Travel through time and take a trip to outer space along with a fanciful cast of characters in Emperor of the Moon.
The whimsical and heartfelt production — which is being presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society in four performances around the Bay Area, June 6–8 — combines pantomime, puppetry, and historical music and dance.
Loosely based on a comedy by 17th-century English poet and playwright Aphra Behn, Emperor of the Moon is the fourth collaboration between two local organizations committed to period performance: Nash Baroque and Dance Through Time.
Vicki Melin, flutist and director of Nash Baroque, explained that the show is far from a simple restaging of Behn’s original. “We are not creating the Emperor of the Moon that she wrote,” Melin said. “We just took elements from that and other satires and even early science fiction [by] Daniel Defoe.
“The story actually reflects what people thought of the moon at the time. Right up into the middle of the 1800s, people really believed that there were cities and people living on the moon — superior beings that had some insight and had been watching us and could give us advice on how to deal with our society’s problems.”
For the performers involved in this upcoming production, traversing space and time has meant going back to the music-theater traditions of 17th- and 18th-century London. Hence the show’s mix of source material: commedia dell’arte characters, some of whom will interact humorously with the audience; Baroque dances, taken directly from choreography written down in manuals of the time; and music by Henry Purcell and John Eccles, which will be played by a period ensemble.
“The instruments are copies of instruments of the time, so the sound ideal is quite different from modern sound,” Melin explained. “It’s more intimate, even though it’s on a stage. In some of the songs, you can really hear the dance rhythm, and songwriting in this period is very linked to poetry, so the cadences of the songs are really driven by the poetry’s rhythm.”
Jennifer Meller, artistic director of Dance Through Time, describes herself and Melin as “nerds” — or “rabbit-hole queens” — when it comes to the spirals of research the two will pursue to ensure that every detail of their productions is historically accurate.
“We collaborate so deeply,” Meller said. “We talk and talk and hang out and drink tea and get all excited and enthusiastic. And then we have this giant document. It’s crazy, like the ramblings of two mad women. It’s very source-heavy, very historically based, and over time, we cull it down. There’s so much creativity involved in putting it together, but we eventually get to the core that really is a true expression of ourselves.”
The musical ensemble for Emperor of the Moon will include Melin on flute, violinist Alexandra Santon, cellist Farley Pearce, theorbist/Baroque guitarist Matthew Xie, and harpsichordist Katherine Heater, along with soprano Bethany Hill. Six dancers (including Meller and a few guests from the New York Baroque Dance Company), two actors, and shadow puppets created by Melin’s daughter will round out the cast.
“We’re taking the audience with us into another time,” said Meller. “I think it’s going to touch people’s hearts because we’ve really fleshed out the story [with] sadness and ridiculousness. It’s like 18th-century historically based science-fiction slapstick — with puppets! We pack a lot into it, and it goes by quickly. And it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
