The Globe and Mail - Wednesday, April 10, 2002
Finding the voice of truth:
A new-music premiere by Fides Krucker ponders female oppression and identity
By PAULA CITRON

To heighten the feminine presence in the new opera The Girl With No Door on Her Mouth, Fides Krucker has let her armpit hair grow, a small, but overt symbol of the singer's dedication to her craft. The acclaimed mezzo-soprano is one of Canada's foremost divas of contemporary music, revered for her gutsy experimentation, both vocally and emotionally. Says long-time collaborator Wende Bartley: "While there are many singers willing to perform new music, many are unwilling to explore to the full limit of their voice. Fides jumps at the chance to go in any direction that a composer would like to travel."
For her part, Krucker is drawn to contemporary works because they, unlike the standard opera repertoire, allow her the potential to discover extended vocal techniques and voice manipulation. "There's a stimulating energy," she says, "about collaborating with living composers. In working through a piece in the studio, you have a greater sense of the bridge between theatre and music. The singer is forced to use the chakras of the entire body, rather than stopping, as more conventional singers do, at the diaphragm." And Bartley adds: "Opera singers aren't inclined to go into the visceral, primal, sexual, lower energy centres of the body. Fides is one of the few who understands the importance of this exploration. We both know how hard it is to be in our own voice as a woman."
The Girl With No Door on Her Mouth is one of three electro-acoustic works that Krucker is performing in her solo show that opens tonight at the intimate Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace in Toronto. This world premiere, featuring Bartley's score and text by award-winning poet Anne Carson, is the evening's focal point, but the (continued)