Gene Sequences and Musical Sequences: Facing Goya
Pwyll ap Siôn · 2017
The multifaceted natures of Michael Nyman&s;s intertextual method has enabled him to travel across chronological time-scales and move between musical genres. The multifaceted natures of Nyman&s;s intertextual method has enabled him to travel across chronological time-scales and move between musical genres. Throughout the course of the opera Goya&s;s paintings are projected onto a screen, including in Act 1 his etching &s;Dogs Drowning in Sand&s;, the famous &s;Nude Maja&s;, a self-portrait and the symbol of the &s;One Eye&s;. Nyman has said that &s;if Facing Goya is directly a "grand opera" reincarnation of Vital Statistics &s; then it is &s;marginally a "continuation" of The Kiss &s;. In Facing Goya the four-note theme is extended to five- then seven-note groups, representing in musical terms the helical spiral that forms around the two DNA strands, and is even reflected visually in the film by the spiral staircase in Jerome&s;s apartment.