Event

Persephone in the Late Anthropocene

Why is Persephone, the goddess of spring, coming and going erratically, eating and drinking too much, and taking a human lover? Persephone in the Late Anthropocene is a new spoken opera that re-imagines the Persephone myth -- the ancient story of why we have winter -- in the age of climate change. This May, SPACE presents the world premiere production of this new experimental opera.

Co-created by composer Denis Nye and librettist Megan Grumbling for Hinge/Works, under the direction of Tess Van Horn, Persephone merges new composition, poetry, movement, theater, and a full-scale installation by visual artist Jenna Crowder, which will occupy the main gallery of SPACE for the month of May, with lighting design by Corey Anderson. Persephone's score is a post-Romantic chamber work for oboe, violin, viola, and cello, filtered live through a digital delay to evoke the disjunction and crisis as well as the beauty of our modern world; the libretto ranges from lyric verse to edgy, magical realist prose poems and an imagined Farmers Almanac.

Performing Persephone in the Late Anthropocene are ensemble members Bridgette Kelly (Persephone), Deborah Paley (Demeter), Ian Bannon (Chorus), Paul Haley (Chorus), and Marjolaine Whittlesey (Chorus); and musicians Ben Meiklejohn (Oboe), Victoria Hurlburt (Violin), Leigh-Ashley Milne (Viola), and Volkhard Lindner and Lilith Dudley Holland (Cello), conducted by Cameron John Prescott. With assistant direction by stage manager Rene Johnson.

Premium tickets to Persephone are available to include a thematic food pairing for each movement, by relational artist Genevieve Johnson, as well as a specially created Underworld or Aboveground cocktail pairing by Nathaniel Meiklejohn of The Jewel Box.