HEYRA: a chamber opera in a constructed language

Call to raise funds for a musical and linguistic artwork

About me

My name is Jasper Charlet, I am 23 years old, and I am a professional composer and (contra)bassoonist.

The past few years, I have been working hard to perfect my composition skills and to have my works performed by professionals. One of the highlights was a  performance by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra through the SoundMine composition course. I was also commissioned to write a chamber music piece by I SOLISTI, which toured over 20 times in Belgium and the Netherlands. Next to my musical ambitions, I love languages; I found a new passion in conlanging, the art of making a new artificial language such as Esperanto.

A project conceived in June 2015 gave rise to Carite, a fictional Indo-European language related to French, English, Irish, Greek, Russian, Albanian, Armenian and Hindi. Over the past six years, this conlang evolved from an exploration of historical linguistics to a project that fully respects the laws of language evolution.

About the Heyra Project

Opera has truly fascinated me for as long as I can remember. As a child, I found myself enchanted with the dramaturgy and storytelling. As a teen, I started writing my own stories, while becoming ever more invested in the music.

When I was accepted into higher musical education, I made a promise to myself: I would finish my first opera by the age of 25.

Working intensely on perfecting my composition skills, and doing the necessary research for Carite, one element was still missing: the story. Just as I departed from the common origins of European languages, a friend and I explored the common origins of mythologies, a scientific field known as comparative mythology.

The decision to connect the story to language not only enrichens both aspects, it also allows me to unify the different disciplines that opera consists of. This way, I could make Heyra a modern Gesamtkunstwerk.

The result is very much an opera, much to the enjoyment of opera fanatics, but as it's only 45 minutes long, this innovative concept is equally enjoyable for those not well acquainted with the genre.

Where I am today

Fuelled by and convinced of the project’s potential, I looked for coaching and support.

• In January 2021, I was selected to be part of the three-year coaching programme I SOLISTI MakerSpace through which I am being coached in dramaturgy and directing by professionals in their respective fields.
• Many friends and fellow (former) students from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, both instrumentalists and singers, will participate in a musical try-out in July 2021.
• ccBe, a cultural centre nearby Antwerp, has provided me with a hall to rehearse and perform in.
• On the linguistic side of things, the Language Creation Society was impressed by my grant application and awarded me the President’s Scholarship to help bring conlanging to a larger audience.

All this practical and financial support as well as the coaching has helped me tremendously. However, in order to finance the project’s completion, I am still short on money.

My Goals

A first try-out is planned in early July 2021. This counts as a first major milestone in the evolution of Heyra and could truly be a springboard.

As much as I have already personally invested in this project, properly realising this on the scale and with the quality it deserves requires a significant sum of money. I need people who can help sponsor and streamline this final stage of the project, leading up to a full performance in front of a real-life audience.

• For €4,000 (~$4,887), I am able to make a professional video recording of the try-out, which will be helpful when pitching my project and gathering support in function of a professional production.
• For €6,500 (~$7,941), I can have costumes made for the full cast.
• €8,500 (~$10,385) will provide me with enough money to build a minimalist set.
• Finally, reaching our goal of €10,000 (~$12,217) will provide me with enough money to create a full-scale set.

Future Challenges

A project as ambitious as Heyra is bound to have several risks and challenges attached to it.

Each discipline can individually make or break the show and organising and managing all these disciplines with all these people takes a significant amount of effort. Interconnecting these disciplines, such as how the story and the language require each other to function properly, helps connect these aspects on a deeper level, while my personal investment in everything allows me to oversee everything in great detail.

Another risk is the use of a constructed language. This risk is addressed by coaching all the singers, making sure every one of them is aware of what every word means and helping them feel, understand and breathe the language.

Finally, the audience capacity limitations due to the COVID-19 measures make harder to reach important people such as programmers and festival organisers. Through the professional video recording mentioned above, I can present the try-out to the relevant people.

What is in it for you