text: I’ve been commissioned by 7 Stages theater in Atlanta to compose a score for a world premiere, interdisciplinary Opera adapted from Euripides’ The Bacchae. Titled, The Followers the opera will premiere in early February, 2018. The performances will be at 7 Stages
  The Followers takes place in a spiraling circular amphitheater, built for sudden transformations of height, surprising infiltration of audience space by performers, and a combination of puppetry and masks created by director Michael Haverty, modern dance and circus arts choreographed by Ofir Nahari, and an original score mixing pan-arab tone-systems and rhythmic-temporal structures with sacred greek harmonies and modes, performed live by a small musical ensemble under Klimchak’s direction, and a cast of nine performers. This hypnotic, ancient style of music will heighten the endless cycle of our story’s themes, as well as the ecstatic spectacle of Dionysus’ miracles.