In the autumn of 2010 two musicians, a mezzo soprano and a pianist, contacted me with a request. They wanted to create a story which would connect two different song cycles, both from the early 20th Century: Samuel Barber’s “Hermit Songs” and Xavier Montsalvatge’s “Cinco Canciones Negras”. That very winter we showed a pilote to Turnéorganisasjon for Hedmark (The Organizing Committee for art tours in schools in Hedmark County), and by the end of it, a production was certain. As I’m writing this, our production is reaching its final stages, with Hogne Moe at the directing helm. Heavily inspired by my Genie (Check out the link for a deeper explanation – Recommended!) I created a story with two main characters: Aidan, a young and handsome monk in the monastery of Kildare, Ireland in the year 900, and Eleda, a mulatto girl in Havana, Cuba, in the year 1900. A goddess in three separate shapes is the connecting point between them. The Irish fire goddess Brigid, the Irish saint St. Brigit, and the Cuban Orisha Oyá.