Twin Tyrants and Frail Beauty: Life after Alcina

November 6, 2007 - Well friends, it's over. Alcina closed to a packed house of enthusiastic patrons on Saturday, and now many of us are experiencing the inevitable post-production blues. Towards the end of Act II, Ruggiero sings a reflective aria on the ephemeral nature of Alcina's beautiful island. "Verdant meadows, charming forests, your frail beauty shall soon die." As I listened to that aria for the last time on Saturday night, it struck me that people who work in theatre really experience the elegiac emotion of this aria at the end of every show. After all the hard work preparing for opening night and the joy of performing the show (a joy that is often very brief in the opera world with its average runs of 4 or 6 performances), suddenly one is presented with a sea-change that is truly astounding. In a matter of hours, chairs are stacked and concessions tables broken down; where a curvilinear psychodelic set once stood there is now a pile of lumber, torn paper, and discarded gels. The singers who so recently stood on this stage singing some of the most brilliant and powerful music ever written for the stage are on to other projects, often in very distant parts of the world. Theatre is indeed a frail beauty.

On the other hand, we have the charge to keep creating this ephemeral beauty because the legacy of the performing arts demands it. Handel's notes and his unknown librettist's words are merely an inanimate, historical document until someone performs them. We feel the great artists of history calling us from the page to make them live again eventhough we know that we can only animate their creation for a brief and irreproduceable period of time. And that's why I include the words "twin tyrants" from Bradamante's Act I aria in the title of this post. Performing artists are constantly being pulled between the tangible, permanent legacy of the past and the inherent transience of making that legacy live and communicate to our audiences.

Alright, that's enough philosophy for one post. Luckily, the tension between the abovementioned "tyrants" is also the cure for the malady. It's what drives most of us on to the next project. And I'm fortunate that I have another project looming on the horizon, namely "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?", our holiday cabaret on December 14th at 8pm. Featuring some favorite OV artists, Joy Greene, Jennifer Blades, Frederic Rey, and Will Heim, singing holiday selections from classic to cutting-edge the show will also have holiday goodies to eat and festive beverages for purchase. To reserve seats call the box office at 410.547.7997. Hope to see you there.

John Bowen