Adaptations include orchestral reductions (The Clever One by Carl Orff (17 Players), The Perfect American by Philip Glass), the creation of new stories within works (Maria de Buenos Aires), revised or new stories (Winterreise, The Fairy Queen, The Diary of Anne Frank), and new reduced stage versions (Macbeth by Ernest Bloch - 110 minute one act for 7 singers, Medea by Luigi Cherubini - 95 minute one act for 7 singers).
Artistic Director Andreas Mitisek’s contemporary and always creative staging enhances rather than distracts from this twice-removed period piece. A challenge that Mitisek rises to with aplomb is how to stage this small-scale chamber opera in the vast space of the Harris Theater. He does this partly by augmenting the spare cast with members of the Apollo Chorus, who act as Silla’s guards, and even the ghostly father of Giunia, in addition to portraying the populace of Rome. And the pantomime performed during the overture introduces the plot with economy and style.