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The Crucible Celebrates its Fifth Anniversary
in Style with a Fire Opera

The roar of the furnace, the hush of the crowd: hundreds of faces turn towards the flickering candle held by Katherine Rohrer as she prepares to fill The Crucible's cavernous interior with her powerful, heart-wrenching voice. So began Dido and Aeneas, The Crucible's Fire Opera.

Katherine Rohrer is one of the four opera soloists who left the luxury of the San Francisco Opera House to brave the bridge cranes, scissor lifts, molten metal, fire dancers, fork lifts and other sharp objects featured in the production's revolutionary staging. The Crucible employed its unique resources to turn this baroque masterpiece, originally written by Henry Purcell in 1689 for a convent girl's school, into a passionate, fiery spectacle that riveted even the youngest, hippest audience members to their seats.

The story follows Dido, Queen of Carthage, who forsakes her royal obligations out of love for the Trojan hero Aeneas. When he abandons her after one night of ardor she cannot bear the heartbreak and impales herself on his spear. Purcell rendered the drama in delicate arias and choral laments, exquisitely performed by the four soloists and well-known early music ensemble the American Bach Soloists conducted Jeffrey Thomas.

The Crucible added texture to the tragedy, weaving elements of the school's daily activities into the fabric of the tale. Glassworkers and welders depicted the industry of Carthage, while fireplay and the flying sparks of a grinder represented the mad descent into passion. The stage too was a work of art—no velvet curtains here. The area usually occupied by The Crucible's metal shop became a custom-built seventy-five foot panoramic stage with an orchestra pit in the middle, flanked by installations from Bay Area sculptors Michael Christian and Kiki Pettit. Set before a row of red welding screens and the boxy metallic arches of the ventilation system, the impression was one of an industrial fairytale.

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All event photos @ 2004 Edgar Lee, all rights reserved