The Magic Tree

PROGRAM

Production Team

Cast

Orchestra

Note from the Editor of the Score

Christoph Gluck’s opéra-comique L’Arbre enchanté (Vienna 1759, Versailles 1775) is an extreme example of a theatrical remake – a piece not just existing in multiple versions, but also derived from a long line of previous tellings of its story. Though some modern spectators complain about the dearth of truly original theatrical works (and films), the high quality of many reworkings – the majority of Shakespeare’s plays, for instance – justifies the practice, by which timeless plots are made accessible and relevant to new audiences.

As the worldly and well-read Gluck likely knew, the libretto of L’Arbre enchanté had a distinguished literary pedigree when he undertook to set it. This story of young lovers taking advantage of a lecherous older man’s gullibility was already old when Giovanni Boccaccio used it in the mid-fourteenth-century in The Decameron, a collection of tales by which (according to Boccaccio’s fictive premise) Florentines fleeing the Black Death entertained themselves in the safety of the countryside. Jean de La Fontaine later adapted the story as one of his Tales and Stories in Verse. Whether in Tuscan prose or in witty Gallic verses, this plot has been effective in all its various guises –with additional characters or reduced to its bare essence. The first operatic version, to a text by Jean-Joseph Vadé, for a Parisian fairground theater in 1752, was all in vaudevilles – popular songs, set with new words so as to carry the dialogue. This version was given in Vienna’s early in 1759, but was soon replaced by another version, in which Gluck, the court theater’s musical director, had replaced many of the vaudevilles with his own newly composed music. More than 15 years later, Gluck revised the opera again, with spoken verses by Pierre-Louis Moline replacing the vaudevilles, for a one-off performance at the French court, where Austrian Archduke Maximilian Franz was visiting his sister, Queen Marie Antoinette.

The music for this opera contains ample evidence of the composer’s melodic gifts, his deft touch with characterizations both comic and sentimental, and his inventiveness in orchestration. But making the music of L’Arbre enchanté accessible to a modern audience has been a challenge. Gluck’s autograph score of the 1775 version is careless in the extreme, and his last-minute strokes of inspiration, such as his addition of orchestral echoes of the vocal melody, in one of Monsieur Thomas’s numbers, only make the notation more illegible still. A notoriously strict taskmaster as a music director, Gluck could ensure through his presence that the single performance at Versailles came off smoothly. But the Parisian editors of the original edition of the opera, faced with the chaos of his autograph score, produced orchestral parts that were all but unusable. It has taken a good deal of patience and effort to make sense of Gluck’s disorderly notation and thereby to reveal to a modern public the delights of his score.

- Bruce Alan Brown (Editor of the Full Score)

Considering Regeneration
in the Context
of the Hogfish Arts Community

When Edwin and Matt told me about their intent to build a “regenerative arts and artist training company,” my first question was, “What do you mean by ‘regenerative’?” More recently, they asked if I’d be willing to do a deep dive into the concept of regeneration, in order to help express to you, the Hogfish community, how applying these principles to the arts provides a unique opportunity to “restore a healthier dynamic balance between our planet, the stories we tell, and the way we live” (see the Hogfish Vision Statement).

I said yes, of course, and, in doing so, found myself falling into a beautiful and exciting rabbit hole of what their vision could mean for all of us.

What Is Regeneration?

Let’s start with some definitions. Speaking generally, “regeneration” is the act of giving new life to something, of restoring what has fallen out of sync with its intended purpose, and creating healthier, more sustainable, more vibrant conditions. The opposite of regeneration is stagnation, stultification—essentially, a thwarting of growth.

Several features of regenerative methods tend to be consistent across disciplines:

• It’s about working with what already exists. Regeneration is not about creating something out of nothing, but breathing new life into what is already present.

• It connotes a cooperative,“systems thinking” approach. Systems thinking focuses on both the whole and the sum of its parts equally, recognizing that every aspect of an eco-system, no matter how seemingly minor, is essential to the health of the whole. There is a hyper-awareness of how one thing influences another, either positively or negatively.

• Regenerative activities tend to be outcome oriented rather than method oriented. For example, regenerative farming differs from organic farming in that the latter denotes a process requiring certain inviolable standards and fixed steps. In contrast, regenerative practices ask, over and over again, “By what methods can we achieve our goal?” and “By which metrics can we determine if we have been successful in doing so?”

• It employs “Seven Generations” thinking. While each individual regenerative project may have its own beginning, middle, and endpoint, it is seen as setting the stage for what comes next and as part of an open and ever-evolving conversation.

Restoring Human Experience Through the Arts

How, then, does the concept of regeneration apply to the arts in general and to Matt and Edwin’s plans for Hogfish specifically? I’m struck by what they write in their Vision Statement:

“The climate is changing. Temperatures and tensions are rising in our environment, our communities, and ourselves. Industrialization and the digital world have lifted billions out of poverty, and yet, with the rise of wealth has also come the rise of inequality, toxic carbon levels, fraught public discourse, and sedentary lifestyles. … Hogfish believes that applying the principles of regenerative agriculture to the arts provides a unique opportunity to holistically restore every layer of the human experience.”

Our world is indeed undergoing dramatic changes. We humans are changing, too, right along with it. As unsettling as this may feel, it is also an opportunity. Ecological systems need renewal, sure, but so do human psyches and communal bonds. In this, the arts have always played a vital role. By reaching beyond what currently is, the arts help us explore what it means to be human and to reimagine our place within the larger systems in which we exist. The arts give us insight into the dreams and fears of others and thus can act as a laboratory for empathy and forgiveness. Participating in public arts events together gives us a shared life and a shared language with which to build healthier, more inclusive pathways forward. In this way, the arts teach us how to “be with” one another, over and over again.

Your Input Is Needed

The goal of Hogfish is to tap into these regenerative practices, processes, and philosophies in order to create opportunities to rediscover who we are as individuals, as a species, as a community and—perhaps most of all—as equal participants in the co-creation of reality. And this is where YOU come in. By being here tonight, you, as a member of the audience, are “doing theater” just as much as any of the talented performers on the stage. Which makes you an essential part of the arts ecosystem within which such regeneration may occur.

In the weeks and months to come, Hogfish governance will be reaching out to you to get input on questions such as:

• What practices or activities regenerate your sense of wholeness, your sense of community, and your sense of a healthy world?

• How do you participate in regenerative practices with others?

• What kinds of stories and arts experiences help you feel “regenerated” in the sense of being more connected to yourself, your community, and the world?

• In what ways might Hogfish play a role in that process?

If you’d like to be part of this conversation and/or receive updates on the latest happenings, please sign up on the Hogfish website: www.hogfish.org/keep-in-touch 

Many thanks to all of you for coming tonight, and for being supporters, co-creators, co-conspirators, and collaborators in the shaping of the Hogfish Regenerative Arts Community. Enjoy the show!

~Hillary S. Webb, PhD
Anthropologist/Author