A haunting hymn to love, sacrifice and the inescapable grip of fate, Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown arrived at Hancher Auditorium with all the mythic grandness one would expect from a Tony Award-winning musical — though the production occasionally wrestled with the very myth it sought to reimagine. From the moment the orchestra’s brooding, blues-infused tones seeped into the […]
Hadestown
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Anaïs Mitchell and Bonny Light Horseman kick off tour in Iowa City
After performing in the Iowa Arts Festival in 2017, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell is back in Iowa City, kicking off her tour with Bonny Light Horseman at the Englert Theatre. Her recently released self-titled album, the first after a decade of work on the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown, is a quiet, intimate return to a familiar […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Features
A-list: Anaïs Mitchell brings a deep history to the Iowa Arts Festival
Among the exciting national acts brought in for the Iowa Arts Festival this year is Vermont-born, Brooklyn, New York-based songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. Deeply rooted in American folk traditions, Mitchell manages a sound that is contemporary without being retro or revival — an extension of the sound, rather than a tribute to it. She is tomorrow’s folk singer.
Mitchell’s 2010 recording of her folk opera Hadestown featured an array of key voices in the genre, from Ani DiFranco to Iowa’s own Greg Brown. Mitchell continues to work on its transformation into a full stage musical; the 2016 off-Broadway production has been nominated for several awards, including the April Drama Desk Awards announcement of its nomination in the Outstanding Musical category. Her most recent record, 2014’s xoa, was the third released on her own label, Wilderland Records. Mitchell took some time just before hitting the road to answer some questions over email for Little Village.
