MasterVoices Presents
Adam Guettel’s
MYTHS AND HYMNS
2021 Drama League Nominee for Best Digital Concert Production
2022 NY Emmy Awards Nominee for Entertainment – Long Form (longer than 10 minutes).
Originally Released in Four Digital Chapters on YouTube
Now available to view as a singular streamable production on All Arts
featuring The MasterVoices Chorus with
Performers Diane Drayse Alonso, Anderson & Roe, Shoshana Bean, Nina Bernstein, John Brancy, Daniel Breaker, Julia Bullock, Dove Cameron, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Emma Lou DeLaney, Renée Fleming, Drew Gehling, Annie Golden, Gospel Soul Children of New York, Joshua Henry, Jennifer Holliday, Cheyenne Jackson, Capathia Jenkins, Mykal Kilgore, Norm Lewis, John Lithgow, Jose Llana, Milan Magaña, Theresa McCarthy, Michael McElory, Miles Mykkanen, Kelli O’Hara, Larry Owens, Ailyn Pérez, Shereen Pimentel, Nicholas Phan, Justine Rafael, Elizabeth Stanley, Katja Stoer, Take 6, Lori Wilner
Directors Greg Anderson, Sammi Cannold, Victoria Clark, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Trip Cullman, Lear deBessonet, Khristian Dentley, Doug Fitch, Anne Kauffman, Andrew Palermo, Ted Sperling
Visual Artists Artolution, Yazmany Arboleda, Cloud Chatanda, Manik Choksi, Erik Freer, Max Frieder, Yoav Gal, Steven Kellogg, Agnes Loukine, Lucy Mackinnon, Danny Mefford, Tommy Nguyen, Adrienne Rogers, Earl Womack, Ray Charles White, Aoshuang Zhang
Composed by Tony Award–winner Adam Guettel (Light in the Piazza, Floyd Collins), Myths and Hymns is a kaleidoscopic, multi-genre song cycle about faith and longing in a secular world. First performed in 1998 at The Public Theater as Saturn Returns, Artistic Director Ted Sperling designed an entirely new production for today’s digital world. Each of the cycle’s 24 songs acts as a short film, packed with musical and visual delights ranging from opera to gospel, illustration to animé. “It’s as if Myths and Hymns was always waiting for this kind of treatment,” raved Opera News.
Guettel’s masterpiece was inspired by two different sources: ancient Greek myths, and texts derived from an antique Protestant hymnal he found in a shop upstate. Written at a time of difficulty in his own life, each song in the cycle questions a different facet of how and why we choose to live. Over time the piece has gained a cult following, and Nonesuch Records released a recording of selections in 1999. The MasterVoices production features several tracks not available on the album – some never before heard in public. Says Guettel, “I couldn’t be more honored or thrilled by this production. It’s the perfect piece to adapt in this way, and Ted Sperling is the perfect person to bring it all together. He has done an amazing job.”
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR MYTHS AND HYMNS
“An artistic statement that’s likely to have lasting value.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
“Brilliantly produced—in every aspect of music, cast and graphics.” – NY Stage Review
“This is powerful, moving, artistic, thoughtful multi-media… beautiful, heartwarming, vital. ” – Front Row Center
“A wonderfully eclectic presentation by New York’s beloved MasterVoices ensemble. The musical values are superb… Taken together, it’s a transfixing and emotionally cathartic experience.” – Parterre
“Scoring high marks on the creativity scale, it’s compelling and artistically outstanding. Guettel’s music is dizzyingly complex, but that’s no obstacle for the highly skilled singers assembled here.” – Forbes on Film
“I’m going to cut to the chase here. I highly, highly, highly recommend MasterVoices’ streaming production of Myths and Hymns.” – Show Showdown
“It’s anything but a grid of people singing…[the first episode] has chorus members dancing in their backyards, Kilgore with original animation swirling around his body, and even Guettel himself playing guitar, backed by elaborate illustrations telling the story of Pegasus and Bellerophon.” – Playbill