Pauline Oliveras + IONE:The Nubian Word for Flowers

In this deep dream exploration of colonial mind and Nubian soul, Lord Herbert Horatio Kitchener, Britain’s Secretary of State for War, is transported from a sinking WWI warship to a surreal Nubian island of flowers that he himself once cultivated under Queen Victoria. Here he must face an enigmatic Nubian Boatman and phantoms of a displaced people, as well as figures from his own life. 

With story and libretto by Ione, score by Pauline Oliveros, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Experiments in Opera, The Nubian Word for Flowers lays bare Kitchener’s relationship to beauty and violence along with our own. Enjoy this workshop performance.