped in humankind's ubiquitous fascination with regression, the conflict of belonging and alienation, and the resurrection archetype.
— Du Yun