The Countess holds me

Is She Mad, or Does She Joke is an ensemble performance piece I scripted based on my almost twenty-year fascination with the Countess de Castiglione and her photograph Scherzo di Follia. In this artist statement, I briefly discuss some of the questions, considerations, and intentions that went into the scripting and rehearsal process for the show.KEYWORDS: Countess de CastiglioneScherzo di Folliaphotographysocial gestperformance Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 My translation of the phrase "e scherzo od e follia" is an adaptation of Edmund Tracey's translation of a scene and a line in Giuseppe Verdi's opera A Masked Ball: Un Ballo in Machera. In Act I, Scene Ten of the opera, the Governor of Boston, Riccardo, and his attendants visit the sorceress Ulrica. To test her clairvoyant abilities, Riccardo disguises himself as a fisherman. As she examines Riccardo's palm, Ulrica exposes his trickery and foretells his "immanent death" at the hands of the man who shakes his hand next (Tracey 20). In response, Riccardo says, "e scherzo od e follia" or, as translated by Tracey, "she may be mad or does she joke" (51). For more of this story, see Is She Mad, or Does She Joke.2 See Rosenblum 59–60; Apraxine and Demange 27, and most pop culture articles that come up when you google "Countess de Castiglione."3 For a quick summary of this formula, see Pitches 52. For a discussion and application of stylization, see O'Meara "Still Moving: Searching for Grace

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• The Legs of the Countess

  Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Abigail Solomon‐godeau•October•1986

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