Gethsemane Projections

The Pano Hora Ensemble operates mainly in the auditory world: imagining, performing, recording, and mixing sounds to be heard. The visual world plays a smaller role in our projects; seeing someone perform music often adds something important to the experience, but typically it is not essential.

Some musical art forms, however – ballet and opera, most obviously – devote a great deal of attention to the visual experience. In ballet, the movements of the dancers are as important as the music. In opera and ballet alike, the sets often play a vital role in making the imagined moment come to life.

We are in the process of planning our first operatic production: the one-act opera Gethsemane, a recording of which will be published by DaVinci Classics in the fall of 2025. The opera will be performed alongside Concerto Grosso Laїko at Merkin Hall on March 20 and 21, 2026. As we prepare for this, we’ve had to seriously consider the visual dimension of the experience of the opera, and specifically how to create effective visual effects within the spatial limits of the stage at Merkin Hall, where both vocalists and orchestra will share the stage.

Using projected images rather than physical sets offers several advantages.

• First, they can be changed instantaneously to add enormous variety in scale, color, and context to match the dramatic changes occurring within and between scenes.
• Second, projections are a great way to take advantage of iconographic imagery, which is helpful, given the subject matter. Combining them with other images to create movement can bring iconographic scenes to life.
• Third, given that the action in Gethsemane is inherently a bit static, in the sense that it all occurs within the confines of a garden, this capacity for variety and movement from projections is especially appealing.
• Finally, the libretto has some dense passages, particularly where multiple voices are singing different texts simultaneously. Being able to juxtapose the texts of those antiphonal parts visually on opposing screens could greatly assist listeners in following the musical and dramatic dialogue.

Understanding the potential of projections is one thing; creating them is another. Our next task was finding the right team to handle the projection challenges. I began by contacting my friend, the distinguished art historian, Fr. Maximos Constas, who was kind enough to put together a team of iconographers and filmmakers to construct film images of iconography that could be used for the projections.

Next, I had to find filmmakers with experience in creating and staging projections. I had seen some of Nicholas Motyka’s film work and was impressed by its bold imagery and originality. We met and Nicholas’s collaborator, John Syzonenko, soon joined the conversation. Together, we visited Merkin Hall to meet the staff and study the space.

Nicholas and John were able to design the screens for the projections and create a pilot video, which beautifully illustrates the scale, content, and variety of the images we will be projecting. It also shows how the projections will coexist with the orchestra and vocalists on stage, and how images and text will be displayed together. I’m hopeful that it will also serve as a powerful fundraising tool by showcasing the value of investing in the visual elements of the production. The five-minute video is divided into three parts:

• The first segment gives a sense of how iconographic imagery can be used with the three backlit projection screens to create unique effects and changes in scale. (I was struck by how much the images reminded me of stained glass.)
• The second segment shows how the screens and the performers will interact on the stage and how the different scales of people and images will coexist.
• The third segment contains the actual projections that will be used for one of the arias (Pray and Watch with Me). It provides an example of how the images and text will be combined in a particularly challenging case where three different vocal parts (Jesus, Satan, and the three disciples) are singing different things at the same time.

I hope you enjoy this sneak peek into how our production is coming together. It's exciting to create something in this new visual dimension with Nicholas and John. They are bringing great creative energy to our ensemble. I cannot wait to see what they come up with for the production.