The Dawn Makers

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, Composers, Inc. presents its first-ever opera production. The premiere of The Dawn Makers, a chamber opera in one act by Allen Shearer on a libretto by Claudia Stevens, will be conducted by J. Karla Lemon and directed by Brian Staufenbiel, with scenery and lighting by Matthew Antaky and costumes by Richard Battle. One performance only, 8:00 pm Wednesday February 4, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Pre-performance talk at 7:15.

The Cast

Background

The Dawn Makers is based on the Greek myth of Eos and Tithonos, in which Eos, goddess of the dawn, is impassioned with the mortal Tithonos, a young Trojan warrior. In order to keep him as her lover she asks that he be made immortal, but she omits to ask for eternal youth, so Tithonos continues to age but can not die. Finally she is so revolted by the sight of him that she turns him into a grasshopper.

The Dawn Makers takes place on Mount Olympus in modern times with Eos and Tithonos renamed Gloria and Victor and adding Bo, a mortal who must choose whether to accept Eos' offer of immortality.

Synopsis

Scene 1. Dawn. Gloria rouses Nikki and Kiki to join her in bringing on the dawn. The girls resist her at first and flirt with Bo instead. Victor appears from the dog-pen where he has been forced to sleep. He wants to watch the dawn, his only remaining pleasure. While the women are away on their ride, Bo helps the befuddled Victor remember who he is and how he got there. When they return, Victor woos Gloria anew. But he complains of his miserable existence and wishes to be released from it. Gloria is appalled at the notion.

Scene 2. Early afternoon. Nikki and Kiki flirt audaciously with Bo until Gloria drives them away. Alone, Gloria pages through fashion and movie magazines. Disdainful (though jealous) of mortal women, she boasts of her past lovers and the exquisite sunrises she creates. Bo returns, and she tries to convince him to stay on forever as her new consort. Bo chafes at being a mere substitute for Victor.

Scene 3. Night before the dawn. Victor, distraught, stumbles in the dark, calling for help. Gloria is dismayed when he fails to recognize her, and calls Bo to her aid. Bo comforts and bonds with Victor but both ignore Gloria. Feeling slighted, Gloria takes revenge by turning Victor into a grasshopper. She makes Bo a final offer of immortality. He declines. She scorns him as he prepares to leave Mount Olympus. Nikki and Kiki, ready for dawn, are brokenhearted to see that Victor is gone, and Bo as well. But they dry their tears, and the three depart on yet another dawn ride. Bo, hiking slowly down the mountain, admires the sunrise and reflects, "Now my dawns are numbered, it's more beautiful than before."

The composer discusses the genesis of The Dawn Makers:

The story of Eos and Tithonos is not one of the better-known myths. I first learned of it from an audio-recorded classical mythology course by Elizabeth Vandiver in which she describes the perpetually aging Tithonos as being reduced to "a voice without a body." I was intrigued with this idea for its theatrical possibilities. But as the project developed we dropped this device in favor of having Tithonos played by a visible singer/actor. Traditionally the goddess of the dawn is depicted in a chariot drawn by two stallions named Phaethon and Lampus, but we decided the horses should be fillies that double as teenage girls when off duty. Olympian goddesses are famous for their laziness and vanity, so a pair of "valley girls" fit right in. On the suggestion of a friend, Jules Langert, we introduced another male character as a foil to Victor (the Tithonos character). Bo, a pool man from Pasadena, was spirited away to Mount Olympus by Gloria (the Eos character) to be her next lover as well as groom for the stable.

Librettist Claudia Stevens updated and developed the speech and action of the five characters, drawing inspiration, often playfully, from daytime TV. She was also interested in giving expression to the dilemma of Tithonos, who cannot die but is trapped in a body and mind forever deteriorating. This has a parallel in the loss of dignity experienced by the elderly, whose lives are extended unnaturally, sometimes against their wishes.

With its small cast and an orchestra of only seven players, The Dawn Makers is a true chamber opera that can be produced with simple theatrical means, and that was my intent in writing it.-A.S.

Composer Allen Shearer (http://www.composersinc.org/as.html) is one of the five artistic directors of Composers, Inc., and a singer as well as a composer.

Librettist Claudia Stevens is also a musician and performance artist who creates unique interdisciplinary works for her solo performance. She has presented her works at countless colleges, universities and other institutions across the US. She holds degrees in music from Vassar College, the University of California at Berkeley and Boston University and was Adjunct Associate Professor of Piano at the College of William and Mary until 2007, where she now has been appointed Visiting Scholar. A composers' pianist in the 1980's, Ms. Stevens performed works by established and emerging composers at venues including Carnegie Recital Hall and was the featured artist on several "Performance Today" broadcasts on NPR. In her subsequent career as an interdisciplinary artist she has received grants from the International Theater Institute, the Virginia Commission for the Arts (from 1994 to 2005), a "New Forms" grant from the National Endowment for the Artes, and residencies including the MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, RS9 Szinhaz in Budapest and the Gitameit Art Center in Rangoon, Burma.