For stereo recording and solo speaking voice, 12 minutes.
Telenovela (soap opera) was made with Brazilian speaking voices (and recorded on a cheap cassette recorder in Martha Herr’s kitchen in São Paulo). This work consists of thirteen short segments, grouped into four groups of three sections + one final one. They are presented as ‘episodes’ in that they should be viewed as a daily or weekly soap opera. The source material is of two short conversations, either of which would fit easily in a broadcast.
This work appears to celebrate contemporary French philosophers’ interest in the notion of deconstruction. In fact, the work has another deconstructive French influence, the group of experimental writers known as Oulipo.
The piece is best performed in between other ones, so that people can look forward to the next ‘episode’.
Voices: Martha Herr, Leigh Landy (live performance role), Ildikó Rippel and Simone Santos.
There is a follow-up adaptation of it, Soap Opera, composed two years later. That entry includes recordings of the performed version.