The Desire/Divinity Project
To be human is to desire.
Marisa Michelson’s Desire/Divinity Project embodies the joyful and aching tension between earthly and divine love by musicalizing the Western worlds oldest erotic poem (Song of Songs) and Anne Carsons visceral translation of Sapphos fragments. 15 singer-movers, members of Constellation Chor, explore singing as a way of merging the interior self with the exterior world. A mixture of live music video, opera, oratorio, and ritual, Desire/Divinity enlivens the sensual and the sacred, the body and the spirit.
The Desire/Divinity Project is developed with support from The Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, Judson Memorial Church, Heartbeat Opera, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
PART 1: SONG OF SONG OF SONGS
Conceived, Created and Composed by Marisa Michelson
Developed with and Directed by Ethan Heard
A musical piece in three movements scored for Constellation Chor, bansuri flute, melodica, cello and percussion.
In between a live music video, an oratorio, an opera and a ritual, Song of Song of Songs explores the the relationship between the sensual and the sacred, the body and the spirit, through an exegesis of the Western world’s oldest erotic poem, Song of Songs. Featuring an empowered woman at its center it unfolds through 3 distinct musical “movements.” It’s scored for twelve singers, bansuri flute, melodica, cello and percussion (djembe, cajon, frame drum, talking drum, drum set). Conceptually, the piece is a journey from the ancient to the contemporary, from the heteronormative to the queer, and from the personal to the cosmic. It takes place from one sunrise to the next.
Performance history:
Judson Memorial Church, January 2018
Director: Ethan Heard
Movement Director: Emma Crane Master
Heartbeat Opera Spring Festival, 2016
Director: Ethan Heard
Choreographer: Chase Brock
Judson Memorial Church, Magic Time, 2015
Director: Ethan Heard
Choreographer: Chase Brock
PART 2: SAPPHO FRAGMENTS
Conceived and Composed by Marisa Michelson
Sappho’s poetry crackles with life: each word (as translated by Anne Carson) is a potent universe evoking layers of meaning, each phrase is a journey into a passionate pulsing heart, each poem shrinks the millennia, transcends time, and reveals the universality of a human soul that is like all of ours. Poetry, voice, breath, movement, woven together by Constellation Chor, to make audible and visible Sappho’s spirit.
Performance history:
Judson Memorial Church, February 2018
Direction by Ethan Heard
Movement Direction : Emma Crane Jaster
Featuring Marisa Michelson and Constellation Chor
Heartbeat Opera
Spring Collaboret, 2017
Movement Direction
by Emma Crane Jaster
Featuring Marisa Michelson and Constellation Chor
PART 3: The FarNearness
In development.
This piece will be performed by Michelson and performance artist Margot Bassett Silver
A musical piece in three movements scored for Constellation Chor, bansuri flute, melodica, cello and percussion.
In between a live music video, an oratorio, an opera and a ritual, Song of Song of Songs explores the the relationship between the sensual and the sacred, the body and the spirit, through an exegesis of the Western world’s oldest erotic poem, Song of Songs. Featuring an empowered woman at its center it unfolds through 3 distinct musical “movements.” It’s scored for twelve singers, bansuri flute, melodica, cello and percussion (djembe, cajon, frame drum, talking drum, drum set). Conceptually, the piece is a journey from the ancient to the contemporary, from the heteronormative to the queer, and from the personal to the cosmic. It takes place from one sunrise to the next.
Performance history:
Judson Memorial Church, January 2018
Director: Ethan Heard
Movement Director: Emma Crane Master
Heartbeat Opera Spring Festival, 2016
Director: Ethan Heard
Choreographer: Chase Brock
Judson Memorial Church, Magic Time, 2015
Director: Ethan Heard
Choreographer: Chase Brock