Paul Bargetto directed Necessary Monsters, a project with Carla Kihlstedt and Raphael Oses on February 29th and March 1st 2009 at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. Necessary Monsters is a staged song cycle based on the Book of Imaginary Beings, by Jorge Luis Borges composed by Carla Kihlstedt with a libretto written by Rafael Oses. The piece was performed by Carla Kihlstedt, Freddi Price, Matthias Bossi, Chris Fisher-Lochhead, Michael Mellender, Nina Rolle & Theresa Wong. Sets were designed by Mimi Lien, costumes by Amanda Bujak, and lights by Allen Wilner. The sound engineer was Mark Orton, the production manager was Jenny Raymond and the production assistant was Minna Choi. All photographs were taken by Piotr Redlinski.
Necessary Monsters was co-commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in partnership with Alverno Presents and the National Performance Network Creation Fund. The NPN Creation Fund is sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Altria, and the National Endowment for the Arts (A federal agency). For more information visit http://www.npnweb.org. In addition Necessary Monsters was made possible by the many generous gifts of our patrons and friends.
Paul Bargetto 