10 Nov Blog post: All about The Aesop Project!

See you at The Aesop Project! 

Les Délices will perform two FREE community performances of The Aesop Project on Saturday, November 22nd at 11:30 am in Cleveland and 3:30 pm in Akron.

With puppets designed by Ian Petroni, an animal-inspired score of Baroque music assembled by Les Délices director Debra Nagy, and a narrative by Ohio poet laureate Dave Lucas, The Aesop Project will delight, inspire, and offer food for thought. Soprano Elena Mullins is featured alongside a stellar ensemble of Baroque violin, viola da gamba, oboe, recorder, and harpsichord.

From cats’ meows to barking dogs and birdsong, The Aesop Project explores animal sounds that have been depicted in Baroque music and features musical settings of some of Aesop’s most famous Fables, which themselves offer lessons about human nature and our places in the world. The Ant and the Grasshopper rewards those who plan ahead; The Hare & the Tortoise teaches us to avoid boasting and not to underestimate persistence; The Lion and the Rat considers potential power imbalances and how we can all help each other; and The Tortoise & the Eagle contains a lesson about accepting limitations.

Creating Context for Aesop’s Fables: Adapting The Bremen Town Musicians

I began a conversation with my friend Ian Petroni (puppet builder and creative-solution-finder extraordinaire) about how we could create a new performance for families creatively reusing puppets from Les Délices’ 2022 fairytale-based opera production, The White Cat. At a certain point, we realized we wanted an overarching narrative that would create space for the fables to be told and shared. I reached out to Dave Lucas, who loved the concept of animals sharing select Aesop’s Fables and proposed adapting the Grimm fairytale The Bremen Town Musicians.

In the original story, four long-serving domestic animals (a donkey, dog, cat, and bird) assert their freedom and set out en route to Bremen, where they hope to make new lives for themselves. Along the way, however, they stop at an abandoned house, work together to outsmart some thieves, and ultimately adopt one another as chosen family to live out their days. The Aesop Project sees four similar animal friends assert their freedom and set out on a pilgrimage. As bestial antics ensue, the group shares stories of their fellow animals’ griefs and glories (our beloved Aesop’s Fables) and raise their joyful voices in honor of the harvest moon. 

Les Délices’ Commitment to Education

From assembly presentations to in-class string instruction and extracurricular workshops, Les Délices’ approach to education centers critical thinking and listening, finding connections across culture and history, and emphasizing inquiry and discovery that can apply to any type and genre of music.

The Aesop Project was presented earlier this week for students at four local public schools.. In February 2026 we will present our next assembly-style program, Bolivian Baroque, featuring instrumental music preserved in the Chiquitos Missions (Bolivia), the Trujillo Codex (recording indigenous and syncretic music practices in 18th century Peru), and dances that combined African, Indigenous, and European influences.

We also offer regular Baroque strings coaching with orchestra students at Lakewood High School and Bard Early College High School, and have a one-day Baroque Strings Workshop scheduled at The Music Settlement for February 22nd.

These activities are supported through grant funding and private donations. If you would like to learn more about the Les Délices Education Fund, or are interested in our education programs, please contact Executive Director Laura Potter at laura@lesdelices.org.