If you pair Shakespearean poetry and Italian Renaissance painting with 21st century video games and an international art fair, you get “Biennale: A Comic Opera,” a new multimedia production co-sponsored by the Penn Humanities Forum.

WHO:             Wendy Steiner

                      Professor of English Emerita

                      University of Pennsylvania

WHAT:           “Biennale: A Comic Opera”                          

WHEN:          Friday, October 4, 6 p.m.

                     Friday, October 11, 7 p.m.

                     Saturday, October 12, 2 p.m.

WHERE:        The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia 

Wendy Steiner, professor of English emerita at Penn, wrote the opera with composer Paul Richards and is producing it at The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

“Biennale” is both the name of the opera and the setting: the Venice Biennale, one of the world's most famous art fairs. The opera follows Kate, beauty secrets editor of a woman’s magazine. She comes to Venice to get over a failed love. As Kate enters an interactive art exhibition at the Venice Biennale, she’s dazzled by the multimedia installation and the attentions of its creator. Kate can’t tell whether what passes between them is real or merely part of the artistic experience.

The two-hour performance (with a 15 minute intermission) will play at The Barnes Foundation October 4, 11 and 12. Ticket information is available at 215-278-7200.