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Totem and Taboo is an opera/recitative for Video projection, Grand Synthesized Orchestra in Playback, Dancer and Heldentenor. The work is based upon Sigmund Freud's classic text "Totem and Taboo". This book is presented by Freud as an inquiry into incest taboos found in primitive cultures. In fact Freud used the book to give a psychoanalytic hypothesis of the origins of religion. At the end of his book, Freud writes a short but highly colorful chapter describing what he calls "the primal scene" which led to the foundations of all religions: repressed sexual desire, murder and cannibalism. My opera takes Freud's hypothesis and plants it into a real world situation. I call this a "mise-en-chair" meaning literally "a putting into flesh" that is, the incarnation of the idea. I have created a synthesized orchestral version of the score which accompanies a projected video. There is a scene for a dancer which can either be performed live or in projection. The work is sung by a baritone-tenor, the so-called Heldentenor imagined by Richard Wagner. The composer performs this part. The practical needs for a performance are basic: A projector, a sound system and a screen (or simply a white wall) and a microphone. It can be performed on a stage or in a normal room. There are a few simple accessories, flowers, electric candles and a piece of astro-turf.

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland and now live in Paris, France. My work is centered upon the expression of ideas and human freedom. I have composed music since 1977. I have composed around 70 pieces for a large number of ensembles, from solo piano and cello to an opera for 45 individual players, also I have done electronic music performances, improvisation. I have given concerts continually since the early 1980's. I can give you endless examples of recordings. I have painted since 1978. I have hundreds of paintings and have given many expos and been in salons like Montrouge. I am represented by the Gallery Au Fil du Canal in Paris. I'd be happy to send examples of my work. I began making films in 1979. Two of my films have come out in France, in 2012 and 2016.