One is in the form of Mara, who struggles to embrace her husband while struggling to save their failing oyster business through the Gulf oil disaster. The other arises with the power of the earth in its will to live, with power of divine love, embodied by the Black Madonna.
The Black Madonna is an archetypal figure known all over the world as a symbol of deep love and healing. She reflects in many ways the power of total acceptance and love.
The Black Madonna is known from Poland, to Switzerland, to Africa, and South America, as one who grants miracles to those who beseech her. She stands squarely in the center of this story and facilitates the journey of healing.
Contralto Gwendolyn Brown, who portrayed the Black Madonna, and shines in this stunning role, states:
I pray that when people see me on stage, and once I sing that first aria, they begin to desire the healing of Adam and Mara and keep the hope that my presence facilitates that healing. And, perhaps in that hope, some may be healed themselves.
The librettist, Ms. Tiziana DellaRovere, discusses the Black Madonna as a part of her cultural heritage mentioning that there are enormous basilicas and major pilgrim sites dedicated to this dark Madonna all over Europe. She is the Madonna of the people.
DellaRovere says:
... the statement that I made in choosing the Black Madonna (instead of the "Celestial Madonna" which is better known to Americans) is very important. In doing so I am confronting an ancient patriarchal archetype: in patriarchy, the light, the sun, the sky, are considered divine, good, and superior and the darkness, the earth, and the ground, all that which is below, are considered inferior and synonymous with bad and evil.
The Black Madonna is the embodiment of divine love that comes from the mystery of the unknown, from the depths of the earth, the night and it completely overturns this false premise that dark is bad and light is good. It makes that which is dark into that which is loving, good, and healing. We are so afraid of the dark that we project all sorts of destructiveness into all that is dark, including the skin.
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