Victoria Kelly, winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, APRA Silver Scrolls Awards 2023 (Spark Arena, Auckland) Photo: James Ensing-Trussell
Given the success of her Requiem, it's no surprise the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra would ask Victoria Kelly to write another major choral work.
The idea was to pair Rossini's setting of the Stabat Mater, the story of Mary witnessing the crucifixion of her son Jesus, with Kelly's own setting of the sacred text.
Kelly's Stabat Mater gets its world premiere - in a double bill with Rossini's version - with the NZSO in Wellington this week.
But when the Auckland composer read the English translation of the Latin original she found she could not, in good conscience, set it to music.
Speaking to RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump, Kelly said reading the words of the Stabat Mater left her with a deep sense of sadness - and rage.
Rage at the plight of a woman who makes a covenant with God which will see her own son tortured and murdered for the sake of humanity, and how that suffering has been a role model for women and mothers over two millennia.
Auckland-based composer Victoria Kelly Photo: Amanda Billing
"I have three children of my own. I imagine the instinct of any parent would be to rescue their children. I understand that Mary had a covenant with God... that her son would take one for humanity, and yet I would not want to ask that of any mother, or child, to do that on my behalf."
One option would have been to politely decline the commission, but Kelly's visceral response to the words also fired her creative spirit, which is what her Stabat Mater has become: her own response to the story.
Problem is, she had to find a different text.
Initially she considered a poem by Janet Frame which has the opening line, "I take into my arms more than I can bear to hold", but the rest of the poem went off in a different direction.
So Kelly decided to write her own words, much as the English war poet Wilfred Owen retold the story of Abraham and Isaac, so that the old man decides instead of sacrificing the "ram of pride" he will slay his son "and half the seed of Europe one by one". Kelly's version of the Stabat Mater sees Mary intervene to save Jesus.
Mary thinks again. Photo:
Of course, in the Christian story Jesus's sacrifice redeems humanity, but for Kelly, that doesn't justify one woman's profound suffering and the burden she feels it places on women to this day.
"There's a lot of violent discourse in the world coming from different sides of the equation of faith the belief, and I like to imagine that it's possible for people's different ways of seeing the world and being in the world to actually sit a little bit more gently together."
So Kelly created a piece that tries to find that sense of gentle power.
"But power nonetheless, that's in Mary's hands now."
Kelly's Stabat Mater will be performed by Voices New Zealand and the NZSO, conducted by Italian Valentina Peleggi.
Meanwhile, Kelly's Requiem will get another performance with Orchestra Wellington later this year. She's also the orchestra's current Composer in Residence.
She can't give away too much about what she's writing, but she can confirm it will be her first attempt at creating something operatic.
And yes, she's writing the libretto.
RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump with composer Victoria Kelly. Photo: Tom Cardy / NZSO
