After 40 years composing for films and television, including The Truman Show, The Secret River and Wolf Creek, Burkhard Dallwitz was interested to take on the challenge of a live performance score.
And not just co-composing it, but performing it too.
“Getting out of my studio and performing again made me nervous but also excited,” the part-time Castlemaine resident says, “Something I hadn’t done since the mid-1980s.”
It was an invitation from acclaimed Chinese-Australian composer Mindy Meng Wang to score a classic of Chinese cinema, Wu Yonggang’s 1934 The Goddess, that tempted Dallwitz out of his comfort zone and into Federation Square in Melbourne, where The Goddess was first performed early this year.
Now, this groundbreaking re-imagining of a masterpiece of silent era cinema is heading to Castlemaine, where, on Friday June 19, it will be performed live in a theatre setting for the first time.
The Goddess, about a Shanghai woman forced into prostitution to provide for her child, was the final film of Chinese superstar Ruan Lingyu before she tragically died.
“She was considered one of the greatest actresses of her time, and her work has inspired generations of performers since,” Meng Wang says.
“I chose The Goddess from her body of work because of how timeless, delicate and artistically sophisticated it is. Even though it was made nearly 100 years ago, the acting, cinematography and storytelling remain incredibly powerful and engaging. I’m very glad I chose it — Burkhard would have said no if the film wasn’t strong enough!”
In the 1930s, silent films in Shanghai were frequently presented with live music, and there have been a number of scores composed for this film but Meng Wang and Dallwitz believe that theirs is the “first modern electroacoustic score”. It’s a “hybrid of traditional acoustic and electric instruments utilising signal processing and synthesis to manipulate the sound”.
It features the guzheng, played by Meng Wang, a 2500-year-old instrument which, in their score, is used to create “textures and soundscapes” alongside piano and synth (Burkhard Dallwitz), percussion (Alexander Meagher), electric cello (Anita Quayle) and electric guitar (Clint Owen Ellis).
“From the very beginning Mindy and I agreed that we didn’t want to reference traditional Chinese music,” Dallwitz says. “A contemporary score felt like the right way to go, to engage and mesmerise a modern audience with such a beautiful film with its nuanced performances and a narrative that even after nearly 100 years still resonates today.”
The Goddess with live score by Mindy Meng Wang and Burkhard Dallwitz is at Theatre Royal in Castlemaine, 7.30pm Friday June 19.
