One of our challenges for these concerts is to replicate the feeling of immersion that one enjoys when lost in a great novel like Don Quixote without distracting from the primacy of the music. We turned to the choreographer Christopher Williams and lighting designer Adam Macks for inspiration. In May we – Christopher, Adam, Grant, Bob, Joan and Shannon – gathered to discuss how we might best deploy staging, choreography, and lighting to achieve our ends. We visited the very beautiful venue, the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral on 38th Street in West Philly, and explored the possibilities of that space – how to take advantage of its graceful architectural features, where to set the various scenes, and where to seat audience members (one of the advantages of this space is its flexible seating).
That evening Christopher saw Piffaro in action for the first time in our Harmony of the Spheres performance at Temple’s Conwell Dance Theater, giving him new inspiration which we talked about over brunch the next day. He drew sketches of the space, and how he would move us about. For a brief time during and after that meeting, we were tempted by the idea of including four dancers in the production, but upon further discussion with our Pew funders decided to keep the focus on the singers and instrumentalists and their movements throughout the space.
