Music and libretto by Rudolf Rojahn

A cattle farm in rural Ohio faces imminent bank foreclosure. With only a trophy wife and a slow-witted man child as laborers, the owner and operator invents a machine to quickly slaughter his herd.

Title: Bovinus Rex, a chamber opera in seven scenes

Composer: Rudolf Rojahn

Libretto: Rudolf Rojahn

Duration: 40min

Instrumentation: 2 sop, ten, bari, b.cl, alto sax, vln, perc

Status: Retired

PRESS

“Guerilla Opera’s Bovinus Rex is a raunchy, poignant and musically interesting short piece of opera.” (@bostonlowbrow)

HISTORY

Commissioned for and produced by Guerilla Opera in partnership with the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

05/04/2012 - World Premiere at The Zack Box at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Directed by Copland Woodruff. Four performances.

Originating Ensemble & Design Team: Aliana de la Guardia (EUNICE PICKENS/GYGES BENSON(, Kimberly Soby (FLAVIA TASTE), Patrick Massey (MAURICE PICKENS/HAROLD P. LUSK), Brian Church (CLEM DUPREE), Ethan Wood (Violin), Kent O’Doherty (Saxophone), Amy Advocat (Bass Clarinet), Mike Williams (Percussion), Copeland Woodruff (Director), Julia Noulin‐Mérat (Scenic Designer), Tláloc López‐Watermann (Lighting Designer), Neil Fortin (Costume Designer), and Anita Shriver (Props Designer).

ABOUT THE OPERA

A cattle farm in rural Ohio faces imminent bank foreclosure. With only a trophy wife and a slow-witted man child as laborers, the owner and operator invents a machine to quickly slaughter his herd. Trouble unfolds when his long-lost daughter, now a militant animal rights activist, returns disguised as a heifer to sabotage her father’s operation. As events begin to spin out of control she is forced to confront the practicality of her once-puritanical worldview.

Several years ago I had become very interested in animal rights and issues surrounding the production of our food in America. There were a plethora of horrors and injustices to be found and it didn’t take long to become morally outraged. On deeper examination it became more and more clear however, that mistreatment and a certain moral relativism was present not just in American agribusiness but in the entire construct in which animals provide us food and other products. There is no way to live in our society with completely clean hands because the use of animals as commodities is inextricably interwoven with our societies and historical success as a species.

That creates a paradigm in which everyone must decide for themselves what an acceptable amount of suffering is, a decision dictated not only by ethics but by social and financial factors as well There is a beauty to black and white, righteous moral positions but they usually disregard the knotty complexity of real life. As a younger man I felt much more confident in the value of moral certitudes. Like fundamentalist religions however, the simplification of multi-faceted issues usually creates more problems and injustices than it ultimately resolves.

A large impetus for writing this story was to investigate both the beauty and danger of fanatical belief and the moral righteousness of youth; a study of how our identities are defined by the issues and beliefs we hold dear. -Rudolf Rojahn

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Rudolf Rojahn is a composer of contemporary art music. A founding artist and the formerly Co-Artistic Director of Guerilla Opera, he was the composer-in-residence for Boston’s Ludovico Ensemble from 2005-2010, a collaboration that resulted in several pieces including Antikythera Mechanism for bass clarinet and ensemble. He has also been commissioned and performed by the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Lorelei Ensemble, the Arbelos Trio, Gabriela Diaz, Kent O’Doherty, Rane Moore, and the Green Light Consortium among others. From 2004-2006 he ran the Proletariat Tanning Salon, an event series pairing young composers and visual artists such as Camille Wainer and Nicole Margaretten. He has written three opera for Guerilla Opera: Heart of a Dog (2007), We are Sons (2009), and Bovinus Rex (2012).