Joan Of Arc Project

4 hours ago

Looking forward to seeing this onstage this weekend! #maidoforleans

"What I would really love the audience to leave with is a reminder that you have your angels around you, they feel with you and hope for you, and when you’re sad, they’re sad. There is a spiritual world of beings and ancestors and saints that are with you, and all you’ve got to do is talk to them, ” says Bogdan Mynka.

New Orleans audiences are primed to be especially receptive to this idea as well, the veneration of saints, as well as ancestors, being a common and democratized spiritual practice in the city. The New Orleans cult of St. Joan of Arc is especially visible.

The gilded Decatur Street statue “Joanie on the Pony,” (cast by Emmanuel Frémiet in the 1800s) came through several location battles in New Orleans before emerging on her permanent perch near the French Market in 1999. Her symbolism of the city’s French heritage is always germane, but it is her symbolism of New Orleans’ indomitable spirit that most resonates with residents of “the unfathomable city.”

On her feast day, May 30th, you can find flowers and other offerings at the statue’s base. The beloved Joan of Arc parade kicks off the start of Carnival season on her birthday each year on January 6th - coinciding with Twelfth Night, the official beginning of the Carnival season.

Mynka sees profound parallels between Joan’s story of overcoming adversity in pursuit of a divine calling and the culture of New Orleans artists, who also prevail in their endeavors, “despite what society says you have to have.” He names some of the barriers artists face in New Orleans: poverty, increasingly limited availability of grants and skewed conceptions of what is deemed serious or valuable.

But like Joan, the artist must take on the establishment – however it manifests – including from within their chosen art form, whether that is the opera world’s conservatism, or the musical conventions challenged by the earliest jazz musicians. All these forces must be overcome to create something new and beautiful – if you are willing to fight for it.

“Joan’s resilience really applies to that understanding of your divine purpose. I don’t care how bad the siege, how deep the mire, how strong their forces, this is my calling.”

Or, in Joan’s own words, “I am not afraid, I was born to do this.” ... See MoreSee Less

Joan of Arc Lives: A New Production of an Opera Classic

www.frenchquarterjournal.com

A radical production of Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans premieres from Verismo Opera at The Marigny Opera House. – by Caroline Rowe