REBECCA HORROX
Shiro is a new operetta devised by Rebecca Horrox gratefully mentored and supported by Ty Cerdd Music Centre Wales.
Libretto and music by Rebecca Horrox, the twelve minute piece was composed using the beautiful pensive and restless Kidung by Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kan as a point of departure to set the mis en scene for a love song between an underworld goddess and the king of the forest of light.
OPUS I - Aria Puhpowee
Shiro has transformed into a huge glistening, pulsing, fruiting body of a mycelium mushroom, the shape of the larynx of a red deer; the only known species to share a vocal trait with humans, the descended larynx. With clashing feelings of pride for whom she is and yearning for whom she isn’t, she lures the unsuspecting creature to her mossy knoll.
SHIRO OPERA
Created through CoDI Opera 2021, Ty Cerdd. Libretto and Music by Rebecca Horrox
Synopsis///
The Mycelial mother SHIRO cradles the forest underworld with her invisible and infinite hyphae fronds. An infinite shapeshifter and alchemic magus, she travels through her midnight underworld via her millions of ghostly fronds. Tiny fingers weave remedies and poisons to journey along the forest’s metabolic highway.
Blooming as a beautiful mushroom one day she finds herself overawed at a young stag she spies, falling for his swiftness, lightness and gaiety. Angered at her unfamiliar feelings of weakness and fear she vows to take revenge.
Shiro transforms into a large sculptural mushroom bloom the shape of the deep larynx of the fawn and releases spores to trick the fawn into thinking Shiro is a doe. Lured by her scent the fawn accidentally ingests her psychedelic psilocybin.
The two entities of opposing natures co-join, dark underworld continuum collides with warmth and light to transcend their current beings. As one new entity, enlightenment follows from either end of the spectrum to create an immortal SheKing of the forest enlivened by the intertwining spoils of the underworld and tall energetic realms.