The world is a funny place. Out of strange coincidence I discovered recently that I am living in the same town, and have been for two years, as a pianist that I knew in gradeschool, whom I haven't seen for about ten years. We had a coffee this morning and it turns out that she might be just the right person to help AOT with one of its "secret" projects scheduled for the 2008-2009 season. Unfortunately I can't reveal it yet, but it will be something new for the company and I think new for the genre.
It also turns out that her boyfriend is a video artist whose work I am eager to see tomorrow evening and again Monday night. I struggle with my lack to adeptness at technology and have avoided using video despite my strong interest in its possibilities and implications for theater. Lately I have been especially interested in this form of expression and discovered a wonderful artist named Pipilotti Rist. I actually discovered her work while looking into Bill Viola who recently completed the "Tristan Project" with Peter Sellars and the LA Philharmonic. Though reviews have been decidely mixed, I applaud the effort and wish I could have seen it. Unlike Viola's work, of which there is lots of commentary, but not many examples online, Ms. Rist has a lot of clips available through Youtube (again the conversion of technology and art) and I am posting some here. I find them extremely joyful and beautiful.
This Monteverdi "L'Orfeo" closes this weekend, and though I hope to do it with AOT at some point I am ready for a break from it. Coaching an opera and producing it are two very different things indeed. One high point of the Bloomington Early Music Festival however was the concert of Bruce Dickey and a group called "Quarter Comma". It was a wonderfully selected program and Mr. Dickey's sensitivity for this music and sense of timing is sublime.
It seems like a slow time for AOT (nothing happening until our benefit in July), but actually the wheels are turning fast. It is frustrating that I can't share with you the details, but exciting things are coming!
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