I heart Artemis
2021 (60:00)
An oratorio for six voices
Music by Wally Gunn
Libretto by Maria Zajkowski
Written for Variant 6 and The Consort of Melbourne
Everything is fragile. Love, the earth, the waters we rely on to give us life. And things can change so easily. Even the untouchable can be touched by change. In the time before time, Athena and Artemis meet, fall in love, and live a brief eternity of passion. But their paradise can’t last. On earth, men wage war, indulge their lusts, and exploit the land. Athena and Artemis watch in horror as the world falls apart, and must unite to defend what cannot defend itself. Is time running out? The deities are watching. I heart Artemis is a story about a mythological love and a very real crisis, which asks the most pressing questions about humanity’s future.
05 Garden from I heart Artemis by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski, performed by Variant 6. Filmed and edited by Christopher Andrew and Jeremy McDonald. Audio recorded and mixed by Charles Mueller.
A Note on the Libretto
As a writer, I am drawn to stories from the past, seeking wisdom that I can apply to my own life and to world events. The stories of Greek and Roman mythology are known to illustrate the human condition, and as a result, many characters and their stories have made their way from classical scholarship into common parlance. However these stories don’t show the entirety of human experience. For example, important female characters—whether they be mortal or immortal—rarely interact without the focus of a male character, and if they act independently, without being the object of men’s desires, they are deemed to be virtuous virgins, seemingly without desires of their own.
My solution to this was to write a new mythology: to reframe certain characters and stories from classical mythology in order to illustrate a different human condition—one pertinent to me and many others— that of queerness; in this case, women loving women. I also wanted this story to be universally relevant, its theme mirroring our current environmental crisis. When we humans created deities, we gave them authority over us and over the world in which we live, and in doing so abdicated our responsibilities as stewards of the planet. Will we now acknowledge responsibility for our situation? And if so, what will we choose to do?
I heart Artemis presents the figures of Athena and Artemis, two deities, one older and one younger, and imagines an intricate intimate relationship between them. To assist in rewriting these mythologies, I returned to the earliest female writing—indeed the earliest writing attributed to any author—by the Sumerian priestess and poet Enheduanna, whose devotional hymns provide a rich inspiration for this libretto.
— Maria Zajkowski, 2022
A Note on the Music
I have long admired the Baroque operas that used as their subjects the myths from Classical Antiquity. For I heart Artemis, our imagined myth, I wondered if I could create an imagined ‘Baroque’ music as well. In its completed state, the score for this work is a modest homage to that glorious epoch’s forms and harmonies, but I arrived there by quite a circuitous route.
I began with Athena’s symbol: the owl. Where I live in Australia, I frequently hear at night the simple and beautiful two-note call of the boobook (Ninox boobook). Taking this call as my starting point, I developed a motif consisting of pairs of notes, standing for Athena and Artemis. Then I worked on weaving the motif into patterns that cycle perpetually, often through rich harmony, so that the pairs of notes orbit each other like the twin stars of a binary system spiraling through the universe. Viewed this way, the patterns and their perpetual cycles struck me as a suitable vehicle to carry the story of immortal beings. The polyphony that the patterns created also reminded me of the interdependence of living organisms to each other and to their environment, and how the textures of biological diversity become thicker and thinner depending on the external pressures placed on them. By happy accident, the musical material that emerged had a somewhat Baroque flavor, though, due to the rigid restrictions imposed by the patterns’ rules, at times it could seem almost mechanical; in any case, both qualities appealed to me. And it was in this musical landscape—a little extravagant, a little austere—that we were able to place our characters and watch them experience love, fear, and hope.
It is a testament to the virtuosity of my collaborator Maria Zajkowski that, despite the constraints posed by the unforgiving machinery of the patterns, her libretto remains stunningly poetic and lyrical, making it, as always, a joy to set to music.
— Wally Gunn, 2022
Synopsis
Athena Part 1 Athena is overseeing the Archaean soldiers’ siege of the city of Troy. Already long and bloody, the war has no end in sight and Athena despairs over the devastation and death caused in the name of honour. She imagines how the tale of the war will be recorded as the feats of kings and warriors, her part in the story obscured. Recognizing that the struggle and success of women is often drowned out by the clamorous battles of men, Athena decides that it is time for the whole truth to be told. Meanwhile, supporting the Trojan defense, Artemis also perceives the situation’s senselessness and calls on her sister deities for assistance, reciting an incantation of their names. Athena, with her gift of prophesy, can foretell that out of this turmoil, opportunity arises: women, through their honesty, courage, and power, will emerge from this imposed silence.
Mountain On Mount Olympus, the immortals are watching events unfold below. They see that Athena and Artemis will soon be tested, and when immortals are tested, consequences play out on the human stage.
Lake, Sky, Garden The war having taken a physical toll, Athena retreats to a magic lake known only to a few, seeking recovery in its restorative waters. She is surprised to see Artemis bathing there too. Perhaps it is the water’s enchanting effects, but for the first time Athena sees the youthful Artemis in a new light, and Artemis, similarly, discovers a new curiosity for Athena. That they were so recently in opposition on a battlefield is forgotten. Each ponders her separate experience, now shared, and each notices differences in the other that spark interest. The wisdom of the elder and the vitality of the younger find connection; their fascination ignites desire, and quickly gives way to passion and a profound euphoria. Athena and Artemis exist only for the eternity of the moment in their embrace, and the troubles of the earth and its restless mortal inhabitants fall away.
Mountain But the immortals on Mount Olympus see an approaching threat, warning that action must be taken by Athena and Artemis, whose attentions at this moment are solely for one another.
Catastrophe, Stag A soldier and his hounds unwittingly stumble upon the lake. A mortal man made mean by the privations of war, he is driven by mortal men’s insatiable hungers and unquenchable thirsts. Unmoved by the lake’s transcendent beauty, he is drawn instead to the sight of a naked female figure in the water. He advances to find Athena and Artemis entwined, and his lust turns quickly to jealousy and then to disgust. Even before they notice him, Athena and Artemis feel something has changed: the waters, once sweet as wine, are soured. Incensed, they turn to face the intruder. He realizes now that he stands before deities, but his disgust makes him indignant and bold, and he will not yield. His choice is a poor one. Athena and Artemis rise above the man in brilliant rage: Artemis in her fury turns him into a stag, forever to be hunted by his own hounds; Athena drives him from the lake with violent flashes of lightning.
Mountain The immortals of Olympus opine that mortals take too long to learn from their mistakes, erring over and over before true understanding arrives. Though answers lie before them, mortals often seem to turn their heads away.
Forest, Artemis Athena and Artemis, wrenched from their idyll, lament that the sanctity of their union was so thoughtlessly violated, and that the violation emanates out through the earth as exploitation and destruction, creating immense sorrow. They see clearly the grim future that looms and are conflicted by their role in it. Yet Artemis retains the inherent hope of youth, and refuses to give up her faith in nature and humanity’s ability to preserve it.
Mountain The immortals remind the mortals that deities preside to guide them, and that this guidance can be seen on earth in the myriad workings of life, its intricate and elegant actions, interactions, and consequences. As the moon guides the owl, they say.
Sun Athena beseeches humanity to remedy the problems they’ve created. She bids them to love the earth, just as she loves Artemis, and gives the assurance that out of dark ages will come light. The power of truth is greater than the power of destructive forces.
Athena Part 2 At last, Artemis’ sister deities arrive and make themselves known to humanity: the mother, mystery, memory, the messenger, fate, nature, the soul, magic, virtue, youth, the light of day, justice, friendship, and unity. With these, their powerful gifts, they bring hope.
I heart Artemis . Catalogue 141 . Copyright © Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski . October 2021