A Dove, An Angel, and a Good Fairy

January 4, 2008 - The new year has started with a flurry of activity surrounding our upcoming production of Jonathan Dove's Tobias and the Angel. World-renowned countertenor David Walker's travel plans have been finalized (he arrives on February 4th from Pittsburgh Opera where he'll be performing in another Jonathan Dove opera called Flight), the various choruses and chorusmasters (there are three separate choral ensembles in this piece - an adult professional choir, an adult amateur choir, and a children's chorus) have begun rehearsals, housing has been found for all our out of town artists, and our costume designer Melanie Clark has come up with some fantastically innovative ways to represent the cosmology of this piece which runs the gamut from demons to angels via the natural world of mountains, trees, and men. Her solution to the revelation of the Angel moment is particularly ingenious and beautiful. As a side note, it's very interesting to me how prominently angels have been figuring in Baltimore's cultural life this season. Anyway, since our production will be the North American premiere of this stunning work, it has also been attracting attention from companies and individuals outside the Baltimore area. I've received inquiries from Palmetto Opera and Cincinnati Opera and hope that they will mount this uplifting work so that both its fame and that of Jonathan Dove will grow in this country. Dove will be attending the final performance of the show, and I can't wait to get his reaction.

On another front, I attended a performance of Puss in Boots performed by the newly formed Pantolites. One of the many, many highlights of this charming production by founder Roger Brunyate was Jennifer Blades as the Good Fairy Proverbia in a fiber-optic wig. The show runs through Sunday at The Theatre Project. Don't miss it. But if you do miss it, be sure to catch Ms. Blades as the formidable Public Opinion in Opera Vivente's April production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. See you at the opera - John Bowen