In 1760, the renowned librettist Pietro Metastasio and composer Johann Adolf Hasse put pleasure
on trial; in spring of 2009, we plan to reopen the case. The Columbia Collegium Musicum and a new
opera company on campus, OperaRepo, have joined forces to stage the modern premiere of Hasse's
and Metastasio's allegorical opera Alcide al bivio.  OperaRepo was founded in July 2008 as a way to
bring students, faculty, and professionals together to return opera to the Columbia campus after a
forty-year hiatus.  An aesthetic battle between Virtue and Pleasure, combining over-the-top musical
extravagance with severe morality, Alcide al bivio will be our flagship production.  The theater of the
Italian Academy is an ideal venue for our production of a work by the most important Italian librettist
in history and a German composer (lovingly nicknamed il caro sassone) considered in his time to be
the master of the Italian operatic style. The neo-classical design of the theater will literally encompass
the audience in the classicizing message of the opera.  Metastasian opera is a pillar of Italian culture
too often neglected on the stage; through innovative staging, design and performance by professionals
and members of the Columbia community, we hope to make this work relevant and exciting to
modern audiences.