Ursularia 2008

To prove this happened, since, given our record you never know (no, we didn't get shut down by the Chicago police this time, but we did get shut down by the AV-aerie's power supply on opening night, after plugging in the 102nd power strip), here's a quick narration of events. All photos here were taken by our excellent stage designer, Rose DiSalvo.

Presenting ... Ursularia @ AV-aerie, 2008 ...



First of all, how cool is this space? Apart from the 75 white wedding chairs which, however unintentional (the white, not the chairs), probably added to the overall weird emphasis on whiteness established earlier on by the giant, hovering parachute. Marshall Preheim, who runs the AV-aerie, just happened to have one sitting in a giant parachute box at the back of the space. Good thing. (Thanks, by the way, to Fred Grier for his help hanging the parachute.)

As a frame for the stage space it worked, quite simply, awfully well. Here are views from stage right, center and left, respectively (you can pick out conductor Nick DeMaison [also composer of Ursularia, also Music Director of Opera Cabal] in the first photo, center; you'll know him by his side-burns):








But as a backdrop, it was,


I think it's fair to say,



cooler ...


than ...



... cool. As before in 2007, the opera featured soprano Amanda DeBoer as Ursula's immortal soul. Here, darlingly, she gurgles and screams her last.


as Nonsense Company actors Andy Gricevich and Ryan Higgins look icily on. Rick "the professor" Burkhardt manned the overhead projector.


One does have to talk about oneself, but one does so obliquely and in passing. Here she is, Ursula (me/Majel Connery), framed by Rose DiSalvo yarn art (+ Rose's neon lights in the second photo.)




Needless to say, but saying so anyway, we're terribly grateful to everyone for coming out (some from states and states away). Any audience is a friend of Opera Cabal. And by the way, yes, I'm blogging on Christmas and no, I'm not avoiding my family.

-m.