Jeanne d’Arc: An Opera in Three Acts
“Steve Jobe’s Opera: I ask you, where else on the planet would an Early Music-Folk-Wizard like this land, and get all his musical friends to join a battalion for Jeanne d’Arc at Bell St. Chapel for three nights of dark and wonderful genius?”
-- Laura Travis, from her folk music column, The Nice Paper, Dec 30, 1993
Jobe wrote the libretto of Jeanne d’Arc beginning in late 1990, using verse forms based on medieval French poetic structures (rondeau, ballade, etc). He began the music a year later and spent the following eighteen months working on the score, finishing in time for the opera’s first production in May 1993 at the Bell St. Chapel in Providence, RI.
That production, as Laura Travis pointed out, was made possible by the strong participation of the Providence community of artists, providing a unique ensemble of performers both onstage and in the orchestra. And most of the same friends came around to stage the piece again in May 1997 as part of AS220’s (downtown Providence’s community arts center) annual Fool’s Ball fundraising event. Soprano Ellen Santaniello sang the part of Jeanne d’Arc in both productions.
There were two instruments designed especially for the Jeanne d’Arc opera. One was the Drone Hurdy-Gurdy (see Music for Three Hurdy-Gurdies). The other was the set of Glass Bells (see photo). Based loosely on composer Harry Partch’s Cloud Chamber Bowls, at Jobe’s behest the Glass Bells were designed and constructed by Ed McIlvane and Paige Van Antwerp, and Ms.Van Antwerp went on to play the Glass Bells in performance. Their sound served as a tone color symbol of Jeanne’s visions, and can be heard at the beginning of Visions III and Visions IV.
Jobe is actively seeking production opportunities for Jeanne d’Arc.
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Visions I (2:36)In Memoriam
Frederic Evans (1960-94) sang the part of the Dauphin in 1993.
John Fleagle (d. 1999) sang the same role in 1997.
