Frank Gehry has joined forces with legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter and fellow jazz musician Esperanza Spalding to serve as the scenic designer for the jazz opera Iphigenia. The architect even opened up his kitchen for work and rehearsals of the project.
Based on Euripides’ play Iphigenia in Aulis, the opera is Shorter’s first plunge into the classical space, the realization of his lifelong dream to compose an opera since he was a 19-year-old music student.
As mentioned on New Music USA, “...these three singular artists are creating on a truly unique theatrical vision that seeks to deconstruct this classic text, transposed onto a modern, Black-American family, and disrupt the script of stories about gender, race, and family that we’re told can never change.”
Iphigenia has been a work in progress for several years and is currently raising $75,000 in order to fully bring the opera to life. The campaign is the work of Real Magic, an independent company founded by Spalding and executive producer Jeff Tang to produce the project.
Iphigenia is expected to premiere at the Kennedy Center in December.
2 Comments
Start a company, have rich friends, and STILL launch an Indiegogo to fleece the fans. Quality 21st Century Capitalism, y'all.
Gehry's sets will probably be magnificent.
this totally fits his abilities, should have done it 50 years ago and saved us a lot of headache with waterproofing crumped paper.
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