Thursday, April 28, 2005
A strange, mysterious journey awaits opera fans
By Allyson Jacob
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) opera department is taking a walk on the dark side with a production of Dominick Argento’s “The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe,” Thursday, May 12 through Sunday, May 15.
The opera features the troubled poet at the end of his life. He is grieving the death of his wife, Virginia, and boards a ship that his literary executor, Griswold, tells him is heading to Baltimore. Aboard the ghostly vessel populated by phantoms, Poe encounters images of his mother’s death and his own wedding ceremony. Griswold menacingly appears and accuses Poe of actually longing for his wife’s death. In a trial aboard the ship, Poe must confront his own feelings of guilt and loss.
“The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe,” like many productions mounted on CCM stages, weaves innovation into the threads of performance art. Directed by Sandra Bernhard, chair of opera at CCM, and conducted by Mark Gibson, director of orchestral studies, the creative vision of the production calls for collaboration between the college’s electronic media and theatre design and production departments.
Moving projections are integrated into the set, a labyrinth of raked platforms and askew angles represent both the rocking of a ship and the delusional dreamscape of Poe’s imagination.
“The scenic design for the opera presents a distorted world perhaps seen through the eyes of a mentally deranged Poe,” says Paul Shortt, CCM’s resident scenic designer. “A number of moving screens function as projection screens for video imagery from Poe’s past and his writings to further suggest the nature of an imbalanced mind in turmoil.”
The opera is presented as part of CCM’s Argento Festival, a celebration of the life and work of Dominick Argento. The festival features performances of his works and a weeklong series of master classes for opera, production and orchestral students at CCM as well as students from University of C’incinnati’s English and literature departments.
Dominick Argento is a contemporary composer and librettist known for writing lyric opera. Born in Pennsylvania in 1927, the composer studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study in Florence, Italy at the Conservatorio Cherubini with famed Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola. He returned to Florence twice during his career through Guggenheim fellowships. In 1958 he landed at the University of Minnesota where he taught theory and composition until 1979. Composing operas, arias, concerts and song cycles, including “Postcard from Morocco,” “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf” and “Casanova’s Homecoming,” Argento built quite a career, and earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and even a Grammy award for the recording of his “Casa Guidi.”
Audience members who want to explore the world of Edgar Allan Poe a bit further are encouraged to attend “A Rendezvous with Poe” following the opera on Friday, May 13. The late-night poetry reading at Mick & Mack’s Contemporary Café will offer audiences the chance to chat with Bernhard, the cast and the creative crew of “The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe.”
Sure to be mystical and macabre, “The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe” will take audiences on quite a journey.
CCM presents 'The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe'
A Rendezvous with Poe
5/13/2005, Clifton
'Poe'try reading and meet the artists of "A Night with Edgar Allan Poe" while enjoying desserts, coffee, tea and a cash bar.
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Allyson Jacob is a freelance writer and playwright living just outside of Cincinnati.
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