After Cassandre

Ultimately the voice of the actress and the sound of the music stopped. Darkness fell upon the stage, and there was a long, intense quiet. When the lights came back up and David Robertson and Barbara Sukowa returned for their bows, the applause rose and grew and grew. Soon the audience was on its feet. It was as if we had awakened from a dream of the abyss, and as unnerving, as stunning as that vision was, we had come out of it with an unexpected awareness of beauty -- its many dimensions, colors and extremes.