Mark Morris Dance Group
L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
THE CREATIVE TIMELINE
1631 - John Milton publishes "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso", paired poems which depict opposing but complementary states of mind – L’Allegro is the active or cheerful mind, Il Penseroso is the melancholic or contemplative mind.
1740 - George Frideric Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens adapt these poems to create a dialogue between them and add a third part, "Il Moderato," representing the voice of moderation and reason.
1816 - William Blake creates 12 watercolors to illustrate Milton's poems. Each design is accompanied by a separate inscribed sheet on which Blake wrote, in his own hand, a brief title and quotations of the lines illustrated, to which Blake added his own comments on the motifs pictured.
1988 - Mark Morris, inspired by and drawing upon each of his predecessors, creates L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato for his company of 24 dancers, the Monnaie orchestra and chorus and five vocal soloists – the most ambitious piece at that point in his career.
UPCOMING AND PAST PERFORMANCES
LISTEN to BBC interview from Wed Apr 14, 2011 (segment begins at :32min)
Costume Design
Morris' production calls for free-flowing costumes with complementing palettes. The Monnaie's wardrobe supervisor, Christine Van Loon, created sketches and costumes accordingly.
Originally, Morris wanted the palette to change through the course of the evening. "The idea was that one person at a time would change costumes from the dark version to the pale version so that you wouldn't notice until by the very end of the change that everyone had changed," Morris explains. "It would have happened gradually. It's a fabulous idea that didn't work. So, we made it act by act: Melancholy costumes in Act the First, and Mirth costumes in the second."
Morris continues, "In this case, I thought because of the way I was using men and women in this piece, and because of the English tradition, I wanted little green wooden batons for the men to use and pink silk handkerchiefs for the women -- both are props in Morris dancing, and also they can be flowers or structures or whatever. I thought it was a great idea. But I never even tried it. I always get rid of those things. That led me to why there are no set pieces, and why in some of the movements I use the dances like Baroque scenery. I could have, of course, with my budget, had actual shrubbery -- but that's not as interesting for me as a choreographer."