Singers, dancers and kids get into beast mode
Sculpture garden to become a zoo
Lions and tigers and sopranos, oh my!
In their new collaboration, “Handel’s Bestiary,” Milwaukee Opera Theatre and Danceworks Performance Company plan to turn the Lynden Sculpture Garden into a Baroque zoo, singing arias with animal imagery while an intergenerational crew of 50 dancers play tigers, bees, frogs and a phoenix or two.
These outdoor performances take place Friday and Saturday.
“Handel’s Bestiary” was stimulated by the book of the same name by Donna Leon, the bestselling mystery novelist who also has a passion for Baroque music. Her book showcased a dozen Handel arias with animal imagery, such as the lion in “Qual leon che fere irato” from “Arianna in Creta” and the moth in “Qual farfalleta giro a quel lume” from “Partenope.”
For the Lynden performances, “every aria is taken out of context,” said MOT Artistic Director Jill Anna Ponasik. “They truly have nothing to do with the operas from which they are excerpted.”
The goal, she explained, is for the audience to enjoy the singing and animal-inspired movement without being concerned about tracking a narrative.
For example, Nathan Wesselowski will wear beekeeper garb while singing “Vedi l’ape” from “Berenice, Regina D’Egitto” and wrangling, or being wrangled by, 7-to-10-yearold dancers as bumblebees.
People attending the show are asked to park in the Park & Ride lot on Brown Deer Road just west of I-43. Beginning at 5:20 each night, shuttle buses will take them to the Lynden grounds.
MOT and Danceworks plan an hour of preshow entertainment, including a lecture with musical examples, face painting for children and a performance by Aperi Animam, a new early-music vocal ensemble.
Dress comfortably for walking outside on grass, as the audience will move around to see and hear performers, Ponasik said.
Children under 10 are not only welcome, they’re admitted free. “They don’t have to sit still,” Ponasik said.