Chopin in Paris: Epigraph for a Condemned Book (2002)

Workshop performance: January 13, 2002
Yale Repertory Theater

Houston premiere: April 12, 2002
Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center

A DACAMERA production, co-commissioned with Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven; University Musical Society, Ann Arbor; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Champaign-Urbana

Revived in collaboration with University of Houston’s Cynthia B. Mitchell Center for the Collaborative Arts/Blaffer Gallery’s Damaged Romanticism exhibition: October 18, 2008

Conceived, directed and performed by Sarah Rothenberg, pianist
Texts: Charles Baudelaire
Music: Frederic Chopin
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton
Video: Christopher Kondek

“the beautiful is always bizarre…” — Charles Baudelaire

A unique tapestry of sight and sound, Sarah Rothenberg’s Epigraph for a Condemned Book reveals the daring genius of Chopin’s piano works. In this original performance collage, fragments of Delacroix’s intense paintings, early photography and the provocative writings of Baudelaire interweave with Chopin’s music to magically evoke 19th-century Paris and its romantic spirit.

Venues: Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut; University Musical Society, Ann Arbor; Krannert Center Champaign-Urbana; Wortham Theater Center, Houston, TX; Hancher Auditorium, Iowa; La Jolla Music Society, San Diego; Omaha Festival; Kravis Center, West Palm Beach, Florida; Gilmore International Piano Festival/Fontana Chamber Arts, Kalamazoo,