About

From what began as a unique collaboration between cellist Maya Beiser (hailed “the cello goddess” by The New Yorker) and theater director Robert Woodruff (called “the country’s most adventurous director” by Time Out New York) comes Elsewhere, a new CelloOpera by Maya Beiser with vocalist Helga Davis. A triptych of daring compositions by Eve Beglarian, Michael Gordon and Missy Mazzoli, Elsewhere is an imaginative and psychological retelling of the biblical story of Lot’s wife.

A sweeping assemblage of video designed by Peter Nigrini, choreography by Brook Notary, environments designed by Riccardo Hernandez, and amplified, distorted and acoustic cello in tandem with spoken and sung texts by Erin Cressida Wilson and Henri Michaux, Elsewhere is an urgent dialogue between two female diviners communicating from opposite poles in time, ancient and modern, catastrophic and calm, both at the brink of apocalypse and non-existence.

Support

Commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts and Beth Morrison Projects. Originally premiered in a Beth Morrison projects production at Carolina Performing Arts and Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival 2012.

Press

“This hourlong mélange of contemporary classical music, spoken text and eye-teasing visuals provides a smashing vehicle for Beiser’s bold virtuosity”

The New York Post

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

New York Magazine

"Elsewhere, a collaboration with theater director Robert Woodruff and Beiser’s most ambitious project to date, fuses dance, song, theater and film in a dynamic amalgamation that unapologetically pushes boundaries— much like the performer herself.”