Upon reading that Sam Hamilton's Te Moana Meridian delivers a speculative UN policy proposal to move the prime meridian from Greenwich, England to its completely opposite coordinates in the South Pacific Ocean, I wondered if the audience might be asked to participate in an experimental model UN. Part of the fun of the Time Based Art Festival comes from imagining you would have the guts to demand, like Parks & Recreation character April (Aubrey Plaza), to represent the Moon.
But there was no model UN. Te Moana Meridian is an actual opera, complete with singers being lovely and audience sitting quietly. It’s also a vehicle for a proposal, which Hamilton describes as “bonafide, peer-reviewed, and potentially applicable," conveyed through the alternating song of Mere Tokorahi Boynton (singing in te reo Māori) and Holland Andrews (singing in English).
The libretto of the opera isn't a textual twin of the proposal, but covers many of its major points:
- Placement of the prime meridian is completely arbitrary.
- Despite voicing intentions to place it in a politically neutral place, deciders put it in Greenwich, England, described by Hamilton as "one of the most politically not neutral global empires to exist."
- Moving the prime meridian would be more than a gesture; it would help realign thinking philosophically away from nationhood.
- It would be difficult to even raise a monument at this opposite meridian because "it's practically impossible to erect a monument in the ocean… the ocean is the monument."
Back to the performance: As Boynton and Holland proclaimed their operatic arguments, sidony o'neal slowly crossed the Portland Art Museum's Kridel Ballroom, traveling so imperceptibly that the straight course took an entire 75-minute performance. Their role is "thinking finger” but could be seen to represent a heavenly body, like the Moon.
Then, around the singers and the finger, a circle of pensive dancers slunk forward with intentional steps. The program notes this circle sings "deep primordial liturgies of aquatic possession," but it mostly came across as hissing. However, the ocean hisses, and I went along with it to see where it would lead.
After an hour, I began to question the dancers. Did they exist for anything other than to show the passage of time? Didn't we already have that from the impossible gravity of sidony o'neal?
Also a big problem at my performance: It was very cold. The day had reached mid-90s temperatures, and I had anticipated the indoor theater reversal of this by bringing an extra shirt, but the Kridel's icy AC overpowered my pathetic attempt and made me grateful for even the slight warmth of the mask on my face.
Despite my great respect for Andrews' voice and music, the undulating singsong of their portion fell flat, the melody directionless. You could read this as commentary on English as a language, but it also wasn’t very pleasant or interesting to listen to.
The dominant beauty found in Te Moana Meridian is Boynton’s Māori verses. These lines are where the music lives, and the whole work feels built around them. The opera succeeds at carrying the idea, but I'm not sure the production does so for the opera.
Te Moana Meridian plays once more at Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park (though it's actually next door, in Mark Building), Mon Sept 9, 7 pm, tickets here, sliding scale $15, $20, $25, $30
