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...