by Benjamin Britten and Robert Lowell
“How shall I hide my thick, adulterous passion for this youth, who has rejected me, and knows the truth?”
Phaedra staggers under Aphrodite’s heavy curse. Wife to Theseus, she burns for his son Hippolytus. But he rejects her and in her blind passion she destroys first him–and then herself. A staged performance of Britten’s solo cantata for mezzo soprano, imagined and performed by Judith Barnes, accompanied by chamber ensemble.
Judith Barnes, director and mezzo soprano
Doug Han, piano
Charlotte Nicholas, violin
Brian Sanders, cello
June 10, 2017, 8:00pm
334 South 5th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Admission with reservation:
leimaymain.cavearts.org
Presented as part of SOAK, an annual deluge of acts and workshops in theater, butoh, dance, and performance art, offered by LEIMAY at their Brooklyn home CAVE. From LEIMAY’s website: “SOAK broadens the perceptions of artists and audiences with work that is experimental, rigorous, and thought-provoking.”
Parterre.com wrote of Judith Barnes’ performance of PHAEDRA as part of VPR’s Playthings of the Gods series: “Mezzo Judith Barnes shone in her performance of Britten’s Phaedra, vocally and dramatically present in every moment in the 16-minute scena.”
This performance is also part of the second annual New York Opera Fest, a two-month celebration of New York’s vibrant and varied opera community throughout May and June, 2017, with over 20 companies putting on more than 30 events in venues around the city. The Opera Fest is organized by the New York Opera Alliance, in partnership with OPERA America, the national service organization for opera. For more information and a full listing, visit: http://nyoperafest.com/