Sheep farmers looking to diversify might consider the off-farm career of a Pennsylvania flock, 100 strong, who landed a gig in the New York production of Louis Adriessen’s “De Materie,” a Dutch avant garde work written in 1988.
New York Times writer Michael Cooper, describes the work as “an audaciously imaginative production…. A philosophical opera in four scenes; an anti-symphonic ultra-symphony; a theatrical spectacle; a piece blithely combining text, dance and singing; or all of the above.” The sheep though are totally unscripted, just encouraged to adlib, do what sheep do.
Anthony Tommasini, the chief classical music critic for The New York Times was in raptures after seeing the production. He wrote: “On Tuesday the sheep, almost as if directed to do so, moved slowly, huddling and hovering in a circle, like particles spinning within an atom. And their occasional bleating lent a lovely natural touch to the score.”
The woolly divas come onstage in Part 4, Cooper explains, which means they are not obliged to turn up at the theatre till part way through the production. And once there, they are treated royally. Their owner, Cassie Schweighofer, a sheep farmer from Tyler Hill, Pa said she thought their biggest adjustment when their operatic career is over will be resuming their old hay diet after their backstage grain buffet.
She thinks they’re going to “put up their noses at us for the first day, but… after a few days, they’ll fall back into the regular old farm routine. That’s the beauty about sheep.”
- Shirley Byers