| dc.description.abstract | Waiting for the Barbarians is one of the philip Glass's political opera, telling the story of conflict between oppressor and opressed. The theme of the opera is oppression, repression, torture, and unjustifiable restriction of people's freedom. And this theme has been successfully intensifed and accentuated by Christopher Hampton's brilliant Libretto and Glass's dynamic music. "Waiting For The Barbarians" with its compelling theme and music is doubtlessly a challenge for a designer. This piece demands not only a powerful visualization of its allegoric story , but also asks for as equally rhythmic images as the music. Therefore the designer should build an environmet which is interwoven with emotional, musical, and visual elements of the piece. When I started to work on the opera I realized that the key to design this piece is liad in Philip Glass's own composing method and music. Therefore, I approach the design for the set by utilizing Glass's additive and repetitive music structure and adapting it to the Alpha and Beta brain waves principles. For the costumes, I was inspired by the Mongolian traditional outfits and the pattern from the carpeting art of countries such as Morocco, Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Likewise lighting requirement was fulfilled by using backlights and creating exaggerated shadows to intensify the theme of repression, unjustifiable restriction, fear, and anxiety. Therefor by fulfilling different elements of the design, the composition was ready to move and dance with Philip Glass's music; from its monophony, to polyphony and then the modulation at the climax of the libretto. | |
