I met the Swiss philosopher René Berger in 1987 and we immediately started working together.
René Berger was one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century and the transition to the twenty-first century. We became friends and over more than twenty years we developed several projects together.
In 2008 I suggested to make an opera together. He immediately agreed and we started working on the project concept. But, it should be something different. A challenge. Thus the opera Metamorphosis was born. René died in January 2009. He was responsible for the libretto, partly written in the hospital. It was his last work.
The entire story is told in my book René Berger: Knight of the Invisible.
Metamorphosis is a totally unique opera.
In terms of its meaning, an opera always involves a story, a drama, singing, theatrical approach. In Metamorphosis, there is not exactly a beginning, a middle and an end; the story is the planet Earth and the world, the civilizations, and especially our historical moment. This is the drama. The libretto is a philosophical text, and the singing is for inner voice. So each person is the singer and main actor of this opera, using his or her own inner voice.
The story of Metamorphosis is nothing more than a reflection about who we are, about our identity, about the mutation of our lives, as well as about the continuous transformation of societies.
But it is more than that.
The music is a planetary scan, capturing sounds of seventy-seven radio stations, starting from the south pole and giving a full turn on the planet. The music score was established from the world map drawn by Richard Buckminster Fuller in 1943: the Dymaxion.
In parallel, there is the sound of the planet captured by the International Space Station orbiting Earth at an altitude of about three hundred miles.
Thus, the opera has two film screenings - one with planet Earth images shot on an orbital path, accompanied by René Berger's thoughts; the other projection shows Buckminster Fuller's world map revealing the location of planetary scan.
In the room, the music borns from the diversity of radio sounds that exist in our planet, creating an enigmatic metamorphosis between the acoustic fabric and the sounds of Earth.
On a table, the big music score is an invitation to everyone to write about his observations regarding this fascinating journey.
Thus, the opera Metamorphosis is not just a moment of reflection and contemplation, but also of study, participation.
Metamorphosis' world première takes place at the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York City, directed by the composer Phill Niblock, and is the closing of René Berger's centenary celebrations.

Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta

METAMORPHOSIS | opera for inner voices by emanuel pimenta | libretto by rené berger - his last work | world première | 7 continents | 70 cities | 77 radio stations | 42 countries | covering c. 57,510,000 sq miles (c. 148,940,000 km2) through c. 24,859 miles (c. 40,007 km) | in 40 minutes | 1 act | made in 7 years (2009-2016) | music score on Bucky Fuller's dymaxion | an opera for inner voices, radios and the sound of planet earth captured at an orbital track of around 300 miles (500 km) of altitude | celebrating the centennial of René Berger

EIF New York

emanuel pimenta
rené berger

experimental intermedia foundation

libretto (english)
libretto (french)
libretto (portuguese)
libretto (italian)
libretto (spanish)


book about rené berger

buckminster fuller - dymaxion

poster

press (English)

press (português)