Photo: Barry Lewis, stills from the film

David Toop: Of Leonardo da Vinci – Quills/a Black Giant/Deluge (WP)

Elaine Mitchener/David Toop

Of Leonardo da Vinci is a result of a collaboration between improv legend, sound artist and author David Toop (score and libretto based on Leonardo da Vinci’s accounts of his dreams), acclaimed photographer/film maker Barry Lewis, renowned vocalist Elaine Mitchener, and making his operatic directorial debut, award-winning choreographer, Dam Van Huynh. Together they have created a work – an innovative contemporary music theatre piece that intricately melds music, sound art, image and movement to transform space, inviting audiences into a unique and intimate realm of disturbing beauty.

“Absorbed in the visions, memories, prophesies and observations recorded in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, a woman dwells on the writing of a life. As oracle, scholar, acolyte, medium and innocent she voices the spirit of Leonardo, reflecting the nature of life as it moves closer to its end, its teeming presence, the meaning we divine from marks and signs, the flight of the voice, living and dying.

Music and libretto – David Toop, voices – Elaine Mitchener, film – Barry Lewis, choreography/director: Dam Van Huynh

Watch a snippet from performance here