Subject: "Quito" in Europe 
   Date: Wed, 3 Dec 97 13:54:12 +1000 
   From: martin wesley-smith 
     To: "ET list" 


Australian vocal group The Song Company recently performed "Quito", for
six singers and tape, in Amsterdam, Groningen, den Bosch and Gent. The
performances were enthusiastically received, and the singers have been
invited to present the piece there again - and other places - next year.
Many audience-members had only a sketchy knowledge of the situation in
East Timor, so the performances were useful in spreading awareness of the
extent of the situation there.

We will begin to organise the tour soon (for October-November 1998). If
any East Timor groups in Europe would like a performance in their area,
please get in touch as soon as possible and we will try to arrange it.


Martin Wesley-Smith

tel: 61-2-9810 2238
fax: 61-2-9230 3747
mwsmith@mail.usyd.edu.au
http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~mwsmith/mw-s.html
See also http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~mwsmith/quito.html

-------------------------------------

Kieran Dwyer, Matebian News, Sydney, March-April 1997:

The launch and release of Quito (on 14 May at the ABC Centre, Sydney) is
a fine example of how the lives and suffering of the people of East
Timor have touched and inspired people around the world. Martin and
Peter Wesley-Smith have created a stunningly original music drama, which
juxtaposes the tragic life and death of Francisco Baptista Pires
(nicknamed Quito) who suffered from schizophrenia, with the wider story
of East Timorese suffering after the Indonesian invasion of 1975.

The Wesley-Smiths comment: "Invasion. More than anything else, this is
what this piece is about. The invasion of Quito's head by voices, of his
body by drugs and a police bullet, and of his homeland by enemy troops
..."

Featuring the Sydney vocal ensemble The Song Company, who performed the
original stage version in 1995, the sources for Quito are varied - some
of Quito's own songs, a strange poem he wrote not long after he was shot
and an essay he wrote at school, Xanana Gusmao's poem Timor Woman and
extracts from eye witness reports by East Timorese survivors. Composer
Martin Wesley-Smith has overlaid this work with voices of East Timorese
community members (especially powerful is the traditional lament by
Veronica Pereira), and the voices of international political leaders
such as Bill Clinton and Gareth Evans, journalists' and medical reports.
Quito has been entered by the ABC in the 1997 Prix Italia, a major
European broadcasting award.

With masterful writing for voices, the work is deeply haunting and
beautiful. Resounding with passion, and a commitment to exploring
aspects of life that others would turn blind eyes, deaf ears and silent
mouths toward - Quito will touch you with its many emotional layers.

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Publisher: East Timor Information Centre/CNRM with the support of ETRA
(the East Timorese Relief Association: 
http://www.pactok.net.au/docs/et/).
Postal address: P.O. Box 991, Fairfield NSW 2165 tel: 61-2-98915861 fax:
61-2-98912876

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