Rhode Island-based composer Steven Jobe is creating a new opera, "The Legend of the Fairy Melusine." A supernatural story filled with romance and mystery, "Melusine" is an ideal vehicle for Jobe's music. To enhance the narrative of the story, Jobe is working in collaboration with director/dramaturge Vanessa Gilbert, who is merging a video component with Jobe's music.

Jobe and Gilbert collaborated on a work in progress program, Selections from "The Legend of the Fairy Melusine," performed May 2011 at Blackstone River Theatre. In the video clips on this page, Soprano Julia Steinbok sings the role of Melusine with tenor Fredric Scheff sings the role of the male lead, Raimondin. Soprano Kara Lund introduces the proceedings, singing the aria "As If It Were All Quite True."

Many of Jobe's longtime musical collaborators are part of the ensemble – Laura Gulley on violin, Rob Bethel on cello, Hyunjung Choi on orchestral harp, Dawn Chung on keyboard, and Chris Turner on harmonica and bagpipes. For the one-of-a-kind Bosch Hurdy Gurdy, Jobe, playing the Chanter keyboard will be joined by Chris Monti on Chanter and Bass wheels, and Chris Sadlers on Trompette wheel. Other ensemble musicians will include Doug Tella on vibraphone, Catherine Hawkes on tromba marina and recorder, Flannery Brown on cello.

For a story such as this that involves elements of magic, it is easy enough to introduce a fairy character such as Melusine, but for the audience to suspend its disbelief and invest in the character is a very different challenge. Looking to create the wonder that fairy folk instill, director Vanessa Gilbert is creating a video component that operates alternately as interior monologue and scenery. Combined with the orchestral score, singing, and story elements, the video component is designed to add to the sensation of the impossible. An example of Vanessa's experiments in this direction can be seen in "Architectural Aria."

The last selection on the program is entitled, "Caccia,” a large chase scene where the hero pursues a wild boar. For this piece, Jobe will employ all of the instruments at his disposal, including different types of wheel-fiddle: a 7-foot-long Drone Machine and the 10-foot-long Bosch Hurdy-Gurdy, designed by Jobe and so named because it is based on an image from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights. With a full range of sounds in the bass and contrabass range, the instrument has been integral to Jobe's work since its completion in 2006. The droning effects of these instruments are a central part of the sound world he is creating for "The Legend of the Fairy Melusine."

In addition to the large-scale instruments, Jobe utilizes a dozen small-scale wheel-fiddles called Shriekers. To design and make the Shriekers, Steve collaborated with RI-based musician, Bob Aspirinio. The Shriekers concept is based on a design made from olive oil cans Jobe saw used by the Bread and Puppet Theatre in the late 1980s. The denouement of the program – the end of the "Caccia" piece – is the entrance of the Shriekers -- a moment both musically and visually breathtaking.