The Book of Water

“Timothy West, the doyen of British acting, mimics Geiser, mostly without a word, with the eloquent power of his aged eyes…Ensemble Modern in a string quartet contributes the noble soundtrack from the edge of the stage – with that maximum conviction of the score and its narrative magic, as one knows from the Frankfurters. The music touchingly traces Geiser’s inner life….Suddenly we perceive all of the demented person’s dream worlds, including his smile as if in an unknown language. In his empathy, Michel van der Aa composes music of thunderous fading, cautious and unpretentious, simply truthful. It is fortunate that the Biennale commissioned the work together with the Ensemble Modern and partners in Amsterdam and Cologne, so that the world premiere is guaranteed to live on in the near future.”
— Peter Krausse, 11-2022, Opernwelt

Van der Aa’s ‘The Book of Water’ is like a beautifully layered, oppressive storm. Time and again composer, filmmaker, director and librettist Michel van der Aa (1970) surprises with a new layer in his rich oeuvre.

The father on film is the well-known British actor Timothy West. He is mirrored by a younger version of Geiser, played live on stage by West’s son Samuel. He is the narrator of the story, spoken words that have to fit rhythmically as in a melodrama to the nervous music of the four string players of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, supplemented with electronic sounds.

Samuel West succeeded fantastically in this on Friday in the Muziekgebouw. Van der Aa wouldn’t be Van der Aa if the two actors didn’t eventually coincide. Once again it worked perfectly technically. And the string players of Amsterdam Sinfonietta performed miracles.

Soprano Mary Bevan sings with great feeling and a radiant voice. Beautiful is the text about her father, who, according to her, ‘smiles in a foreign language’. As in all of Van der Aa’s music theater works, this too was touching. The mimicry of the old West, present live in the hall on Friday, is not soon to be forgotten.
– Peter van der Lint, 13-11-2022, Trouw

The beauty of the images dominates next to the beautiful music by Van der Aa, in a very intimate performance by a string quartet from the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with electronic amplification (play-out operator Fergus McAlpine) and two beautiful arias, sung on film by soprano Mary Bevan as the daughter.

Director Michel van der Aa plays a refined game with film and theatre. The film images are projected on a transparent wall divided into planes, parts of which are detached and at right angles to the back wall. As a result, the young Geiser, who is also the narrator along with the music, sometimes becomes wedged between the film images of the old Geyser, a very penetrating image.
– Theaterkrant, 11-11-2022, Max Arian

For all its intricately rendered mesh of live and recorded performances, The Book of Water is at heart a work with one big idea: that, far from being merely a threat, impending natural disasters are an opportunity for personal renewal and reconciliation…Samuel West’s was a virtuoso performance in its own right.

The music was stylistically eclectic but intricately constructed – complex, ever-shifting textures, frequent changes in tempo and dynamics – and frequently augmented by pre-recorded, electronic sound effects which took on a life of their own as they effectively bridged the live performance and the film projection.

Flawlessly put together, with striking visuals and a topical subject, The Book of Water reinvents melodrama after the fashion of a TED Talk for the opera stage.

– South China Morning Post, 28-02-2023, Giorgio Biancorosso