In The Wooster Group’s production of LA DIDONE, Francesco Cavalli’s 1641 opera, with libretto by Francesco Busenello, collides with Mario Bava’s cult movie Terrore nello spazio (1965) in a war-like symbiosis, dropping Aeneas’ ships onto a forbidding planetary landscape and forming a synergy between early baroque opera and pre-moonlanding sci-fi.

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LA DIDONE
An opera by Francesco Cavalli
Libretto by Francesco Busenello
Director: Elizabeth LeCompte
Music Director: Bruce Odland

La Didone
Dido: Hai-Ting Chinn
Aeneas, Ghost Chorus: John Young
Neptune, Jarbas, Ilioneus, Jove, Ghost Chorus: Andrew Nolen
Juno, Mercury, Anna, voice of Cupid: Kamala Sankaram
Ghost of Sichaeus: Hank Heijink
Shadow of Dido, Old Man, Guard: Kate Valk
Shadow of Aeneas, Cupid, Ghost of Sichaeus: Ari Fliakos
Shadow of Jarbas, boar: Scott Shepherd
Acate: Judson Williams

Terrore nello spazio
Sanya: Kate Valk
Mark: Ari Fliakos
Wess, Salas’ body: Scott Shepherd
Dr. Karan, Burt, Brad: Judson Williams
Tiona: Hai-Ting Chinn
Eldon: John Young
Kir: Andrew Nolen

The Band
Keyboard: Jennifer Griesbach
Theorbo, baroque guitar: Hank Heijink and David Walker
Accordian, tambourine: Kamala Sankaram
Electric guitar: Harvey Valdes

Set: Ruud van den Akker
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton
Sound: Matt Schloss and Omar Zubair
Video: Zbigniew Bzymek and Joby Emmons with Andrew Schneider
Production Manager: Bozkurt Karasu
Assistant Director and Baroque Gesture Coach: Jennifer Griesbach
Stage Manager: Teresa Hartmann
Technical Director: Aron Deyo
Costumes: Antonia Belt
Cineturg: Dennis Dermody

Production: The Wooster Group, KunstenFESTIVALdesArts
Coproduction: Edinburgh International Festival, Productiehuis Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Shouwburg), Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg, CC Belém (Lisbon)

Photo by Antonia Belt