Written By Sherwood Kohn
If you were Albert Einstein in 1905, when he was working as a patent clerk and living in Berne, Switzerland, developing his theory of relativity, what kind of dreams would you have?
That was the premise of physicist Alan Lightman’s 1993 bestseller, Einstein’s Dreams, which is a series of 30 short, haunting musings on the nature of time and space and man’s relation to those dimensions.
When composer Lorraine Whittlesey read Lightman’s poetic book, which the author calls a novel, she was immediately struck by its potential for production on the musical stage.
The results of that initial impression will bear fruit on September 17 at 7 p.m., when her multimedia musical composition, “Einstein’s Dreams,” will have its premier on the stage of Carroll Community College’s Scott’s Theater. The performance coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Nobel laureate’s world-shaking theory and opens McDaniel College’s Chamber Music on the Hill concert series.
A New York native who has lived in Baltimore since 1997, Lorraine has a long list of credits
to her name. She has had her compositions performed at Carnegie Hall, been composer in residence at the Visionary Arts Museum, worked with the Baltimore and Walters Museums of Art, Center Stage and the Smithsonian, won an ASCAP Individual Artist Award and Maryland State Arts Council awards for composition and live performance, and composed more than 65 musical works.
“I was fascinated with Lightman’s book,” she said. “I thought it lent itself to multimedia treatment and I contacted him at M.I.T., where he was teaching at the time.” Part of what drew her to the project was Einstein’s skill as a violinist.
“What attracted me,” said Lorraine: “was that Einstein was a musician. How cool is that? If he hadn’t been a physicist, he said, he would have been a musician.”
Then Lorraine talked with her friend, Margaret Boudreaux, professor and director of choral music at McDaniel College in Westminster.
“Lorraine really liked the book’s creative expression and what could be done with it,”
said Dr. Boudreaux
The friends mulled it over and decided to go ahead with what has turned out to be an ambitious theatrical undertaking; something between a musical and an opera.
Lorraine immersed herself in the book-”saturated” is her word, then put it aside and wrote both music and lyrics. That was a year ago. What emerged was a “multimedia musical experience,” based on ten of the book’s chapters. Produced and directed by Dr. Boudreaux, it operates with a 40-person choir, four vocal soloists, a narrator (Einstein, played by Westminster’s Joe Cimino), and musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) streaming throughout the piece. You can get the flavor (and a lot of other information) by logging on to www.2.mcdaniel.edu/einsteinsdreams.
“The intent,” said Whittlelsey, “is to engage people, to entertain. I want people to walk out humming the melodies.”
And who knows, you may even gain some insight into the Theory of Relativity. – S.D.K.
