Old Stories

Somehow this year, I have gotten myself entangled in a pair of old stories. And I don’t mean last year. I mean like thousands of years ago.

The first story is the myth of Sisyphus, which my friends Jason Cady, Matthew Welch and I are adapting into a collaborative opera. We are all telling the story of Sisyphus from different points of view. Our separate sections of music and text will be arranged in a collage of stories, genres and musical styles.

The second story is the biblical tale of Abraham and Isaac.  In my telling of this story, the narrative of Isaac’s almost sacrifice is submerged beneath the narrative of Abraham’s visions of angels and gods who tell him to kill his son.  I am exploring this idea as a way to understand how stories in general are expressions of often abstract and disconnected visions.  How these visions become a reality is the stuff of artistry, whether or not the story teller considers herself an artist.