Carla Kihlstedt's Necessary Monsters

Every culture that has ever existed has created elaborate menageries of imaginary creatures, all with one important role: to tell us about ourselves. Based on Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, a collection of his favorite imagined creatures from around the world and throughout history, Necessary Monsters is a set of nine songs composed and directed by violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt in collaboration with librettist Rafael Osés and co-director Rinde Eckert.

In this new song-cycle, the audience follows the delirious journey of a writer cajoled by creatures of her own imagining as she tries in vain to corral and contain them in an orderly field guide. Necessary Monsters is a celebration of creativity and of the act of self-reflection. All of the beings in the Borges book are the result of people having had the courage to look into their own minds and articulate what they saw, whether it's dark and disturbing, or humorous and beguiling. The act of manifesting these beings is ultimately an act of compassion. These beings inhabit all of us, and allow us to recognize ourselves in each other.

Necessary Monsters had its world premiere at Alverno College.