Freshly adapted with magician Nate Dendy, the Devil plays all the tricks in this homage to the original traveling trunk show of 1918.
Part vaudeville magic act, part clown show, and part morality tale, this classic Faustian take has been newly translated for its 100th anniversary by director Bill Barclay. Written in the bleak years of the First World War and the influenza outbreak, it is a powerful anti-war, anti-greed message that resonates urgently today.
“The playing was expert, and the Ozawa Hall staging was the kind of thing – perhaps magnified here – that Stravinsky intended when he wrote the 1918 chamber opera on the Faustian theme.”
-The Berkshire Eagle
As usual with Concert Theatre Works, this free adaptation sources its language in the creators’ true intentions, with European clowning, acerbic wit, high theatrical value, and deep interplay with the musicians. A remount is being conceived in 2023 with a costumed band of memorized players – the most ambitious and full realised version of Stravinsky’s classic in its history.
