By Molly Given
Opera Philadelphia is merging art and science this winter to shine a spotlight on Antonio Vivaldi’s string masterpiece, ‘The Seasons.’
Happening for three nights only — Dec. 19, 20 and 21 — this will be Opera Philadelphia’s first show at the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts since 2019.
Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ first premiered in March of this year with the Boston Lyric Opera. With this new showcase in Philadelphia, however, audiences can expect additional arias and ensembles by the composer and a fresh libretto by Tony award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl (’Eurydice’).
The show features six singers and six dancers, with Grammy-winning countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in his first Opera Philadelphia starring role since being named general director and president.
What ‘The Seasons’ ultimately explores is the connection between weather and emotion.
Ruhl co-conceived the work with Costanzo, in collaboration with choreographer Pam Tanowitz and director Zack Winokur. Tony-winning set designer Mimi Lien will also brave the elements with a set formed largely by bubbles (created in collaboration with MIT and Materials Technologist, Jack Forman) to complete the visual package that audiences get to experience.
‘The Four Seasons’ imagines a world where the “weather is turned upside down.” The official plot follows a group of contemporary artists who embark on a rural retreat to reconnect with nature and hone their crafts. But the harmony they seek is disrupted by extreme weather events that “reshape their lives and their work.”
As a release notes, Costanzo says he was creatively inspired by the “incredible arias from rarely performed Vivaldi operas and thinking about how to weave the narrative and emotions they depict into a new story.” He and Ruhl hit upon the idea of Vivaldi’s ‘The Seasons’ as connective tissue for the piece.
“Those concerti create a sort of synesthesia,” Costanzo says, “in which Vivaldi was thinking about what it sounds like to feel cold or hot – to see a bird or feel a breeze.”
As for the science side of the show, weather effects are created by using a sustainable alternative to traditional wood and steel construction, aka water and soap mixtures. Throughout the show, the materials take on various forms to evoke rain, smoke and even snowy mountains. Forman has developed specialized soap formulas and built new machinery to animate and manipulate his unique substances for these specific performances.
“If you take Vivaldi too squarely or classically, it’s going to feel wrong,” Winkour adds. “Collaborations like this one brings you to places you wouldn’t get to alone.”
Philadelphians can catch ‘The Seasons’ at the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (300 S Broad St.) on Dec. 19, 20 and 21. More information can be found online at operaphila.org/whats-on/2526-season/the-seasons