October 19, 2004

UCSD Writers, Musicians Collaborate In Staging Hell

The opera production comes to Tijuana Oct. 31

By Inga Kiderra

The new one-act opera, Hell, with libretto by University of California, San Diego professor of literature Eileen Myles and music by Los Angeles composer Michael Webster, will be performed at the Centro Cultural (CECUT) in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday, Oct. 31, at 6 pm.

Loosely based on Dante’s Inferno, Hell is an opera about public speech, corporate silence, global politics, and poetry. This production of Hell will be realized by eight singers and a 10-piece orchestra. Many of the cast and crew are UCSD faculty, students, or graduates. Myles, a New York poet, novelist, and performer, joined the Department of Literature faculty in 2003. Juliana Snapper, who sings the leading role, is currently a PhD candidate in the UCSD Department of Music. Director Laurie Weeks, the author of a number of plays, has lectured in writing at UCSD. Morelia Portillo, the project translator, is a graduate student in UCSD's Department of Literature.

Hell was first performed, as a workshop production, earlier this year in New York City and Provincetown, Mass. It has recently been staged in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

CECUT is located on Paseo de los Heroes in Zona Rio, Tijuana. Tickets and more information may be obtained by phoning 664 687 9600.

For information on the theater, see http://www.cecut.gob.mx/. To learn more about Eileen Myles.

Media contact: Inga Kiderra, (858) 822-0661