Word: semeleã
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...past weekend at the New College Theatre, manages to spruce up the antiquated setting quite a bit, perhaps predictably arranging the action in America’s own period of mythical free love and divine (ahem, drug-induced) revelation: the groovy 1970s. Nuanced but still exciting, “Semele?? shows that Baroque opera can still...
Based on an ancient Greek myth, John Eccles’ early 18th century opera “Semele?? is undergoing an update for its latest incarnation in the New College Theatre, albeit one that still keeps it vintage. Director Victoria J. Crutchfield ’10 has transplanted the rarely-performed English opera, which will run through Sunday, to the 1970s with the hope that the inaccessibility of the classical original will melt away with the modernizing adjustments such as the transformation of the original priests into hippies. With this new setting mixing the lighthearted and the dark...
James C. Liu ’89, who plays Jupiter, agrees. “Parts of the libretto explore the relationship between men and women in a way that is surprisingly modern,” he says. Semele??s ambition and her desire to contend with Jupiter as an equal can be likened to the women’s movement of the 1970s, he suggests. And though this is not the focus of the performance, it is certainly an underlying theme that helps lend the opera some contemporary relevance...
...Semele?? is an intriguing challenge, simultaneously ancient and contemporary; but the cast and crew hope the interplay between the baroque and the psychedelic, between the light and the dark, will help “Semele?? bridge the ages and stand as a uniquely modern opera...