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| Zoe Vandermeer as Miss Barsanti, in 'If Love Be the Food of Musick, circa 1782' |
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| Joan of Arc (public domain) |
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If Love Be the Food of Musick,
circa 1782
Zoe Vandermeer's original one woman opera 'If Love Be the Food of Musick', is a tale about love, betrayal revenge and madness set in the late 18th century England. Patterned after the pastiche format of John Gay's Beggar's Opera, music selections are composed by James Oswald, Henry Purcell, John Dowland, as well as Italian composers. Texts are by Dryden, Etheridge, and many others. Costumes by Heidi Wesbrock, with help from Richard Battle and others. Lighting by Alex Lopez. Additional cast for larger performance versions include a nurse, the sister Beatrice, and Johnnie, accompanied by baroque chamber ensemble. The work has been performed at the Glasgow Early Music Festival, Spain's International Festival de Deia in Mallorca, Pollok House Museum (National Trust, Scotland), Nairn Little Theatre in Scotland, New York International Theatre Fringe Festival, Englander Historic House in San Francisco, McClelland Historical House in Napa, CA, and elsewhere.
Dialect help was provided by Professor John McClure of Aberdeen University and Lynn Soffer at the American Conservatory Theatre. Historical research on the real person Jenny Barsanti was conducted at the National Library of Scotland.
Zoe Vandermeer's baroque triple harp was designed and built by Tim Hobrough in Scotland.
| Joan of Arc
by Noa Ain
November, 2010.
Zoe Vandermeer has been invited by the composer to perform her work 'Joan of Arc', in Millbrook, New York (venue to be announced). New York composer Noa Ain has created a deeply moving and powerful work scored for dramatic coloratura soprano and surround sound that evokes another time, another world, that by sheer sound alone, asks the rhetorical question -why do we exist.
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