SOCRATE

by Erik Satie

 with excerpts from

THE TEN-BLOCK WALK:
AN OLD PERSON'S ODYSSEY

by Erin Huelskamp and Christie Lee Gibson

June 21-23, 2013 

Click here to view rehearsal photos from Facing Down Death
  

In the spirit of accessible opera for all, tickets were absolutely free.  

Erik Satie wrote the half-hour chamber opera SOCRATE to be performed by the Princesse de Polignac and her lovers. Satie plays with text from Plato about Socrates and about his followers' question: how can they emulate the calmness they so admire when he is about to die? The music's simplicity and speech-like quality hint at the stoicism they try to emulate, while belying the difficulty of achieving it.

THE TEN-BLOCK WALK: AN OLD PERSON'S ODYSSEY, a chamber opera being written by composer Erin Huelskamp and librettist Christie Lee Gibson, follows Mrs. Otis as she journeys from her home to the local senior center. This is a piece about being present, about taking time and taking in your surroundings and responding to them. It is about persistence in the face of pain and obstacles and handicap, and about understanding that when you achieve your goals, often after great physical and mental exertion, it doesn't always look or feel like you think it's going to.

THE COMPANY

The Ten-Block Walk

Mrs. Otis: Glorivy Arroyo
Quartet: Erin Anderson, Rebekah Alexander, Nicholas Hebert, Paul Shafer

Socrate

Alcibiades/Satie, Thea Lobo
Socrates/Satie, Erin Anderson
Phaedrus/Satie, Rebekah Alexander
Phaedo/Satie, Christie Lee Gibson
Piano/Satie, Nicholas Place

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Music Director, Nicholas Place
Third Eye/Design Fabrication, Olivia Brownlee
Lighting Design, Ida Aronson
Co-Producers, Christie Lee Gibson, Jordan Rodu
Production Support, Marc S. Miller