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Long Beach Opera (LBO) presents the U.S. premiere of The Black Cat in collaboration with the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra January 19 and 20 at The Beverly O'Neill Theater, 300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach CA 90802. The Black Cat is performed in English.
The Black Cat is a cinematic, multi-disciplinary retelling of Poe's famous story, comprised of dance, film, and a musical mashup of English songwriter David Sylvian and J.S. Bach. Director Frank Hoffmann explains: "The stage design is foremost a film - moving images, scenes and stories. In the third dimension, the singer, the dancers, and the musicians merge with the virtual space ... to become one total spatial experience." This international co-production was conceived by Martin Haselböck, Austrian conductor and Artistic Director of Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the Luxembourg-based theater and film director Frank Hoffmann, and Academy Award-nominated Austrian film and multi-media artist Virgil Widrich.
The international cast includes acclaimed tenor Nicholas Mulroy and modern dance performers Sylvia Camarda, and Jean-Guillaume Weis, (Pina Bausch Tanztheater, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Tanztheater Basel); all performed at the 2012 world premiere at Théâtre National du Luxembourg, Belgium and Musikkonzept Wien, Austria.
A nameless person proclaims his sanity, despite the phantasms he finds himself haunted by over the course of many months, involving arson, a black cat, and the death of his wife.
Video Designer Virgil Widrich creates a cinematic and dramatic space for the story, which is then combined with a musical conception by Martin Haselböck using the unsettling music of contemporary English songwriter David Sylvian, used during flashback sequences, and arias from the cantatas of J.S. Bach. The action is further expanded with four larger dance sequences between the narrator and his wife.
Andreas Mitisek, Artistic & General Director of Long Beach Opera, said, "This production opens new worlds for visual story-telling and dance, all in a brilliant new concept, breaking the boundaries between performing arts and visual arts. Two dancers along with a singer and a baroque ensemble perform a work of contrasts and extremes, from Baroque to Rock."
Conductor Martin Haselböck commented, "The music of the narrator-protagonist was penned by J.S. Bach. Seven of the most beautiful tenor arias, accompanied by baroque ensemble, enable the sentenced murderer in his cell to react on the monstrous events that led to the dreadful deed. The music of the descriptive flashbacks is by David Sylvian, one of the most unique, unconventional, and uncompromising songwriters of our time. Together with virtuoso instrumental works of Bach, the work features four extended dance scenes. Dramatic highlights of the narration are emphasized by the overlaying of additional sound treatments. This remix was developed by me, incorporating some additional music and sonic elements by Ernst Krenek, myself und Ülo Krigul."
Director Frank Hoffman said, "The stage design is foremost a film - moving images, scenes and stories. The film opens to the stage via three screens. In the third dimension, the singer, the dancers, and the musicians merge with the virtual space ... to become one total spatial experience. Right out of that space - the traumatic place of the dark romantic Poe - the directing follows the emotional, the unconscious lead towards J.S. Bach's celestially desperate music and the sinister melancholic sounds of David Sylvian."
After its world premiere in Luxembourg, it received critical praise including from the Luxembourg daily paper Tageblatt. "Brilliant! The audience is spellbound until the last moment. The combination of dance, drama, multimedia effects and contrasting musical genres achieves more than the sum of its parts."
The Luxemburger Wort said, "A magical concoction of music, dance and theatre." And Le Jeudi said, "There is absolutely no risk of the American author turning over in his grave. The adaptation of his short story The Black Cat is a wonderful homage to the master of the Fantastic."
The creative team also includes Digital Paintin and Animation by Oleg Prodeus and costumes by Katharine Poleheim.
Tickets for Black Cat range from $49 to $150, and can be purchased either by calling the LBO Box Office at 562.470.SING (7464) or by going online to longbeachopera.org. Student Rush tickets for $15 will be available space permitting. For information, please visit www.longbeachopera.org
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