Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Du Yun
In Our Daughter's Eyes (2021)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
Developed in collaboration with Nathan Gunn
- cl(bcl,asx,tsx), tpt, perc(electronics), egtr(bgtr), vn, vc; optional film
- Baritone
- 1 hr 15 min
- Michael Joseph McQuilken
Programme Note
Synopsis
Told through the perspective of a new father, In Our Daughter’s Eyes shows the journey of the protagonist as he wrestles with truly becoming a man that his daughter would be proud of. He imparts passages from the journal he keeps — a gift for his unborn daughter — as the moments of this journey unfold before him. The story traces his wife’s joyful and fraught pregnancy, the legacy of the family’s past, and his personal demons that he vows to vanquish before assuming the role of a father. Along the way, mounting complications take the story through unexpected and sobering turns that test our flawed hero as he discovers a strength of self and purpose that he never imagined possible.
Composer note
This is a piece from me wishing to honor the good role models in my life, other than my mother: my father, my grandfather, and his father.
It is important for women, at least for me, to hear about men’s vulnerabilities, their journey of falling apart, mending, and moving forward. The flawed societal masculinity often obstructs that vulnerability and forces men to hold in, not listen, and hide sensitivities.
Without my father’s family’s silent support, an inter-generational effort, really, I would not have had musical training from an early age. No one in the family studied music. We were farmers and factory workers. My father bought me my first piano with five gold bars that my grandfather made from his coffin-making job. My grandmother hid the gold and passed them along to my father, at her deathbed, to use for my education. I was not born then.
Much of this music was written in a pandemic, a decline of my father’s health, and some personal choices in my life. I wish to honor all of us while we are here.
I’m glad to see some of my family's stories are reflected in the libretto, so are Michael’s and Nathan‘s. It gives me great joy to work with these two men who happen to be great fathers themselves. I hope this kind of story continues to be told from all perspectives.
— Du Yun (2022)
Scores
Reviews
Structured as a series of diary entries written by an expectant father who struggles to avoid falling off the wagon after learning that his unborn child has catastrophic health problems, the work (and Maruti Evans’s set) has a naturalistic core but also dreamlike flights. Gunn, once a hunky star in Mozart and Britten, is now in his early 50s and the physical and temperamental embodiment of the earnest American dad. He’s masculinity incarnate, in all its confidence and anxieties — direct, sonorous and conversational even as the tragedy builds.
The score is intriguingly varied and eccentric: sometimes spare yet warm, as in a clever passage bringing together cello and muted trumpet; sometimes noirish Badalamenti-style cool vamping; sometimes chilly instrumental squiggles and shards; and sometimes exploding in raucous, frantic energy.