JANUARY 23, 1998 GAY PEOPle's ChroNICLE 17

EVENINGS OUT

Dance to furious, ethereal music sets this opera apart

by Richard M. Berrong Cleveland-For its third production this season, Cleveland Opera presents Gluck's masterpiece Orpheus and Eurydice. Like many Baroque operas, it has particular relevance for gay audiences, since it plays with issues of gender.

Originally Orpheus was performed by castratos, men who dressed as males but sang with a mezzo-soprano voice. Today, in the upcoming Cleveland performances, Orpheus is usually sung by women dressed as males, creating a work in which two women sing of love to each other with some of the most beautiful music ever written.

To make this a truly spectacular event, Cleveland Opera is importing the production from Opera Atelier, Canada's Baroque theater company.

I spoke about it with openly gay scenery designer Alexandre Vassiliev, a Russian residing in Paris who travels the world creating costumes and sets for opera, ballet, and theater.

Vassiliev did not hesitate to describe this production as "gorgeous, spectacular, a real treat for the eyes." To capture the feel of authentic eighteenth-century opera production, he based the sets on designs by the neoclassical Italian artist Antonio Canova

(one of whose masterpieces hangs in the Cleveland Museum of Art.)

The production also makes significant use of dance. Baroque opera predated the nineteenth century division of opera and ballet, } so Opera Atelier has placed real emphasis on the ballet sequences in Orpheus, danced to some of the most furious and etherial music ever written.

This production is just one of many with which Vassiliev has been involved lately. Next he goes to Mexico, Japan, and Turkey to design sets and costumes for productions by those countries' national ballets.

One might wonder if, with a career that keeps him moving constantly around the globe, Vassiliev could manage any sort of personal life, but he was eager to tell me that he is succeeding on that front as well. He is very much in love, he assured me, with an art student who is currently studying in Belgium.

How do they deal with what is often a very long-distance relationship? Lots of telephone calls, he laughed, but also plans for four years from now when his partner will be able to join him in Paris.

it is understandable that Vassiliev would not want to give up Paris. He went on at some length about how open and accepting he finds the city, and how he has been able to learn so much from the openly gay artistic

PATRICK HARBRON/HBO

Welsh mezzo-soprano Buddug Verona James stars in the title role of Orpheus.

community that exists there, becoming good friends with Erte and others in his field.

Clevelanders will have a chance to see one of Vassiliev's most acclaimed creations, and hear some truly magnificent music, when

Cleveland Opera brings Cipheus and Eurydice, subtitled in English, to the State Theater February 6 and 7 at 8:00 p.m. and February 8 at 2:00 p.m. For tickets call 216241-6000 or 800-766-6048.

Radical teen lesbian Joan of Arc comes to Spaces

Cleveland-Red Hen Productions, Cleveland's feminist theater, is presenting two provocative works by lesbian playwright Carolyn Gage: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and MasonDixon. Performances of both plays are at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Sat-

urday nights between January 22 and February 14.

In The Second Coming, Joan of Arc is portrayed as a radical lesbian teenage runaway who doesn't care much for her victim status. This Joan, played by Zoe Kiefer, has a few ideas about how to

Armageddon, via the Home Shopping Network

by Dawn Leach

Cleveland-Openly gay director Roger Truesdell is bringing a futuristic comedy to Dobama Theatre with some seriously funny commentary on postmodern religion. Virtual Devotion, by Eric Coble, is a sequel to Soundbiting, which Truesdell also directed in 1996.

Virtual Devotion opens with the second coming of Jesus, who walks into a temp agency looking for a job. Poor Jesus can't seem to be taken seriously, and ends up flipping burgers at a fast-food joint.

Then we meet Reverend Pete, the leader of Mature Warriors for Christ, "which is kinda like the American Association of Retired People combined with the 700 Club," said Truesdell.

Rev. Pete enters the story giving a sermon about the "undesirables" who have the fatal mystery plague. He goes on to list the most evil people in the world: Murderers, blasphemers, homosexuals, record executives, Australians, and the man who invented the thong bikini.

No one seems to know how the

denial to acceptance, his attitude begins to change.

"The premise is that he goes from hate to love," said Truesdell. "He eventually ends up doing what Christ is really about, which is ultimately love and forgiveness-

mystery plague is transmitted, but Bernie Canepari as Reverend Pete.

Rev. Pete is certain that those who

have it did something evil to deserve it— until he begins to show the symptoms himself.

His first reaction: Find someone to blame! Rev. Pete speculates that the pizza delivery boy was secretly a transvestite, who carried the deadly disease to him with his dinner. But as Rev. Pete goes through

which in his rise to the top he has somehow forgotten."

As Pete and Jesus and the other characters sort through their post-modern ethics, they bring a message about love and truth and honesty: "Christ loves everybody," said Truesdell. "He even loves Pete. Can we as people do that?"

RIQUE WINSTON

deal with the patriarchy.

Openly lesbian Kent State Theater

Michelle Tomko

grad Michelle Tomko directs veteran Cleveland actress Linda MasonBrowning in Mason-Dixon, a tightly-scripted exploration of race, class and gender.

Playwright Gage was the artistic director

of No to Men, a radical feminist theater company in Oregon from 1989 to 1991. She wrote the first manual on lesbian theater, Take Stage! How to Produce and Direct a Lesbian Play, a textbook which challenges the structures and values of traditional theatre.

Performances will be held at Spaces Art Gallery, 2220 Superior Viaduct in Cleveland. Call 216-661-4301 for ticket information.

ANTHONY GRAY

Zoe Kiefer as Joan of Arc.

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