Pictures at Last!!!

Pictures are here at last! Here are a few to start... more to follow...

remember me, but forget my fate

glen dance

wayward sisters

It is done

Well, what a wild ride this has been! Our show has opened and closed, and my friends, I must say, I thought it came off really really beautifully. It was such a thrill for me to sit back and see all these things that I have imagined for the last year and a half in "the little theatre of my mind" ACTUALLY COME TO LIFE! As a director, I have this picture...almost more of a feeling than an image...of what I want to convey, but especially as a person so young in the biz, there is a worry that what I imagine will not be as wonderful when it is "live".... but it really was!
The ensemble sounded great, they looked great, they acted like "real people", the dancers were breath-taking, the costumes were beautiful and gleaming, the lighting was lovely, the witches were creepy and wierd, and when the set piece turned around for the first time (with Dido lying on it) I heard audible gasps in the crowd.

THIS IS WHY I LOVE THEATRE!

I am going to share with you an email that was forwarded to me by one of our performers.... I don't even know the person who wrote it, but truly, it is one of the most special "reviews" I have ever received, by an ordinary audience member.

Last night's performance of "Dido" was exquisite. I can't stop thinking about it. So beautiful visually and musically. The combination of modern dance and Baroque music was surprising and powerful, especially in the last lament. I have a short list in my memory of performances throughout the years -- maybe half a dozen which were really momentous. "Dido" has joined that list.

Ok, enough gushing. I hope you were able to see the show and if you enjoyed it half as much as I did, then you had a great night at the theatre! I will share some of the "official" photos when they are available, but here is one more amateur shot to send you off on your day...


(why do men have a need to hold their boobs?)

How godlike is the form he bears

It is all coming together!!!
I won't tell you what this is, but leave you to wonder. Suffice it to say, I am very pleased so far.

Tomorrow is "load in" at the theatre which means moving all of the components of the show into the space. Set pieces, props, costumes, orchestra, lights. Then our lighting designer begins to place the lighting instruments so they light the stage properly so he can design cues during our technical rehearsal that evening. A lot of things have to go really smoothly in a short period of time tomorrow. This is where good preparation really is key. This is where a nice margarita at the end of the day is almost a requirement.

But ere we this perform...

I am very happy to report that great progress is being made!

I have been with the dancers all week and virtually all of the choreography is complete... and looks amazing. Again, I cannot express how much I enjoy seeing these dancers work... watching Dominic's mind awhirl, seeing how the dancers take what he says or demonstrates and then create these astonishing shapes with their bodies.

In the evenings I have been working with our principals and the comprimari... again, a real pleasure. I believe this is Krista River's first production in Houston (she is singing Dido) and it is great to have her onboard. She is smart and lovely and sounds wonderful.

And today..... FIRST DAY WITH CHORUS. This is a phrase that strikes a bit of terror in the hearts of most directors. Excitement, yes, but if we are honest, a little terror. All of the things you normally worry about... staying on schedule, musical preparation, and oh yes, creating art through drama... are multiplied exponentially, as there are considerably more bodies and minds in the room to be watching and reading and guiding . I have high hopes for today. In fact, I plan to get through the entire show with them by the end of our 6 hours. I may be bald by the end, but I think we can do it!!

In other news.... a bit of a tragedy: yesterday in rehearsal one of our dancers BROKE HIS FOOT. We went to the hospital immediately and got x-rays, and there it was: a clearly broken metatarsal. This is fairly devastating for him, as he will have to be off of the foot for at least 12 weeks, and obviously is a bit of a blow to the show. DW is considering replacements as we speak, and I will keep you posted.

In production!

Hello all.
I have been woefully delinquent in keeping up with posts! What can I say? Life intervenes. I am just back in Houston after having directed a Magic Flute in Tulsa, and it was a GREAT experience, if a little all-consuming. But now it is ALL DIDO ALL THE TIME!

We are in rehearsals now and I spend my days with the dancers from Dominic Walsh Dance Theater and then work with singers at night... and I tell you, it is just exhilarating watching all these talented people make beauty on a moment by moment basis. I have worked with Dominic on a few shows, and it is such a different world than opera production. Their vocabulary, their timeline, their way of understanding space and their place in it.... it is like being on a different planet... a strange and beautiful planet that takes my breath away, and sometimes makes me laugh out loud.

I just discovered that DWDT has a load of videos on YouTube. Check out this clip from "I Napoletani", a show I stage managed for them last spring. This was one of my favorite numbers in the show. I love some witty dancing, people.

...thy course pursue

Ok, the last time I wrote an entry about my “process” (here) I spoke about gathering information.

This includes:

• Source material
• Musical resources
• Sometimes videos of other productions
• Images

What next? Well, then I soak in this information, reading the books a couple of times if possible. I listen to the CDs in the car (especially on long distance drives)… and I wait for the “muse” to hit. For this show, there were 2 main elements that helped me focus the piece. Today I will speak a bit about a musical element:

Dido’s Lament

In this, the climactic end of the opera, there is a “ground bass” figure that is 5 measures long. There are, I believe, 13 iterations of this figure. Interestingly, the vocal lines are typically about 4 measures long, meaning they don’t “line up”….until the very end of the piece. This give the aria a feeling of constant unfolding… the ground bass gently but relentlessly pushes Dido to her final destiny. Purcell is a genius, what can I say?

I love love love when the action onstage subtly (or not) reinforces a musical element that might not be immediately obvious to the average listener. So I thought, what if we incorporate a gesture that lasts the length of that ground bass figure… that is picked up by one person after another in the chorus (chorus of 12)… and finally, at the very end by Dido... number 13? I think a large, repetitive motion can be so hypnotic onstage. I love the idea that everyone participates in her mourning…it is almost a funeral ritual, even before she dies.

This is the stuff I get excited about when I am trying to fall asleep at night. Then I have to get up and write it all down before I “lose” it.
This particular section might have gone a lot of different ways….

• Maybe everyone leaves the stage or turns their back to her, leaving her alone in her grief.
• Maybe I could have the witches creep in and hand her the knife.
• Maybe I could have her slowly remove her makeup and clothing, preparing for death.
• Maybe we could enact a really realistic funeral procession.
• Maybe she could stab and kill everyone in her court.

Actually just writing that stuff down kind of sparks ideas in mind. The brain is an amazing thing, eh?

Anyway, so I call up my choreographer Dominic Walsh and explain my idea to him and he loves it. And there is the heart of the piece, fairly settled upon. And this is how it works for me… I put together pieces, big and small, and they begin to form a whole.

Coming up: another big piece to the puzzle…

Anchises' valour mixt with Venus' charms

The story of Dido and Aeneas is based on a short episode in Virgil's Aeneid. The following is a lovely synopsis of the literary source... of course, the opera varies slightly. (ps. I took this synopsis from a nice little site on the Aeneid. You can find it here.)

In the course of Aeneas' wanderings around the Mediterranean before he arrived in Italy, he landed at Carthage on the shores of North Africa. There he fell in love with the Carthaginian queen, Dido. The story of the love affair between Aeneas and Dido is one of the most moving and poignant books in The Aeneid and earned for Virgil the epithet 'the worlds poet of sorrow'.

Dido was by birth a Phoenician from the city of Tyre. Forced to flee her homeland after the murder of her husband, she was completing the building of a new city at Carthage when Aeneas and his men were washed ashore. She received them lavishly, and almost at once fell deeply in love with Aeneas. Encouraged by her sister, Anna, she began to accept her desire for Aeneas and to hope for marriage.

One day when she and Aeneas were on a hunting trip together, a storm blew up, and they found themselves sheltering alone in a cave. While the storm raged they made love. From then on, they lived together as man and wife, and Aeneas behaved almost as if he were king of Carthage.
When the messenger of the Gods came to remind Aeneas of his duty to found a new Troy in Italy, Aeneas decided that he must leave his beloved and continue on his journey. Dido soon discovered what his intentions were, and confronted him with his treachery. Though himself deeply upset, Aeneas could only plead that the gods had compelled him, and begged Dido not to make their parting doubly difficult.

In despair, Dido resolved on death. She built a vast funeral pyre for herself, pretending it was for a magical rite to bring Aeneas back, or at least to cure her love. After a sleepless night she rose to sea Aeneas' ship already at sea. Cursing him and praying for everlasting enmity between Carthage and Aeneas' descendants, she climbed the pyre and , taking her lovers sword, mortally stabbed herself.

The book is dominated by a series of passionate speeches by Dido, of reproach, entreaty, bitterness and curses. Aeneas speaks only once and that to quote his duty. There is nothing else he can say. He leaves Dido but looks shabby as he steals off into the night.

Aeneas did not escape Dido entirely. On his visit to the underworld he met her ghost and attempted once more to justify his conduct. But Dido would not speak with him, and slunk away to be with the ghost of her husband 'who answered her cares and matched her love'. This is the only happy marriage we see in The Aeneid; and it is amongst the dead. Aeneas is left in no doubt that he destroyed Dido.

Your counsel all is urged in vain

Still in tech for Tosca (decidedly different than the Dido!) but have something interesting to offer today: there is a minor maelstrom in blog world regarding "Historically Informed Production"

An interesting article from Yugen of American Opera Theatre entitled "Baroque and Authenticity":

For various reason I think "authenticity" is rather like a phantom. It is something that gets a lot of hype and belief, but it doesn't really exist. That isn't just because there is so little historic truth about performance practice we can know for certain (most of what has become accepted as "baroque performance practice" is actually not so clear cut when one looks at the sources). No, authenticity doesn't exist because the whole notion of authenticity, the primacy of the composer and his epoch's "intentions", is completely a modern concern, one that would not have concerned the 17th or 18th century musician.

Read the entire article here.

Brian Dickie of Chicago Opera Theater weighs in as well:

So please let us not get so stressed out with the idea of "authenticity". Its all about the music making please...

Full article here

And what is my humble opinion?
I am thrilled to be working in a craft that offers so many opportunities for creative expression. It is exciting to live in Houston where there are so many groups striving to recreate period sounds and "rediscover" old works. And it is wonderful to me that they might be presented in a more traditional way, but that there is room for exploration of uncharted waters, too. I love that my production of Dido will feature modern dance. I would love to do a "traditional" Dido sometime too but I couldn't be happier with the way our version is shaping up. For me it is about uncovering the emotional truth of the piece. If that means a lavish costumes, realistic set and Historically Informed gesture and dance, GREAT, but for me, it is not essential. There is such a strong emotional throughline in Dido (and delivered in such a beautiful musical package), I believe it stands well regardless of the packaging.
I hope you will agree in May!

I am prest with torment...

Sorry the posts are a little lean lately... I am in technical rehearsals for a Tosca and frantically prepping for a Magic Flute that I was hired for as an emergency replacement. Ah the glamorous life of a freelance director... ha!

Anyway, in lieu of my directorial ramblings, I offer this clip of Dido's first aria... in a very old-fashioned, lavish production. what a budget. geez.
Many consider Janet Baker to be the definitive Dido. She sounds amazing.

So soft, so sensible my breast...

Part of my "process" when working on a show involves gathering up lots of images. Here are some Minoan priestess images.... one from an ancient mural, one a bronze figurine. Note the color palette and the (bare breast!) silhouette.

A tale so strong and full of woe...

Part of my research involves seeing other productions of the show. This has become a much less onerous task in recent years because of two wonderful online innovations: Youtube.com (for watching clips online) and Netflix.com (for getting complete movies on DVD).

I thought I might share some clips from Youtube that I found especially interesting!

The following clip is from choreographer Mark Morris's production. I saw a video of the entire show when I was in college, and I must admit, it has greatly affected the way I think about performance in general. I don't love everything about it, but I find it electrifying. I love the repetitive ritual feeling he uses throughout the show. The singers are not pictured (except occasionally when the camera pulls out to include them, standing downstage) and the entire opera is danced...like a ballet.
NOTE: yes, that is a man dancing the role of Dido. It is Mark Morris himself, and he also dances Sorceress in this production, showing that this opera might be viewed as one woman's struggle with opposing aspects of her own psyche.

Tell us, how shall this be done?

So, working on a new show. Where do I begin? RESEARCH.

First step:

• If there is a recording, I get it (There are several good ones listed to the right). It is really important to me to live with the music, and ideally over a period of several months. With a good composer the music tells a story that goes far beyond the text! If there is more than one recording (happily there are several for Dido) I try to hear them all, as each version may offer its own little bit of inspiration.
A small example: in one recording the guitar was strummed a particular way in “Oft she visits”, and for me, it called to mind not a royal entertainment but a casual, youthful campfire setting…. A group of friends and lovers, sitting around a fire, telling ghosts stories, singing songs… it really informed the way I view that scene. I wouldn’t have heard that had I stopped with the first recording I listened to, and thus that scene might have shaped up quite differently.

Then these things happen in no particular order…

• If there is original or good secondary source material, I read that. The Aeneid, Ellen Harris’s intensive study, Michael Burden’s Purcell Companion. Google reader can be very helpful on this.
• I spend a LOT of time on the internet, looking at pictures. Like the ones on this post. The one at the top is of Tyre (Dido's birthplace) and the one below is of Carthage in the 2nd century. Beautiful, eh?
• I find myself gravitating towards certain colors, images, and words. Sometimes I find one particular image that I feel is the key to the whole piece. For Dido & Aeneas, it was this:

Isn’t she lovely? I love everything about her…. The colors, the mosaics, the sensuality. You will see that all of these things play hugely in our production!

Coming up: Filtering the Research… what does it all mean?

The Queen of Carthage...whom we hate...

Great minds against themselves conspire...

Antoine Plante called me well over a year ago to ask me if I might be interested in directing a show for Mercury Baroque, and I must say, I leapt at the opportunity. I am a huge fan of Baroque music, and in fact, the very first full length show I directed was Scarlatti’s Cain: Il primo omicidio for Ars Lyrica Houston. From a director’s perspective, there are just so many things to love about Baroque opera.
Primarily for me, it is the music…passionate, intense, exciting, sensual, vulnerable… sometimes all in one aria! In Houston we are particularly blessed with a great Baroque performing community, and often may experience in one season the full spectrum of the period from the early works of Monteverdi to the pinnacle of Italian, French and English Baroque schools. However, unlike more “mainstream” compositions like Boheme or Carmen, chances are the piece will be new to the audience. True, Dido & Aeneas is one of the more regularly performed Baroque works, but it is no Traviata. This means that hopefully both the artists and the audience can come to the table with open eyes. We have a chance to do, see and hear something fresh, without the inevitable comparisons to past productions, or simple fatigue from over-familiarity. Directorially, this is wildly exciting.

So where do I begin?.... stay tuned...