ANDROMEDA to Receive Modern World Premiere From Ars Minerva
Céline Ricci directs a cast led by Aura Veruni and Sara Couden at the Creativity Theater.
Ars Minerva has announced the modern world premiere of ANDROMEDA, November 6 – 8, at the Creativity Theater in San Francisco. Composed by Marc'Antonio Ziani on a libretto by Pietro Pariati, Andromeda is a one-act chamber opera set in ancient Egypt, dramatizing the myth of Perseus and Andromeda. Performances take place Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets, starting at $25, are now on sale.
As the ancient Greek story goes, Princess Andromeda, despite her love for Perseus, has been promised by her father King Cepheus to Agenore. But when Poseidon sends a terrible sea monster to devastate the kingdom, she is offered as a sacrifice to save the king's people. Perseus vows to slay the monster and win Andromeda's hand.
Facing the creature on the shore, he raises the shield given to him by Minerva, whose divine image turns the monster to stone. Andromeda is saved, Perseus wins her love and the opera closes with a panegyric to Emperor Charles VI, the “hero greater than Perseus” in whose honor the work was composed.
Structured as a single continuous act in the tradition of the Viennese court componimento da camera, Andromeda divides naturally into two dramatic movements. The opera premiered for a small audience at the Hapsburg Court on November 4, 1714, and has not been performed since.
"I first encountered Ziani's Andromeda a few years ago while creating a pastiche around the myth of Perseus and Andromeda and its connection to the galaxies and constellations that bear the same names,” said Ars Minerva Artistic Director Céline Ricci. “We ended up performing at the historic Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. This myth sits so close to science fiction and fantasy – and telling it in a small theater takes me back to when I was a child, making up stories with a few paper props."
The cast of Andromeda includes soprano Aura Veruni as Andromeda; contralto Sara Couden as Perseus; Sidney Ragland as King Cepheus; mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich as Cassiopeia; and tenor Maxwell Ary as Agenore.
Ricci directs, and harpsichordist JungHae Kim will conduct Ars Minerva's period instrument orchestra. The creative team includes Del Medoff (lighting design), Entropy (projections design) and Marina Polakoff (costume design). Adam Cockerham provided the score transcription and Joe McClinton translated the text for supertitles.
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