I’ve been working with Minas pretty intensely on the Symphony in Bossa project for over a year now, so it was interesting to take a creative detour with them this past summer. Patricia King of Minas has written a new work: La Giara, an operetta that’s based on her family history. It has all of the juicy elements that make for great drama – unbalanced personalities mixed with narcissism, oppression, racial identity, love, family, and longing for the past. Take those themes and set them to some catchy tunes that mix Italian folk music, bossa nova, choro, classical music, and jazz, and it makes for a diverse and entertaining production.
I helped Patricia with the visual elements of the show. We collaborated on the video design that was projected behind the performers to enhance and heighten the story being told. It was great fun to make and I think it was pretty effective. I also recorded the audio for the entire show and we did a multi-camera shoot of the performance, which I’ve edited together for a short promo piece below. Many thanks to Les Rivera for filming and doing the big edit between all cameras.