Esperanza Spalding (CRF 2018) and Wayne Shorter have been collaborating for years on Shorter’s dream opera, “Iphigenia,” an update of the ancient Greek myth.
“Iphigenia, eight years in the making and decades in the dreaming, will begin a run of performances this month, starting with open rehearsals at Mass MoCA on Thursday and Friday [Nov. 4 and 5], a full debut in Boston on Nov. 12 and 13, and performances in the coming months in Washington, Berkeley and Los Angeles…
‘This was all about invention: Esperanza was inventing, Wayne was inventing, and I got to invent alongside of them,” [the famed architect and Iphigenia’s set designer Frank] Gehry said in an interview. ‘It was really a jazz concert, from the beginning to end’… Spalding decided to include entire passages in the libretto contributed by other writers: the musician and scholar Ganavya [(CRF 2021)], and the poets Joy Harjo and Safiya Sinclair [(Incoming Writing Fellow 2023)]. She had sought them out for advice, but ended up seeing no reason not to add their words in full.”
Read the New York Times’ article about the show and how it came to be.
Image: Shorter and Spalding leading a rehearsal in Los Angeles. Credit via Real Magic.