Cal Performances presents Wayne Shorter's …(Iphigenia) featuring Esperanza Spalding
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA
8:00 PM, Saturday, February 12, 2022

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[8:07 PM] {lights down, go!}

[9:51 PM] {show ends}

• Joanna Lynn-Jacobs: Iphigenia;
• Sharmay Musacchio: Iphigenia;
• Nivi Ravi: Iphigenia (no. 1);
• Alexandra Smither: Iphigenia;
• Esperanza Spalding: Iphigenia (no. 5);

• Brian Blade: drums;
• John Patitucci: contrabass;
• Danilo Perez: piano;

• Clark Rundell: conductor;
• performers TBD.

• Lileana Blain-Cruz: director;
• Frank Gehry: set design;
• Mark Grey: sound design;
• Montana Levi Blanco: costume design;
• Jen Schriever: lighting design;
• Caroline Shaw: vocal arrangements;
• Wayne Shorter: composer;
• Esperanza Spalding: libretto; additional text by Joy Harjo, Safiya Sinclair, and Ganavya Doraiswamy.

Randy's synopsis:

Act I: Iphigenia gets killed several times; the Greeks seem to be stuck in a Groundhog Day-like time loop.

Act II: the ?Spirit Mother/guide? offers mystic wisdom to Iphigenia #5 regarding how she might break the mythic cycle.

Act III: Iphigenia #5 manages to break the loop; the Greeks go home instead of sacking Troy: history is changed forever?

As might be guessed from the preceding summary, tonight's performance was really out there. It wasn't completely impenetrable, but there were plenty sections where it was really unclear what or why something was happening. No wonder the show previews got panned and slammed by some critics!

Abandoning the need to find structure or follow narrative, here's an alternate summary:

Act I: the Orchestra twitters and tweedles accompaniment to the company of performers, who act and sing various bits of a dream-like montage.

Act II: the jazz trio

Act III: Denouement. The audience is released to go home!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Program Notes or program notes

Lou Fancher posted a promo article with SFCV a few months in advance of the gig. Included in that article is a short feature about the opera. As of Nov 2, 2021, that Vimeo page links to four additional videos about this production.

Andrew Gilbert posted a promo article in the SF Chronicle Datebook.

Giovanni Russonello posted a similar promo article with the New York Times.

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2022 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2022 event list! ☸ On to the next event!