Desire/Divinity Project
by Marisa Michelson & Constellation Chor
Judson Memorial Church, February 1 – 3 2018
Director: Ethan Heard. Choreographer: Emma Jaster.
Lighting: Elizabeth Mak.
Photography: Isaiah Tanenbaum.
“The attention of the audience, placed in a three-quarters round, is guided by the superb design of Singapore-born Elizabeth Mak. Her play with light and shadow utilizes the high ceiling and white walls to create looming ghostly figures or simply set the moods that string Sappho’s fragments together.”
Marisa Michelson's and Constellation Chor's inaugural presentation of the Desire / Divinity Project was a beautifully haunting blend of sacred text and spiritual voice. The first half of the evening, Sappho Fragments, put music to said lost text with inventive staging amidst the seated audience, with the fragments and performers emerging out of the darkness. The second half, Song of Songs of Songs, was an oratorio-like reinterpretation of the biblical verses, an ode from one lover to another, with piano, drums, cello, and flutes. The historic Judson Church was a perfect backdrop for Marisa's beautiful music and Constellation Chor's stunning voices.
