THE DIDO PROJECT

**November 20th, 2008 the Sybarite Chamber Players will present a groundbreaking multimedia presentation of Purcell's opera Dido & Aeneas in New York City.**

This unique collaboration with stage director Pat Diamond marks the melding of the art, humanism & technology as we know it today.

The Sybarite Chamber Players will also collaborate with Harpsichordist & conductor William Hobbs as well as singers David Adam Moore, Blythe Gaissert, Jessica Medoff, Elena O'Connor, and others.

"A multimedia performance installation of Dido and Aeneas using electronic audio and video equipment alongside live performers to establish the landscape of this human struggle both visually and aurally.

Using audio and video monitors, we get a glimpse into the internal life of these characters, and see what makes them come alive. At some points, the monitors are used to represent the chorus of the piece. The chorus serves two purposes in the piece, both as catalysts, which in this case is the internal voice of the main characters pressing them in one direction or another in the same way that the Ancient Roman Gods would influence individual lives. The other purpose is as confidants or sounding boards. Either way, in this production, they are the internal representation of the main characters’ emotional landscape. The choral moments are all recorded on audio, the idea being that they become bodiless voices inside the heads of the main characters, with accompanying video images that reflect the points of view being sung about. The dance moments, which often accompany the choral singing, are an extension of whatever point of view comes across in the choral section, and the images on the video screens, in essence, become the “dancers”. In general, I feel like there are two points of view given by the chorus- one is the reality of the situation in reality, and the other is the potential dream."

-Pat Diamond, Director

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