Valis on CD (total time: 77.31)

An opera in two parts by Tod Machover

Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick

Initial adaptation for Paris production by Tod Machover, Catherine Ikam, and Bill Raymond

Revised libretto by Tod Machover

Additional dialogue by Patrick Mason

Valis was commissioned in 1987 by IRCAM for the 10^th anniversary of the Pompidou Center, Paris

© 1987 Editions Ricordi, Paris (BMI) and © 1988 Bridge Records, Inc, New York

Valis. Notes by Tod Machover

Project Background

The idea for VALIS was born in 1983 when the video section of Paris' Pompidou Center approached me to explore my interest in creating a work that would combine sound, theater and image in a new way. I leapt at the opportunity, since my interests had led me for many years in that direction. To complement my ongoing exploration of the uses and meanings of new technology in an expressive human context, I looked at several science fiction texts for innovative ideas. I was led to Philip K. Dick's work, since his The Man in the High Casfle (a fable of an alternative United States of the 1960's based on the premise that Japan and Germany have won World War ll) had impressed me greatly when l'd read it as a teenager. By accident I came upon VALIS, one of the last books Dick wrote before his death in 1982. The work attracted me immediately since it seemed to uncannily address so many of my own concerns, from the obsessive search for unifying principles of human experience, to the complex interrelationship between individual mental imagination and external objective truth.

I began working with two collaborators, Catherine Ikam, a French video and installation artist, and Bill Raymond, a New York-based actor and director associated with the Mabou Mines theater company. Together, during the summer of 1985, we shaped the first version of the libretto for VALIS, which by that time had become a full-fledged opera and had been commissioned to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Pompidou Center. Most of the music forVALIS was composed between March 1986 and May 1987, with research and development of various computer music techniques for the opera beginning at about the same time, simultaneously at IRCAM and the MIT Media Lab. The final production of all electronic music materials, both pre-recorded and live, occurred during the summer of 1987, and rehearsals for the Paris production were held between mid-October and the end of November.

VALIS received its premiere performances, in French, at the Pompidou Center from December 1-7, 1987. For this production, we designed an elaborate theatrical installation that filled the enormous entrance hall, or "Forum", of the Pompidou, allowing for normal proscenium seating as well as standing room viewing from side mezzanine balconies, thereby making the entire event more festive and public than a normal operatic presentation. In addition, VALIS remained in place as an installation, allowing the public to circulate amidst the primary sounds and images from the opera, through mid-February 1988. For this first production of VALIS, Catherine Ikam designed the sets (including a labyrinth handcrafted from Carrera marble) and visual imagery (using a computer-controlled video wall and two video towers for image projection), and Jean-Louis Martinelli directed.

After the Paris performances, I made several improvements to the score (various cuts, reworking of certain electronic material, some modified orchestration, etc.) as well as significant changes to the libretto, which I readapted into English. The opera was rehearsed and recorded at MlT's Experimental Media Facility (or "Cube") in February 1988, with post-production taking place at Hip Pocket Studios in New York City during March and April. The present recording represents the definitive and complete version of VALIS.