"The Dido Project" takes Henry Purcell's legendary English opera, Dido and 'neas, to new heights by setting it in our current, high-tech, information-driven world. Through a combination of video projections, audio recording and live performance, we will witness Dido's actions and glimpse her inner thoughts and feelings on her journey from untouchable power to absolute ruin. Led by theatre and opera director Pat Diamond, "The Dido Project" features the creative talents of some of the most original artists in music and theatre today, including the renowned Sybarite Chamber Players and rising opera stars David Adam Moore and Blythe Gaissert. This will be a rare opportunity to see a project of high musical and visual quality as a free, public installation. By bringing together music, visual art, theatre and technology, "The Dido Project" will carry the beauty, humanity, and emotion of Purcell's opera into the twenty-first Century and make it accessible and relevant to today's audiences.
Dido and 'neas is an opera by the English composer Henry Purcell. It is based on a story from Virgil's Aeneid, about the legendary Queen of Carthage Dido and the Trojan refugee 'neas. When 'neas and his crew are shipwrecked in Carthage, he and the queen fall in love. Dido sacrifices her kingdom and power for the love of 'neas, but 'neas foregoes his love for Dido and leaves her to achieve glory for himself by establishing the city of Rome. Dido, distraught and unable to live without him, takes her own life.
"The Dido Project" stars Blythe Gaissert as Dido, David Adam Moore as Aeneas, Elena O'Connor as Belinda, Jessica Medoff as the Sorceress, Alexandra Loutsion as the Second Woman, Sarah Helzel as the First Witch/Spirit, and Annie Pennies as the Second Witch.
The creative team for "The Dido Project" includes The Sybarite Chamber Players,
Pat Diamond (Director), William Hobbs (Conductor), S. Katy Tucker (Projections Designer), Vita Tzykun (Set and Costume Designer),
Daryl Bornstein (Sound Design), and
Ryan Schmidt (Lighting Design).
"The Dido Project", presented by The Sybarite Chamber Players and Jaleo, will be a one-night only, limited engagement at Samsung Experience in Time Warner Center (10 Columbus Circle, third floor) on Thursday, December 4 at 7pm. The show is free and open to the public, but reservations are highly recommended. Email reservations@thedidoproject.com for tickets.
"The Dido Project" is a multimedia performance installation of Dido and 'neas that harnesses the power of modern technology to illustrate how it can overwhelm us by amplifying both the public and private parts of our existence. Video monitors and pre-recorded choral passages provide glimpses into the characters' internal lives while the performers convey external dialogues and plot, displaying the collision between the characters' internal, individual universes, and their external physical world. Setting the project in a non-traditional performance space creates an intimate installation in which the audience becomes accomplices. They participate in the characters' inner dialogues, feel the influence of public opinion on them, and suffer under the weight of their decisions and actions.
The Sybarite Chamber Players are devoted to expanding the repertoire for string quintet, the Sybarite Chamber Players break down conventional boundaries to establish a new genre of chamber music. Juxtaposing Stravinsky with Radiohead or Dvorak with Led Zeppelin, the Sybarite Chamber Players are considered one of the most versatile ensembles of their kind, pioneering groundbreaking performances of old and new. The group has appeared numerous times at the Aspen Music Festival and LaSalle concert series in Cincinnati, as well as Classical Thursdays concert series at Time Warner Center, Ten O'Clock Classics, the Museum of Sex, and the Cutting Room in Manhattan. Members have performed with some of the finest ensembles here and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Elektra Chamber Players, New World Symphony, and IRIS Chamber Orchestra. Ongoing projects include: the Alternative Venues Initiative, a Free Family concert series in Aspen, CO, and an Annual International Composition Contest. The Sybarite Chamber Players is a non-profit arts organization based in New York City. www.sybarite5.org
Pat Diamond (Director) directs both operas and plays. Pat's work has been seen at the Sarasota Opera, Working Man's Clothes, Yale, Kentucky Opera, and The Aspen Music Festival and has directed pieces by Mozart, Puccini, Jancek, Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Mayakovsky, Verdi, Susa, and Donizetti. In Sarasota, Pat recently directed the first production of Moniuszko's Polish opera Halka, to grace American stages in over 50 years. He is currently a member of the international collective developing a new opera based on the poetry of Thomas Transtrmer, For levande och dada, scheduled to premiere in Sweden in 2010. Pat has assisted Werner Herzog on Tnnheuser (The Baltimore Opera), Edward Berkeley on the New York premiere of Thomas Ads' Powder her Face (BAM) and
Evan Yionoulis on the Broadway production of The Violet Hour (Manhattan Theater Club). He serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland School of Music and as the Director of the Yale Summer Drama Program. He is a member in good standing of both AGMA and SSDC. Pat's production company, El Jaleo, LLC, is a co-producer of The Dido Project. www.patrickdiamond.com.
S. Katy Tucker (Video & Projections Designer) Katy is a partner at Beatbox Designs, an interdisciplinary design studio based in Brooklyn. Katy has worked on: American Fiesta at The Vineyard, directed by
Mark Brokaw (co-designer
Jan Hartley), Red Hot + Riot at BAM (co-designer
Jan Hartley), Phallacy at Cherry Lane, Clean at Urban Stages, Split Ends at La Mama, Ruby Sunrise at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Shot Director/Video Editor), The Ring Cycle, directed by
Francesca Zambello, at DC National Opera and San Francisco Opera (Associate Designer),
The Little Mermaid, directed by
Francesca Zambello, (Assistant Designer), Finding Nemo: The Musical for Disney (Associate Designer), Underneath the Lintel at the Duchess in London and
George Street Playhouse (Associate Designer), I Witness at
Mark Taper Forum (Associate Designer), Almost Heaven at the Promenade (Associate Designer), Miracle Brothers, directed by
Tina Landau at The Vineyard (Assistant Designer), and terraNOVA Collective's Blue Before Morning at the DR2 Theater (Video & Projections Designer). www.skatytucker.com
www.TheDidoProject.com
The Dido Project is made possible through the generosity of The Samsung Experience and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
.png)
