Aquarius

Aquarius is an opera for eight sopranos, eight baritones, and orchestra by Karel Goeyvaerts. It was begun in 1983 and completed in April 1992, to a libretto by the composer in eight languages, incorporating lines from the Book of Revelation. History Aquarius in its final form is an opera, but its composition involved a number of preliminary pieces for various forces, so that Goeyvaerts preferred to speak of the "Aquarius project". Goeyvaerts's inspiration came from principally four sources: Marilyn Ferguson's book The Aquarian Conspiracy (which he was given in 1983 by his friend Boudewijn Buckinx), the astrological theory of epochs, the Revelation of St. John, and the commentary on the Apocalypse by the 8th-century exegete Beatus of Liébana Because no large, single commission for the entire opera was initially offered, Goeyvaerts set about composing the components separately, often for smaller forces than he intended for the definitive version. In this way, nearly all of his works from 1983 onward are related to Aquarius in one way or another. At last a commission from the Brussels Opera and deSingel, later joined by Antwerp '93, enabled Goeyvaerts to complete the opera in April 1992. When he suddenly died on 3 February 1993, he had not finished correcting the manuscript for publication. This task was carried out by Mark De Smet. Other works of the Aquarius project Aquarius I (Voorspel)—L’Ère du Verseau, for orchestra (1983) Aquarius-Tango, for solo piano (January 1984) De Zang van Aquarius (The Song of Aquarius), for eight bass clarinets (July 1984) Zum Wassermann, for 14 musicians (August 1984) Les Voix de Verseau, version of De Zang van Aquarius, for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (1985) Pas à pas, for solo piano (1985, a shortened version of part 4 of Aquarius) De Heilige Stad (The Holy City), for chamber orchestra (August 1986) De Zeven Segels, for string quartet (December 1986) Aanloop en kreet (Run and Cry), for symphony orchestra and chorus (July 1987) …want de tijd is nabij (Because the Time Is Near), for male chorus and strings (February 1989) Aquarius stage cantata, for eight sopranos and 15 instrumentalists (August–September 1989) De Zang van Aquarius, version for symphony orchestra (1991) Opbouw (Construction), for orchestra (1991)