Epoch Arts 4-21-2017

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C1 April 21–27, 2017

Chaos, Inspiration, and the Creation of

CATHERINE YANG

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or all of Joseph Haydn’s mastery of musical form—he is known as the “father” of the symphony and the string quartet, and credited with establishing the classical style of music—his greatest masterpiece may have been the oratorio “The Creation,” which begins with form-breaking, prescribed chaos.

“The Creation” was tremendously successful during the years of its premiere; it was translated into several languages and performed across Europe during Haydn’s life. And though it has been both derided and praised during different periods of history, today it is one of the most beloved of Haydn’s pieces.

In 1791, inspired by a festival where 1,000-strong ensembles of musicians performed George Frideric Handel’s sacred works, like the “Messiah” and “Israel in Egypt,” Haydn decided he needed to write a sacred oratorio as well—something that would resonate with everyone and be performed for ages.

According to some accounts, his friend François-Hippolyte Barthélémon pointed to a Bible

and told Haydn to take that and start from the beginning. Other accounts say that before Haydn left London in 1795, Johann Peter Salomon, the impresario who produced Haydn’s concerts in the city, handed him a libretto titled “The Creation of the World.” It had been intended for Handel a half century before, but the composer had deemed it too long to be set to music.

In any case, Haydn brought the idea back to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, the imperial court librarian in Vienna, who encouraged the project and put together the text in English and German. It draws from the Book of Genesis, John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” and various psalms to tell the story of God creating the world.

“The Creation” took the prolific composer an

Engraving by Jan Muller after Hendrick Goltzius’s work depicting the “Creation of the World,” circa 1592.

unusually long time to write, at least a year and a half. In one letter, responding to requests for him to finish the work, he replied that he could not rush the effort that should be afforded to such a work. He’d also written about the process: “Never was I so devout as when composing ‘The Creation.’ Every day, I fell on my knees and asked God to give me strength to enable me to pursue the work to its successful completion.”

The oratorio begins with the “Representation of Chaos” in the first movement, with harmonies and melodies that are not resolved as they would be in the classical style, then moves along to an inevitable climax at the moment when God declares, “Let there be light,” and the orchestra and chorus burst with a great explosion of sound.

The shards of imagination floating around in chaos are concentrated by divine order and take form. In a performance Haydn attended a year before his death, the audience burst into applause for him. The composer then replied, pointing up to the sky, that it came not from him, but that “everything comes from up there!”

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April 21–27, 2017

The First Day (Dies I).

The Second Day (Dies II).

The Third Day (Dies III).

Chaos, Inspiration, and the Creation of If Goltzius’s figures are reminiscent of Roman mythology, it is possibly because he had been working on illustrations to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” during this time. These were made near the very end of the Renaissance, a period where artists were thought to do God’s work.

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Creativity continued from C1 This idea that creation and creativity are an act of God, or that it comes from the divine, is one that has its roots in antiquity and across many cultures.

To Create The word “creativity” today is synonymous with originality and always related to imagination.

The common definition (established by professors Robert Sternberg and Todd Lubbart and used especially by researchers) is that something creative is “novel and appropriate.” The word did not exist as we know it until the mid-19th century; prior to that, “to create” or “creation” was understood as nothing short of an act of God. Plato, notably, discussed how creation was of the realm of the divine, whereas humans could only make things and mimic ideal forms through their efforts. The idea is not entirely foreign even today, as writers, for instance, will quickly tell you that there are no new stories to tell—but this does not detract at all from the enjoyment of telling or hearing stories, no matter when they are conceived.

Other cultures, such as those in East Asia, India, and Southeast Asia, hold similar views. Lubbart’s conclusion, after reviewing close to a dozen other studies on the ideas of Eastern creativity, is that in these cultures the creative artist taps into some universal source and recreates, imitates, or develops something from it.

Cognitive psychologist and leading creativity researcher Mark Runco has written a history of the research on creativity in the Western world. He traces the history of the word “create” in the English language, from its Latin roots all the way to 1393, when Geoffrey Chaucer, considered the “father of English literature,” first used the term in reference to divine creation.

William Shakespeare then used it in his tragedy “Macbeth” (1606). Twentieth-century novelist and academic Raymond Williams argued it was an early usage of “creation” as meaning human imagination. But Shakespeare’s expression was actually al-

A watercolor

by Balthasar Wigand of the 1808 gala performance of Haydn’s “The Creation” (“Die Schöpfung”) in Vienna. The composer is depicted in the lower center of the image.

most Platonic, calling imagination “a dagger of the mind, a false creation.” The word “creativity” supposedly entered the English language in 1875, but even then, it was rarely used.

While much has been written about the wellspring of creativity during the Renaissance, it was not even a word used during that time. Some research tracks a shift in thinking about creativity to the Renaissance, though other scholars say it occurred earlier, during the Middle Ages.

The Exceptional and the Inspired During the Middle Ages, or the medieval period, one with a special talent or ability was seen as being a conduit from an outside force—something greater and most likely divine. Humans were not yet creators but makers who could be divinely inspired. This long period makes up a great bulk of Western history, lasting a millennium from the fifth to 15th centuries.

Then during the Renaissance, which lasted across Europe as a whole from around the 14th to 17th centuries, people believed it was more than just divine inspiration; they believed the human mind could act independently of nature or the supernatural as well. Great art and great works were

NEW YORK PREMIERE @ CINEMA VILLAGE MANHATTAN FILM FESTIVAL • 22 EAST 12TH STREET • APRIL 25, 2017 5:00 PM www.manhattanff.com

the result of exceptional abilities and the artists’ perspectives. This did not actually denote a massive shift in thinking for people of the time, though for scholars today it is a huge marker for the beginnings of the idea of creativity.

Now that creativity had been established, the analysis could begin. Creative people are somehow different and also exceptional, we assume, so we try to examine why. Runco and co-author Robert Albert, in their chapter on creativity research in The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, seem to propose that the creatives thereafter view each of their respective eras in dichotomies.

During the Enlightenment, also known as the era of ideas and the Age of Reason, creativity was alive in the fervent support for independent thinking versus the restraint of various institutions. This is the period that invented research, and scientific discoveries were toppling systems, one after another: Copernicus and Galileo with their studies of the solar system, Newton with his laws of physics, Lavoisier with his discoveries of oxygen, hydrogen, and the seeds of modern chemistry, and more.

Writers championed freedom and individuality and made a distinction between talent, which could be learned, and the kind of genius that was innate and original.

During the Romantic era, creativity existed within the Bohemian lifestyle of artists who reacted against the mass industrialization that had seized the continent. By then, science was seen as having been systematized by the scientific method to the point of squashing innovation. The new conflict identified was between the “overly rational scientist and the artist as the misunderstood genius,” according to Runco and Albert.

Then during the early 20th century, with thinkers like Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud calling for the examination of human nature, the concepts of creativity and the human mind came under a microscope. Runco and Albert add that every major 20th-century psychologist has taken creativity seriously, and that the research that began that era “can be described only as explosive.”

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April 21–27, 2017

The Fourth Day (Dies IV).

Thinkers became very interested in why people are the way they are, independent from culture and, diverging from every theory and era that came before, independent from spiritual forces.

During the Cold War era, creativity was seen through the dichotomy of individualism versus the collectivism of the Soviet Union.

Creativity as a Cold War Invention In the 1950s, Joy Paul Guilford, one of the most cited psychologists by his contemporaries, urged his colleagues to further their research into creativity. In 1966, Ronald Reagan, then running for governor in California, delivered a speech that spoke of “a creative society” that could tackle the nation’s problems. In roughly the period between those two speeches, there were as many papers written on creativity as there were in the 200 years before that, according to creativity scholar Camilla Nelson.

“Much of this work was funded by military and defense concerns,” Nelson wrote in a paper. She pointed to Hyman Rickover, the U.S. Navy admiral best known for directing the development of the nuclear submarine, who had said things similar to Reagan. Rickover supported education that could

The Fifth Day (Dies V).

produce creative people, which he saw as the key to countering the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union.

In “Designing the Creative Child,” professor Amy F. Ogata examines the critique of social conformity that grew during the Cold War, and how this idea of children being naturally imaginative and creative was “constructed, disseminated, and consumed” across the United States. Children’s toys, programming, and museums were engineered to cater to this idea beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, and this is the prevalent understanding still today.

In 2010, a survey of 1,500 CEOs from 33 industries worldwide said that, more than management discipline, rigor, integrity, or vision, it was creativity that was most required to succeed in the world today. A 2013 Time magazine poll showed that 94 percent of Americans valued creativity in others, making it the most valued characteristic over intelligence, compassion, humor, ambition, and beauty.

Why Create?

Perhaps one consistent thing about creativity is that it has always been vague: First, there was no word for it at all, then it became a catchall term for various traits, and now it is one of our most popu-

THINGS TO DO FAMILY FRIENDLY NEW IN MANHATTAN Emotions of the Gods April 23, 11:30 a.m.

Onassis Cultural Center New York 645 Fifth Ave. A tour about the significance of emotions in Greek mythology, with live music to highlight the emotions behind the artifacts.

Guided by guest artists and musicians, families will be invited to create artworks and original music inspired by the exhibition.

Ages 5–9. Free. Registration required. OnassisUSA.org Messages From Ancient Greece April 23, 11:30 a.m.

Atrium, Onassis Cultural Center New York 645 Fifth Ave. A tour exploring ancient Greek inscriptions and what they can tell us about how people were feeling at the time. Participants will have the opportunity to create music to accompany stories in the exhibition. Ages 10–12. Free. Registration required. OnassisUSA.org Hilary Knight’s Stage Struck World April 25–Sept. 1 The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Best known as the illustrator of the American classic “Eloise,” Hilary Knight cites the performing arts as the single greatest influence on his life and career.

Now for the first time, Knight’s lifelong love of the theatrical is the subject of a comprehensive exhibition. Free. NYPL.org

The Alice in Wonderland Follies April 30, 3 p.m.

Michael Schimmel Center, Pace University 3 Spruce St. New York Theatre Ballet will perform Alice’s adventures through Wonderland as she meets some of the most beloved characters in children’s literature.

Presented in a vaudeville setting, this eclectic ballet draws on many different dance forms. $10–$20. NYTB.org

TALKS NEW IN MANHATTAN Peder Balke: Painter of Northern Light April 21, 2 p.m.

Scandinavia House 58 Park Ave. This symposium, complementing the exhibition “Peder Balke: Painter of Northern Light” at The Met Museum, will include presentations by prominent Norwegian and American scholars, exploring various aspects of the artist’s work and its place within larger cultural and historical context. Free for members, $15 nonmembers. ept.ms/PederBalke From Tragedy to Triumph: A Survivor from Warsaw and the Ode to Joy April 24, 7:30 p.m.

David Rubenstein Atrium 61 W. 62nd St. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, this talk will explore how Schönberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, divided by tonality and 125 years of

fateful history, share many of the same aspirations. Free. bit.ly/TragedyTriumph Inside New York City Ballet May 1, 6:30 p.m.

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center This one-hour, onstage program will feature a conversation with choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck, and excerpts from some of their most beloved ballets created for New York City Ballet. $20. NYCBallet.com

VISUAL ARTS ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Treasures From the Nationalmuseum of Sweden Through May 14 The Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Ave. More than 75 masterpieces are on loan for a rare visit to New York, with work by artists including Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, Antoine Watteau, and François Boucher. $13–$20. TheMorgan.org Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages Through Time Through May 14 The Frick Collection Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Britain’s greatest 19th-century land- and seascape artist, depicted ports throughout his career, both in oil paintings and in watercolors. $22 adults, $17 seniors, $12 students. Frick.org

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The Sixth Day (Dies VI).

lar buzzwords. We consider creativity to be exceptional, sometimes artistic, and often original, and thus researchers have traced its evolution through the ages by aligning its definition with the traits deemed as such at the time.

Why value creativity? Well, the ability to create something from nothing, or something new from long-held beliefs, is remarkable.

Runco and Albert suggest that the research of creativity is basically the research of human nature; there has always been self-examination throughout history and an interest in understanding how and why some people are more exceptional.

But it is likely that Haydn’s “The Creation” still resonates and pleases so many of us today is not because it seems especially creative—and it certainly wasn’t a product of spontaneous genius, as he expected to need to toil over it—but because he intended to do something good for humanity.

The chief criticism of the work came from Romantics (in the late 18th through the early 19th centuries) who found it to be naive either in its composition or in its representation of the creation of the world. As the popularity of the work rebounded after that period, musicologists wrote that rather

than naiveté, it was optimism that Haydn sought to impart, and rightly so.

In replying to a letter from a fan of his work in 1802, Haydn wrote: “Often, when I was struggling with all kinds of obstacles ... a secret voice whispered to me: ‘There are so few happy and contented people in this world; sorrow and grief follow them everywhere; perhaps your labour will become a source from which the careworn ... will for a while derive peace and refreshment.’”

Joseph Haydn wrote “The Creation” at the very end of the Enlightenment.

During this period, art meant to revere the divine was the norm, though creation was firmly a human act.

Haydn’s The Creation May 24, 7 p.m.

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Ave. Performed in English, Franz Joseph Haydn’s beloved oratorio depicts the creation of the world as told in the Book of Genesis and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” $25–$80. SMSSConcerts.org

PERFORMING ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN All Balanchine April 21 & 22, 8 p.m.

April 23, 3 p.m.

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center These three essential Balanchine ballets showcase the range of the choreographer’s seminal neoclassical style: “Allegro Brillante,” “The Four Temperaments,” and “Symphony in C.” $30–$175. NYCBallet.com All Robbins April 22, 2 p.m.

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center Jerome Robbins’ dramatic choreography is revealed in a program that includes the playful escapades of three sailors on shore leave, the spellbinding effect created by choreography performed without music, and the hilarious happenings of characters gathered at a piano recital gone awry. $30–$175. NYCBallet.com Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) April 28 & 29, 7:30 p.m.

April 30, 2:30 p.m.

Manhattan School of Music 120 Claremont Ave. The Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater will perform Johann Strauss II’s popular 1885

operetta in three acts. This is a comic tale of desire, love, social status, gypsies, and hidden treasure. $15–$30. MSMnyc.edu ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Don Giovanni Through May 11 The Metropolitan Opera Three charismatic singers, Simon Keenlyside, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Mariusz Kwiecien, share the role of the title hero, who goes to hell in a dazzling coup de théâtre.

From $25. MetOpera.org

MUSIC NEW IN MANHATTAN The Cellists of Lincoln Center April 23, 5 p.m.

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center Lincoln Center is home to the world’s finest musicians, and cellists from the Chamber Music Society, The Juilliard School, The Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic make up this ensemble, performing music that spans from the Renaissance to today. $98–$135.

ChamberMusicSociety.org The Sebastians Present Bach Partitas April 24, 7:30 p.m.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine 1047 Amsterdam Ave. Johann Sebastian Bach’s six solo violin partitas presented in an

immersive installation throughout the 120,000 square feet cathedral.

Step into the cathedral and hear No. 1 in G minor, or into one of the chapels to hear Partita No. 3 in E major. $40 general, $35 seniors, $15 students. Sebastians.org Baroque Aria Ensemble April 26, 7:30 p.m.

Manhattan School of Music 120 Claremont Ave. Part of the Manhattan School of Music Baroque Festival.

Directed by Kenneth Cooper.

Free. MSMNYC.edu Beethoven, Also sprach Zarathustra, Tansy Davies April 27, 7:30 p.m.

April 29, 8 p.m.

David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center The New York Philharmonic performs Strauss’s iconic “Also sprach Zarathustra,” immortalized in popular culture in the majestic fanfare that hails a primeval sunrise in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” $41–$135. NYPhil.org

NEW ELSEWHERE Bargemusic Masterworks Series: American Favorites April 28, 8 p.m.

Fulton Ferry Landing, near the Brooklyn Bridge 1 Water St., Brooklyn Pianist Olga Vinokur will play Barber, Gershwin, Rzewski, Adams, and Bolcom. $20–$40. BargeMusic.org

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SHARON KILARSKI, MASHA SAVITZ, CATHERINE YANG, MILENE FERNANDEZ & EVAN MANTYK

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he act of creation—making something from nothing—is remarkable. Survey after survey reveals what a valued trait creativity is to us today, and scholars strive to get at why.

The prolific artist Wim Wenders is known not only for his strong vision but his interest in other artists.

The writer, photographer, painter, and filmmaker has documented dancers and designers on film, and written about the world of forgotten musicians, among other endeavors.

“I think the last adventure left on this planet is creativity; because we have been everywhere, there is not much left to explore, but there is exploration left in human imagination,” Wenders told Epoch Times correspondent Masha Savitz. “I think there is nothing more exciting than to learn about somebody’s creativity—also, their craft.”

The Epoch Times spoke to artists from a variety of disciplines to understand what creativity means to them, and to glean insight on the creative process.

Some tell us it’s about a strong work ethic, or collaboration, or perhaps, most importantly, just the courage to start.

CREATING ON YOUR OWN TERMS

Diane Bell won numerous awards for her debut film, “Obselidia,” which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Bell has a very eclectic background; the native Scot grew up in Japan, Australia, and Germany, and later earned a master’s degree in mental philosophy at Edinburgh University in Scotland.

She is a long-term practitioner of ashtanga yoga and taught yoga in Barcelona, Spain. Her second film, “Bleeding Heart,” starring Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2015.

Describe your creative process.

A mixture of intuition and discipline. The intuition tells me what I should work on, the discipline keeps me at the desk every day making it real.

Intuitively, there are things I want to explore through writing and filmmaking, but it’s hard-edged discipline that keeps me at work on them until they are complete.

Both are necessary, in equal measure.

What is the most challenging part of the process, and how do you overcome it?

For many years, the most challenging part was having the courage to do it, to take the leap and create and complete work while always fearing it wasn’t good enough.

Luckily, I’m mostly over that phase of crippling selfdoubt, but now I find that often the most challenging part of the process is seeing the work with objective eyes, knowing if it needs more work, or recognizing if more work will over-bake it.

I feel inspired by anyone who makes it happen on their own terms, who carves out their own path and stays to true to it regardless of commercial pressures or fashions.

A CREATIVE LIFE

Steven Melendez is a principal dancer at the New York Theatre Ballet. He has danced leading roles in repertoire staples choreographed

by George Balanchine, Fredrick Aston, and Agnes DeMille, as well as parts choreographed for him. He also teaches and choreographs ballets.

Material for Creation The beginning of the creative process actually starts with making sure I’m living my life outside of the dance studio.

If I spent my whole life just studying ballet and classical technique, I think I would be sort of stifled as an artist.

For me, one of the most important things is creating theater that reflects actual, real human beings. Of course, I love classical ballet, I grew up in classical ballet, and I perform classical ballet, but I don’t personally know any princes or princesses, and I don’t know anyone who fell asleep for a hundred years and got woken up by a kiss, or someone who went mad from a broken heart.

THE CREATIVE HAVING AN ACTIVE MIND 24/7

Fernando Martin Diez-Cabeza is a Spanish painter, fashion designer, and producer based in New York. He is known for his life-size portraits and his “unveilings,” extravaganzas he hosts to celebrate the creation of his paintings and the people he portrays. He has designed for labels like Calvin Klein Jeans, Polo Ralph Lauren, Escada, and others.

Constant Inspiration I’m thinking about ideas all the time. I paint portraits, so I get inspired having conversations and observing people. They give me hints for ideas. It’s like my mind is fishing 24/7, and when something comes my way, I just catch it. It’s a very organic process, basically.

The main thing is to have an active mind all the time.

When I am actually producing work, I make it a ceremony.

Before I paint, I change clothes. I put on a big shirt, a hat, and gloves. I get into a uniform, like a bullfighter before going into the ring.

I also put on music, I put a special rug on the floor, etc. I create a whole environment to motivate myself, because

otherwise it is really hard to switch gears. A ritual helps you enter that dimension for creating—gloves, a comfy shirt, a hat, and that’s it.

Taking Breaks and Switching Gears The best way to get over any obstacle is to take a break. If I get stuck when I’m painting, I’ll switch to designing a fashion line, or I’ll do a storyboard for a music video for my niece, for example; I move and revisit.

Creativity in the fashion industry is different because of the pressure of having to deliver a product by a certain date, and there are specific guidelines to follow. It’s trickier.

A brand will ask me to be free, to be creative, to be myself, but to deliver a collection that will match their universe, that is sellable but also new and

different. So that is creativity to the maximum, and it’s challenging in a different way.

When I do my own paintings, I feel like the king of my universe. I am completely myself, creating something that is my footprint in the world.

How do I get out of a block when designing clothes? I walk on the street, look at how people dress, and then something clicks. Or I’ll think of a movie, a character; I picture a girl, and how she would dress in a specific world that fits the brand I’m working for.

The common denominator in the three fields that I work in is that they all relate to human beings and to a story. When your creativity is grounded by a persona, or a character, it is easier to come up with a narrative that guides you through to the finish line.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

SIMPLY INSPIRED

Sally Cook is a six-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and a regular contributor to National Review.

Also a painter, Cook’s present works in the style known as magic realism are represented in national collections such as the D.A.R. Museum in Washington and the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York.

A preparatory sketch (above) and final rendering (right) of the monumental figure of the Libyan Sibyl by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

But I do know today’s society.

If I incorporate the romance I have in my real life, or the heartbreak or tragedy or victory, and then bring it into the studio with the dancers and express those ideas through them, or ask them to think of their own experiences with those themes and bounce it back, that’s the great inspiration of the creative process. I rely heavily on the dancers to bring the movement most comfortable for them, but also to connect to the theme. If they don’t seem to understand an idea, I have to sit back and think, “Well, if I can’t get it across, is it such a good idea?”

Creativity is a fundamental part of being human. If you believe in the existence of a soul, and those philosophical

ideas, then creativity is up there with that. I think everyone has creativity, and it’s different in different people. There’s certainly creativity in the arts, but I also think it’s in mathematics, science, law.

It’s definitely an openness, a receptiveness to trying to understand something from a different perspective.

Art for Others The first time I choreographed was for this recital at the school where I teach. I was really interested in how the music and the dance came together, and being put in a position to create it, I realized that there was a whole other angle to dance that I had not been experiencing as a performer. Once I had a taste of that, working with

the kids, I started to enjoy it.

I don’t see my choreography as a vehicle for me to have some kind of therapeutic expression of myself. I’m interested in holding a mirror up to society and reflecting what I see in the world.

I think a lot of great art is not so much about the artist but the art itself, and what it’s giving to the audience.

Interpretation Versus Creation Learning a part from any choreographer is very interesting. You get to have a little input into what it becomes, hopefully. You get to understand the original intention of a movement that definitely the third or fourth cast down the road won’t understand. When

The Creator’s Experience In my mind visual arts and language both have the same sources and are nourished by the creator’s experience.

I respond to nature, nature morte (still-life), and the perspective of the speaker.

Occasionally, the poems arrive almost finished, as do some paintings. Who can say why? Clouds seem to open, and a spirit of creativity flows in.

Handwritten I almost never write on the computer. During the day, things are too fractious to sit down with a clear mind. Rather, I keep a pad and pencil next to the bed. That way, if I wake up with a line or a rhyme or a subject for a poem running through my head, I know there is nothing for me to do but turn on the light, prop up a pillow, and start writing.

In short, I write in longhand and type it in the morning.

you’re working secondor thirdhand, the artist definitely has more to say.

But I think the degree of how much of yourself you can genuinely put into something varies for different ballets and different characters.

Say with “Swan Lake” or “Sleeping Beauty,” those characters are so defined, they’re given a narrative, and a hundred years of precedent.

If your interpretation of Prince Siegfried is that he’s secretly a demon from another planet, that’s not creativity; I think we’d call that just wrong.

Whereas with something brand new today, you can go out there and put your stamp on it and make it what you want. It can be different with different choreographers.

PROCESS POETRY THAT GROWS ORGANICALLY

Joseph S. Salemi has published five books of poetry and edits the literary magazine Trinacria. His poems, translations, and scholarly articles have appeared in over 100 publications worldwide.

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What inspires a poem?

Different motives inspire different individual poems.

Many of my satiric pieces are written out of sheer anger and hatred, while other poems might be inspired by a desire to capture a lost memory, or by a need to explain some abstruse point, or by a desire to present an exemplum, in the medieval manner.

To be quite honest, however, many of my poems have their beginning in a single perfect line in perfect meter that comes into my head, and from that perfect line, the rest of the poem grows, as if from a seedling.

Is it like there truly is a muse?

Do poems come out perfect or near-perfect the first time?

The image of the Muse is just a metaphor. No one really knows how inspiration works, and I’m sure it works differently for various poets. My own creative process is not complicated—it starts with either a phrase or a line that I jot down, and afterward I’ll develop that phrase or line fairly quickly into a nearly perfect rough draft of a poem. I leave it for a few days, and then give it a bit of revision.

Frequently, I get an idea from something that I am reading.

One of my best recent poems came as a result of reading the Burgundian code of law from 6th-century France. I’ve never had a completely perfect poem come to me all at once, though in rare cases, a poem came to me nearly perfect.

X TREMES

FEEDING THE CREATIVE SPIRIT

Henry Jaglom has had a long and illustrious career as an indie filmmaker, playwright, and actor that began with training with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York in the 1960s. He moved to Los Angeles and acted in a number of films and TV shows before he began his own filmmaking career.

His latest film, “Train to Zakopane,” recently premiered in Los Angeles.

Routine and Creative Urges It will sound strange, but I have two very different urges creatively that push me. I have a great sense of ongoing connection with myself manifested in 45 years of journals; they carry with them emotional truths and the source of much of my creativity.

I open up the book everyday even if I just write the date, time, and city, and one line. It has given me a creative structure, like a girlfriend. I am telling her all the stuff, not literary or intellectual, but emotional. I cannot imagine a life without her.

When I made my first film, “A Safe Place,” I just reached into the book, which was written 10 years before I made the movie.

I pulled out full speeches.

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A Fellow Inspiring Journal Keeper Many years ago, Anaïs Nin came to visit me in my apartment; I was staying in Tuesday Weld’s place at the time. She read my journals and said, “You have 50 movies here!”

I said, “It’s because of you.”

It came from reading her journals when I was young.

“It had all the sadness and loneliness,” I told her. And she added, “And all the joy and excitement!”

The Challenging Truth The biggest challenge is to tell the truth—not to be tempted to make it good, to make it usable as a play or short story. Telling “her” (the journal) the truth, I cannot cross anything out. Instead, maybe I have to say I’m not emotionally up for telling it yet.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

BELIEVING IN THE PROCESS

Matt Ross wrote and directed the 2016 feature film “Captain Fantastic,” starring Viggo Mortensen, which has garnered him several awards, including best director in Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival, and a spot on Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch 2016.” As an actor, Ross is best known as Gavin Belson in the HBO series “Silicon Valley” and as Alby Grant in “Big Love.”

DOING THE WORK

Jim DeVita is an actor, novelist, theater director, and award-winning playwright. DeVita knew he wanted to be a writer from a very young age and constantly wrote plays, monologues, poetry, short stories, and so on. As an actor, he mostly performs classical repertoire.

One Sentence at a Time I believe in doing all the work necessary so that inspiration has a chance of showing up. I keep a quote based on Hemingway next to my computer. I’m looking at it right now as I write this: “Just write one true sentence.”

On the days when inspiration doesn’t show up—which is quite often—one still needs to work. You still have to set the alarm, get up, make the coffee, trudge out to the writing studio, and write—inspired or not. But I find quite often that once I stop waiting for inspiration to strike and get to work, get some words down on paper, inspiration often shows up. I write a lot of

bad pages sometimes before that elusive inspiration shows itself. I believe it is through that act of writing—often badly—that we open ourselves up to the greater ideas and words that live somewhere inside us, or outside of us— wherever they are—but we need to take the steps to be able to receive them.

Writing while inspired is fun—it’s fast, you feel like you can barely keep up with the ideas. Writing every day, inspiration or no, is not as fun, per se, but it is still rewarding and challenging.

There was a chapter in my last book where I didn’t know how to continue. One of the main characters in the book is a children’s book writer, and

Collaboration and Leadership I firmly believe that filmmaking is a collaborative process. If I write the screenplay, there is a degree of authorship that perhaps doesn’t exist if I am only the director, as directing is largely interpretative.

But regardless of those definitions, fundamentally, I try to hire people who are excellent at their jobs and who want to make the same film that I do (meaning, share a common vision). Then I create an environment where their individual processes can flourish, create an environment where they are valued and heard.

In the end, as the writer and director, I will have the final say, but I genuinely want people to fight for how they see something, fight for their interpretation.

That goes for the actors, the director of photography, the production designer, creative producer, the costume

that morning I could not think of how to continue her story.

I glanced at the Hemingwayinspired quote, “Just write one true sentence,” and then wrote, “I don’t know what to write today.” It worked, and I was off and running.

Routines and Habits When I am on a project, I write early morning. I’m usually up by 5:30 a.m. and writing by about 6 a.m. or so. I got into this habit because my day job, working in the theater (rehearsing), usually starts at noon. So I can get in a few hours of writing before going to work. I’ve been doing it for so many years now that I find it nearly impossible to write creatively at any other time of the day. I can do editing and

designer—all the voices that make up the filmmaking team.

We can argue and disagree and great ideas may come out of that. It’s collaborative, with a benign dictator steering the ship.

Structure and Inspiration Inspiration is the seed: For whatever reason, I’m inspired to ask certain questions, inspired to explore a particular kind of person or environment or even genre, perhaps.

And then the structure comes next, form follows function. It’s the frame that holds the story together; it’s the “math” of the narrative necessary to create meaning and emotion.

The structure is everything, really.

It determines the “point” of the story. “How” you tell any particular story (the structure) determines everything.

I believe very strongly in structured stories. I outline before I write, but sometimes I end up going in slightly

revision work at other times of the day, but the creative work happens early in the morning.

I usually begin the morning by editing the previous day’s work. This gets me back into the feel of where I am in the story, what might be coming up next—and it also allows me to finish my first cup of coffee and wake up a bit more. I’m generally really writing by about 7:30 a.m. or so, and if I can, in a good three hours after that. That’s a good day.

Kick-Starting After a Hiatus Because I rarely write on commission, I often have to put a project aside for a while to take a “paying” job. It’s quite hard getting back into a book after an 8- to 10-week hiatus.

You quite literally change in

different directions. It’s a living thing, but highly structured.

Solitary Magic Writing is probably the most challenging. It’s solitary and takes enormous discipline. What’s challenging is finding ideas, stories that are worth telling.

It’s so easy to second-guess yourself, or self-negate. But I also think writing is the most spiritual. Who said, “Before me—nothing. Because of me— this?” That’s how I feel about it.

It is a kind of magic, a kind of conjuring.

So I overcome the self-doubt, the self-negation by allowing myself to fail, to stop, to do something else. And by believing in the process itself: As long as I return to it, as long as I keep at it, eventually, I know I will be able to find my way out of the dark forest. It may not be great, but I’ll get out with something. And that something, after re-writing and re-writing and re-writing, may be worth the effort.

that long of a period of time— the world changes. I often find that I am using different words after such a length of time; I am interested in different ideas and hearing different influences in the world around me.

The Inner Critic But perhaps the biggest challenge for me is not judging myself while I am in the process of writing. Anne Lamott in her wonderful book “Bird by Bird” calls it “the screaming monkeys”—those voices in your head chattering away, “This is bad. It’s been done. Blah, blah, blah.”

How to stop this? Well, I have a mantra. It’s not very profound, but it usually helps. I say it to myself again and again and again: “Shut up and write.”

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@EpochArts

April 21–27, 2017

THE CREATIVE PROCESS PUBLIC DOMAIN

CREATING MEANING THROUGH SOUND

Susan Liu composes music for singers, dancers, orchestras, and chamber ensembles. She has unique expertise in combining the musical styles of the East and West, and many of the works she has been hired to write or arrange is an exploration in how to best blend these very different musical languages. Her work has been commissioned for unique ensembles and specific occasions, and notably for the premier dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts.

Music That Uplifts My ideal is writing something that goes from my heart to your heart, from my soul to your soul. Whatever I am feeling, I wish I could make you feel the same.

If I’m working with lyrics, I wish the music to portray whatever the lyrics mean.

Robert Schumann said, “To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts—such is the duty of the artist.” And Handel said, “I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better.”

I very much feel the same.

Talent and Rules Composing is something that has been my passion since I was very, very little, though I was always hiding it because composing was for “very great people,” or at least that’s what my school said, that supposedly only a genius could compose. But

my mom always encouraged me; she put me in composing classes and all kinds of things.

How do we compose?

Composing isn’t limited to just coming up with a melody; I also use what I learned in my musical education to accommodate the melody, to construct the entire form. It’s a challenge to combine the Chinese and Western styles together, to infuse the musical language of one with the other.

With Chinese melodies, most are in the pentatonic scale. I have to avoid orchestrating in too much of a traditional style, because the harmonic language is not very developed (compared to Western tonal music). I also have to avoid using the style of contemporary Chinese music of the pentatonic scale, which is not traditional, and to avoid sounding like everybody else.

Recently, I arranged “Glorious Realm” (a vocal piece written

by Shen Yun Artistic Director D.F.) for piano. With this

melody, I deeply recognized the beauty he wrote and the different levels of meaning within the melody—of the divinity achieved. With arranging, the objective is to bring those meanings out.

I divided this into three sections. In the first, I used a pentatonic scale to bring out this gorgeous, divine melody—a Chinese melody—in its native language. Then in the second portion, I used Western harmonies to create a church chorale atmosphere—serious, solemn, humble, and reverent.

In the third section, I wanted to bring out the grandiose nature of the melody and used large arpeggios, so as to let the listener hear these different levels contained within this seemingly simple melody.

Whether it’s art or music or poetry, there is a formula to follow, in a sense. There is a form, but within that, it’s not really strict. It gives you freedom within the form.

CREATIVITY IS A COMMITMENT

Timothy J. Clark is known for his expressive interiors, urban landscapes, portraits, and figures.

His watercolors, oils, and drawings are in more than 20 museum collections, including the permanent collections at the National Portrait Gallery and the Library of Congress Works on Paper in Washington; the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the City Museum of New York; and Maine’s Farnsworth Art Museum. Clark lectured for several years at Yale University’s Graduate School in Rome and is currently the interim director of the Art Students League of New York. He maintains studios in New York City; Capistrano Beach, California; and West Bath, Maine.

Inspiration is way down the line. This is all I have done in my life. It is ingrained deeply in me that I am responsible to make art every day. It’s the best job.

Everybody seems to think it’s a breeze; it’s not, it’s hard work.

I go to bed and I think about what I am going to paint, and I dream I’m painting it. I dreamt I was painting last night— I think it, I live it, I dream it.

Are there rituals? You bet there are. I carry a pocketknife, because I never use a pencil sharpener. I sharpen my pencils with a knife to a particular angle. I keep a sketchbook with me at all times. I draw every day (I don’t sketch). Drawing has a purpose. It knows what it wants. It’s directed.

Whatever I do, I process my life through my drawing book and I never stop drawing.

Sometimes there’s a lousy drawing and sometimes there is a great drawing. If I get a great drawing, I very often take it back to my studio and create a painting from it. It is a lifetime commitment.

I have the ability to paint anywhere. When I see something that I want to paint, I paint it. I don’t say, “Oh, maybe some day.”

Some day doesn’t happen.

Artists have some part of their soul that gets fed by being an artist. Things happen that we don’t always want to talk about, but we can paint. We can build our own life with our art, and that’s what lets us cope with life. We see life through our drawings and paintings.

The painting (right) “The Transfiguration”

by Raphael and a preparatory sketch from his workshop (above).

CREATIVITY IS OBSESSIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING

Sabin Howard is a sculptor and foremost expert on modern classicism. He has been commissioned to design and create a sculpture as part of the National World War I Memorial in Washington.

He’s currently in the process of designing a 65-foot-long, bas-relief bronze wall to explain the horror and heroism of World War I.

Training Your Creativity Perspiration is the mother of creation. There is an analogy between sports and making art that is not often mentioned.

Getting really good at making art depends on how often you train that part of your brain. Being consistent is crucial for reaching one’s potential as an artist, and I always found that inspiration begins once you enter into the process of making the art.

It’s all about momentum. If you’re practicing every day and that’s what you do, it’s easy to get on the bike and travel to work even if you’re tired. I like to get to the studio and start in the morning and work until around 6 p.m. I bike to and from work because it’s a way to create a transition and to clear my mind so that I don’t carry the art with me at the end of the day.

Problems and Solutions Frustration is also another part

RATIONAL THINKING VERSUS SPONTANEOUS SOLUTIONS

Anton Glikin is an associate design director at the Peter Pennoyer Architects firm in New York.

How do you work?

When I am drawing, painting, or designing, I am listening to audiobooks. Later, when I look at my work, I can easily remember what Hilaire Belloc said as I was painting a cloud, or what G.K. Chesterton argued for when I was designing a pediment. Likewise, an image of a table leg I designed earlier could suddenly appear in my head while I am reading a familiar verse.

In general, I think drawing or designing is a very therapeutic process—to me, it is like

of creating art that is crucial for making it really great. If you are always cruising and doing things you know you can pull off, there is a tendency to not push. If you are involved in a project that has a raised bar that puts you in a slightly uncomfortable position, there’s a tendency to try harder so you can break through.

Art is all about problemsolving. The harder the problem is to solve, the more effort it takes.

This gets me to try things that normally I wouldn’t try. You go down new roads and avenues that you might not go down if everything is cushy. If you are slightly uncomfortable and not used to the territory, there is less of a tendency to move toward the formulaic and more of a tendency to be experimental and use the tools and structure that you have to solve the problem. Most artists are obsessively compulsive types, so they never want to give up until they solve the problem.

This is the act of creation.

woodwork or needlework.

I have to relax in order to do my creative work.

The more I concentrate, the more likely I am to overlook some of the most interesting design solutions.

To me, drawing or designing is a great opportunity to turn off my rational thinking. Very often, the best ideas come to mind in random places, such as in a supermarket, so I write or sketch them down right away.

Likewise, certain practical things, such as a need to buy pipe-draining liquid, come to mind when I am painting a sunset.

@EpochArts

April 21–27, 2017

CREATING THE EMOTIONAL SPACE FOR CREATION PUBLIC DOMAIN

Cassia Harvey is a cellist, composer, and teacher, and writer of exercise books for string instruments. She has published over 160 of these books, which are used worldwide.

What Some Research on Creativity Tells Us SHARON KILARSKI If anyone doubts that our culture is obsessed with creativity, a quick survey of the available literature on the topic should satisfy.

The amount of scholarly interest on creativity in the last 50 years at least is mindboggling. Psychologists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers have studied it, of course, but researchers in the fields of engineering, theology, and linguistics have looked into it as well. Studies have ranged from how moods, intelligence, and personality type are related to creativity, to how it affects mental health, economics, and neurological processes.

Here are several overarching themes and supporting studies.

It’s Healthy for You When we think of creativity in relation to health, we might first think of improved mental health. Art therapy, according to the American Art Therapy Association, is used to help clients explore their feelings, foster selfawareness, and manage behavior and addictions.

But one hefty but by no means exhaustive review of literature from 1995 through 2007 on the relationship between the creative arts and health suggests an even deeper effect. Looking specifically at the therapeutic effects of music, visual arts, movement/theater, and expressive writing, one review surveyed the effects on physical healing.

For example, in two studies that used music therapy on hospitalized cancer patients, the benefits included reduced pain (found a study published in Oncology Nursing Forum), and increased immunity and lowered anxiety, among reductions in other psycho-

logical and physical symptoms (found another in The Journal of Psychosocial Oncology).

And at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, researchers compared those receiving “art intervention” with those who did not, in different units of the hospital. The groups receiving the intervention showed significantly better vital signs and fewer physical symptoms of stress, and needed less medication to help them sleep.

The Journal of Aging and Health reports long-term benefits. Researchers found that openness, or a mental flexibility and willingness to entertain novel ideas, can be a factor in increasing longevity, or as Scientific American put it, “creative thinking reduces stress and keeps the brain healthy.”

What Makes Creativity Tick What is it that makes people creative? Or, what are the conditions that allow creativity to flourish?

A 2012 study showed that backpackers who spent four days tracking in the wilderness increased their scores on standard creativity tests. “We show that four days of immersion in nature, and the corresponding disconnection from multimedia and technology, increases performance on a creativity, problem-solving task by a full 50 percent,” the researchers from the University of Utah concluded.

Walking in and of itself may be conducive to creativity, according to Science Daily. Or even just letting the mind wander; brain imaging has revealed that daydreaming is a much more active mental state than previously thought, reports another Science Daily article.

If activity can foster creativity, so it seems can stillness: A 2012 study appearing in Open

Access Library Journal found that non-meditators were more rigid in their thinking than those who regularly meditated, and they tended to use complicated solutions based on their past experiences to solve easy problems, rather than a simpler solution based on the task at hand. It was the opposite for those who meditated. In other words, meditation allowed for a more creative, insightful solution.

A 2014 study appearing in the journal Mindfulness showed that after undergoing open monitoring (a form of meditation in which one is receptive to every thought and sensation), even novice meditators performed well on divergent thinking, a type of thinking which comes up with many solutions for a problem.

If activity can foster creativity, so it seems can stillness: A 2012 study found that non-meditators were more rigid in their thinking than those who regularly meditated.

But what traits are conducive to creativity?

In 2016, Anna Jordanous, a computational scientist at Kent University, and Bill Keller, a linguist at Sussex University in England, looked at 90 academic studies and, by analyzing the language therein, compiled a list of 14 key components of the creative process. These components include general intellectual ability, social interaction/ communication, and active involvement/persistence.

Very influential ideas have come from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, best known for his

What is creativity?

People tell me all the time that they are not creative. As a teacher, I have seen enough brilliance to know that this is not true. I believe in the infinite creative capacity of the human mind. If you can nurture your creativity, make room in your life to create, and discipline the mind to focus, it can absolutely happen.

How do you create?

First, I do believe in inspiration, but I know I have to go out of my way to nurture creativity.

I take time to go to museums, to pick up books, and to watch documentaries (even just a few minutes at a time). If there is no time for these things, I look for inspiration wherever I can find it; sometimes in nature, sometimes from my students, or from a random article online.

psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state.

In his 1996 article “The Creative Personality,” Csikszentmihalyi outlined what he deemed as necessary traits of a creative person: a burning curiosity, the ability to concentrate, the ability to find order in chaos, mental agility, and a willingness to take risks and accept failure.

Perhaps that most famous study of creative people occurred in the 1960s, when University of California– Berkeley psychologist Frank X. Barron brought a group of high-profile creators—scientists, architects, business entrepreneurs, and writers such as writers Truman Capote and Norman Mailer—to the Berkeley campus. Barron’s study revealed interesting results.

Among other attributes, he found foremost that these people were highly motivated to make meaning of what they studied, were intuitive in the way they perceived the world, were independent in their thinking, and preferred complexity over simplicity, for the challenge of finding simplicity in it.

Linked to Happiness Anyone who has ever painted a picture, made up a song in the shower, come up with a great practical joke, filmed a video with friends, or pretended that they were a fireman (or a doctor, or a zookeeper, or a dragon, for that matter) knows that creativity makes you happy.

A University of North Carolina–Greensboro team tracked 79 college students (26 in artrelated majors) for a week to see how their moods correlated with the tasks they were performing. The results showed that many of the participants undertaking creative activities reported feeling happy.

Researchers at Brooklyn College and Boston College tested 83 children aged 6 to 10 and found that drawing a picture could alleviate feelings of disappointment that the researchers had induced in them. Interestingly, children tasked with drawing pictures unrelated in theme to their induced disappointment fared better than those who drew

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Second, I make time and emotional space to create. This means pushing things aside that might seem pressing or even essential and choosing to be free to create instead.

Third, to prepare for actually writing a method book, I deliberately think about the problem I want to solve. I find that my mind often focuses on unimportant things and has to be redirected to ponder the problem at hand. Through the day, in the car, while eating, even while I am practicing cello, I will choose to insistently mull over the problem until I come up with a way to approach it in a book.

Fourth, I never force creation.

If I sit and try to write music and get stuck, I immediately switch to creating something else entirely–in my case, writing book descriptions or designing covers.

Fifth, I am not afraid to not be creative. Sometimes, my

brain hurts or feels exhausted, and creative thinking is just not possible. I turn to repetitive tasks and let my mind rest.

This is especially helpful when the mind is consumed with outside issues or emotions.

Sixth, when I am writing and it is going well, I respect how important that is and I don’t let anything interfere or stop the flow. Any kind of break in the writing could mean that the book is never finished or, at best, there is a gap in continuity. If I absolutely must take a break, I go back to step three and deliberately think about what I am writing until I am able to resume.

And lastly, I never ruminate on what I have finished; my mind is always thinking ahead to the next project as soon as I have sent a book to the printer. Life is so very precious, time is short, and there is so much still to be written.

pictures related to their disappointments.

But only so much happiness fosters creativity. Emma Seppala, science director at the Stanford University Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, and author of “The Happiness Track,” wrote in The Harvard Business Review that highly intense emotions, whether positive or negative, can wear

us out. When we are excited or elated, we use just as much energy as when we are angry or fearful. Low-intensity positive feelings, on the other hand, such as contentment or serenity, allow one to focus on the task at hand and create a positive effect on others.

She believes that this kind of low-grade happiness sparks creativity and fosters collaboration in a team setting.

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@EpochArts

April 21–27, 2017

NA XOS

CD Review

Soprano Krassimira Stoyanova Ventures Into Verismo Territory BARRY BASSIS Though Krassimira Stoyanova is known primarily as a Verdi soprano, her two new CDs show that she is equally impressive in works by Puccini and other verismo composers.

“Verismo” (on Orfeo) is the title of her opera recital album in which the soprano is accompanied by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester,

Sequentia Sings ‘Monks Singing Pagans,’ Histories Within Histories CATHERINE YANG The stories of Hercules, Odysseus, and Dido and Aeneas are some of the cornerstone tales of Western civilization, embedded in the themes and archetypes still found in film, literature, and art created today. The monks of Medieval times were just as, if not more interested in these tales of antiquity.

In addition to the liturgical chants and songs sung in monastic and cathedral schools across Europe, scholars have discovered a wealth of songs about pagan gods and heroes: Zeus, Bacchus, the Valkyries, Cleopatra, Orpheus, Caesar, and so on.

Benjamin Bagby, whose life’s work has been about making these old texts come to life, will present a program of “Monks Singing Pagans”

conducted by Pavel Baleff.

She sings some of the most familiar arias, from Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut,” “Turandot” and “Tosca.” She also sings an aria from “Suor Angelica” and the composer’s lesser known “Edgar,” as well as popular arias from Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur,” Catalani’s “La Wally,” and Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier.”

In addition, Stoyanova sings arias from Mas-

with his Medieval music ensemble Sequentia.

They will perform on April 30 at 4 p.m. at the Corpus Christi Church.

“To be interested in the Medieval period, which is really a thousand years of Western civilization, is just to be interested in the entirety of history,” said Bagby, who has been immersed with the works and music of this period his entire life.

He doesn’t remember how exactly the interest began, just that he picked up Beowulf at age 12, and interest has just built from that point. For decades now, has been the foremost performer of the epic text.

In an interview with with European early music network REMA, Bagby, upon winning the 2016 Early Music Artist Award, discussed what a revelation it was to realize these old texts were meant to be sung—that it was part of the performing arts, not literature. It prompted his “The Lost Songs Project” with Sequentia, which Bagby has been working on for 40 years.

“It’s the sound of a text, as sung by a human being, which gives us the relation to the epic, to the sense of who we are, to our identity, where we come from and where we belong,” he said.

Stories of Antiquity in the Ninth to 12th Centuries In the upcoming program, Bagby wanted to show “the incredible quality of the texts and

cagni’s “L’Amico Fritz” (a charming opera, which deserves to be better known) and the obscure “Lodoletta.”

One noteworthy fact is that, to bring out the drama in each of the pieces, she performs the entire scenes, and pays special attention to the texts. For example, most sopranos declaim the opening recitative from “Adriana Lecouvreur” that leads into the aria “Io son l’umile ancella.” However, Cilea wrote the recitative to be sung and that is the way Stoyanova performs it on the album.

She infuses these scenes and arias with such emotion that listeners cannot fail to be moved.

Stoyanova’s other new CD is fairly rare material: “Giacomo Puccini: Complete Songs for Soprano and Piano” (on Naxos). These 19 songs are not well known and most are completely different from the composer’s operas.

Two pieces—“Beata Viscera” and “Vexilla regis

prodeunt”—are duets for soprano and mezzosoprano and Stoyanova sings both parts.

There are religious and secular pieces: invocations of nature, lullabies, songs of love, and patriotism. The works come from various sources, including one about a soul in heaven, from Antonio Ghislanzoni, who wrote the libretto for “Aida.”

Maria Prinz provides the empathetic piano accompaniment.

The singer scales down her performances to convey the content of each of the songs. While Puccini’s songs will never approach the popularity of his operas, they make for pleasant listening, especially when performed by an artist of Stoyanova’s stature.

the intellectual importance for the people living in this period.” These texts reveal the historical interests and perspectives from a thousand years ago.

He wanted to show many aspects of antiquity, and drew pieces from a variety of sources from and about many different eras. There was an enormous interest in antiquity during this period, after all.

Some of the songs Sequentia will perform are very famous, like the “Lament of Dido” from the “Carmina Burana.”

Others, like poems from Boethius’s “Consolation of Philosophy,” have not been heard in song for about a millennium. These had to be reconstructed by Bagby and musicologist Sam Barrett from Cambridge University, where Sequentia has been in residence. Rather than invent melodies, they had to put themselves into the mindset of a Medieval musician and determine from the sparse notation how the poems were meant to be sung.

The first group of songs show a Christian world during the ninth and 10th centuries, where old folk beliefs had held on. This was a time with many recently converted peoples, evident in the manuscripts that mix charms to chase away illnesses with Christian prayers.

Then next in the program, the powerful female deities of Fortune and Philosophy reign in the

intellectual realm of the Medieval age. Clarity of mind imparted by Philosophy and the inescapable fates set by Fortuna appear in man, kings, and falsely accused criminals alike.

There are Roman poems too, of the suicidal pagan queens Dido and Cleopatra, both decidedly un-Christian queens who were immortalized through many European retellings of their stories.

Then the musician Orpheus, still an iconic character, is explored in odes, poems, and the famous “Metamorphoses” by Ovid, reconstructed by harp player and vocalist Hanna Marti.

The program is capped with stories about Hercules, depicted in a perhaps unfamiliar but thought provoking way.

“We tend to think of Hercules as an action superhero,” Bagby wrote in the program notes. “In fact, his legend speaks to the human condition and elemental questions of discipline and perseverance, even redemption, an inspiration to every seeker of the true path in life.”

Barry Bassis has been a music, theater, and travel writer for over a decade for various publications.

Sequentia April 30, 4 p.m.

Corpus Christi Church 529 W. 121st St. Tickets: $15–$45

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Here is where China becomes one Here is The Met

metmuseum.org

#MetAgeofEmpires

Now through July 16

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The exhibition is made possible by

Additional support is provided by the Joseph Hotung Fund, the Ing Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar L. Tang in honor of Zhixin Jason Sun, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Estate of Brooke Astor, the K11 Art Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Kneeling Archer (detail), Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.), earthenware, Qin Shihuangdi Mausoleum Site Museum, Lintong.