The current BCC production of Song of Cassandra as a collaboration of the faculty of New York University and Bergen Community College has a rich history. Cassandra for the NYU Composer's Ensemble came into existence through an internet experiment in December, 1996 when three groups, a group of actors at New York University (led by Alistair Martin-Smith), a group of musicians in a loft in Manhattan (led by Dinu Ghezzo and John Gilbert), and a group of dancers and digital artists at Simon Fraser University (led by choreographer Lisa Naugle) provided improvisations for each other using the World Wide Web and e-mail to collaborate and respond to the work of each other. Because of the narrow bandwidth and upload times, the segments were necessarily very brief ranging from ten seconds to sometimes as long as a minute.

Musicians, viewing the work of the dancers and actors, improvised musical fragments in response which eventually resulted in a privately released CD which then was utilized in further productions of Cassandra, In tonight's performance, Dinu Ghezzo's Eyes of Cassandra, incorporates images and music from that first collaboration within a tightly structured framework that guides the improvisation of the musicians. All the work of the collaborating artists was guided by the theme of Cassandra, the doomed prophetess of Troy. Each group began to collect information and to create ideas on the basis of their research to create an emerging idea of Cassandra as a modern woman, a woman empowered by a special vision and by the courage to face a society which would not accept her.

Cassandra then became the focus of subsequent cyberspace performances and collaborations, culminating in multimedia performances in Germany and Poland, earlier this month. The performance at Bergen Community College represents a still further collaboration and evolution of the work. Still enhancing the rehearsing and preparation of the production, the World Wide Web has been used to develop the idea of Cassandra and serves as a "workspace" for exchanging ideas: (http://www.nyu.edu/classes/gilbert/cassandra)

Faculty from New York University and Bergen Community College have collaborated on combining ideas, resources, and talents to create an unique artform, a multimedia work that explores the theme of Cassandra through drama, music, dance, video and computer art. The emerging production incorporates improvisation along with highly structured elements to explore the dilemma of Cassandra and her ongoing presence in a contemporary world.

From the moment of the first collaboration in 1996, the concept of a collaborative work based on Cassandra seemed to take on a life of its own. As much as the group tried to move to new themes, the issues raised by Cassandra continued to haunt the artists and still new ideas emerged that somehow needed to find their way to artistic expression. No two productions of Cassandra are ever alike. Even though there are basic elements that provide continuity, the theme became almost an obsession. It was difficult to understand the power of the theme that haunted the group as they continued to explore and perform Cassandra.

In the summer of 1999, when the project with BCC was first proposed, Dinu Ghezzo, the director of the NYU Composer's Forum, commissioned John Gilbert to write a poem that might provide fresh inspiration and structure for the forth-coming production. Gilbert finished Song of Cassandra in June, 1999. After the first draft of the poem and discussions with Ron Mazurek (composer and performer from BCC) and Dinu Ghezzo, Gilbert revised the poem into the final version. The poem is written from the point of view of the men in Cassandra's life without identifying who exactly these male figures are. At the time, Gilbert had envisioned Apollo and perhaps two lovers as the various voices asking Cassandra to remember their times together...their love and the betrayal.

After the poem was completed and distributed to the collaborating artists, while browsing in a used book store, Gilbert ran across a novel with four essays entitled Cassandra written by the East German writer, Christa Wolf. The discovery of this book had an electrifying effect on further inspiring the BCC production. For Gilbert, Wolf's book served to explain the obsession that idea of Cassandra had exerted upon their past work, for Wolf experienced the same obsession that led to her creating a masterpiece. Her accompanying lecture shows how research and creativity combine and enhance the creative process. Her innovative scholarly style led to the revisiting and redefining the events and people surrounding the Trojan War, resulting in a seamless stream of consciousness style voicing the thoughts of Cassandra just before she is executed by Clytemnestra.

Gilbert understood from a reading of the text that the voices from his poem had distinct identities. Apollo is a principle figure because of his pact with Cassandra and her betrayal (a woman who defies a god!), and the other lovers were Panthous, the Greek priest who headed the temple at Troy and took Cassandra's virginity, and Aneas, who was always Cassandra's one true love.

Further, Wolf in her first essay managed to articulate the source and power of the obsession that overtook her and was shared unknowingly by the collaborating artists of the multimedia/cyberspace productions:

And still later in her final essay, Wolf underscores the power of Cassandra on contemporary thinking:

Students from BCC combine with a graduate student from NYU (the wandering musician---who might be Apollo, Panthous or Aneas) to blend forces in providing distinct and creative contributions. Including signing for deaf audience members adds to the Cassandra concept, providing a totally new vocabulary of gestures and levels of meaning. As the Program for this production indicates, there are many other contributions to this collaboration that cannot be pointed out here, but it is clear that all participants have added to the mounting of this unique production.

BCC director Ken Bonnaffons has played an extremely important role in the collaboration. His selection of text from Song of Cassandra and his close reading of Christa Wolf's Cassandra has led to decisions that make this multimedia production unique in structure and content. The incorporation of BCC students also creates yet another dimension for the production, bringing a new generation in contact with Cassandra and her relevance for women and their empowerment for the twenty-first century.

ENDNOTES

2 Ibid. p. 144.

3 Ibid. p.277.