Anais Mitchell dishes on two projects planned for 2011 following the acclaimed Hadestown.

For those who listened, Hadestown scored nearly perfect across the board. Critics and fans who took in Anais Mitchell‘s compelling folk opera chronicling the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice placed it alongside the year’s best, granting it near-perfect scores and high praise. The reason: in this age of the digital single, Mitchell not only had the courage to craft such an endeavor, but she did so with grace and beauty.

Of course, it helps to have friends like Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Ani DiFranco along for the ride. Now as she continues to tour Hadestown from time to time, Mitchell says she’s also readying a couple other releases for 2011, including a collaborative effort of old British and Scottish folk ballads. Mitchell follows her creative muse where it takes her, and 2010 gave fans a sweet glimpse into the greatness the Vermont native is capable of.

SSv: You’re playing the record out front to back, right?

Anais Mitchell: Yes, we’re playing from star to finish.

SSv: Have you found that different audiences respond differently or are there things you’re learning about the recording from a general response?

Anais: It’s a pretty special thing to sing it from start to finish. I’ve done these shows solo with some other players where I’ll play some songs from other albums and then I’ll do the best from the opera. In that context, it means one thing, but to actually do the whole thing, people can really tell which character is speaking at which time. I think that really appeals to people’s dorky storytelling side. [Laughs] I think they get wrapped up in the storytelling of it in a way that wouldn’t happen if the songs were being played in isolation.

It’s cool, because it’s not exactly like music theatre. I’m not a big fan of music theatre really. I’ll go and think it’s cheesy. At first, I’ll think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to watch this,’ and then 20 minutes in, I’m totally hooked and then I’m in tears by the end. But for people who don’t go to the theatre, I think it’s cool for people to see a story enacted through music but in a rock club.

SSv: Have you found that there’s a “get it” factor with the album?

Anais: I guess I should ask more questions of my audience. [Laughs] I think people are getting it. It’s been pretty casual at some of the shows, and we’ll do several songs in a row at the beginning just to get the story rolling. Then we’ll also hop in and say, ‘You’re about to hear Hades seducing Eurydice and then she wrestles with her decision. Then you’ll hear Fates come in and tell her why she’s made the right choice.’

At this point, we’re not doing the show with any blocking or sets or costumes or props or people acting it out on a stage, so we have to set it up. We want to get to that point, but at this point it’s more of a radio novella. That’s what it feels like. Everyone is on stage acting out the voice of the character and not that character itself.

SSv: I read an NPR interview where you said you didn’t mean to write this — that you followed it into the labyrinth and that it seemed to want to tell this story. Is this the first time that’s happened for you? Do you find that space on every album?

Anais: Oh, right. I definitely have that experience every time I write a song. Usually if there’s going to be good, there’s some element or part of it that’s mysterious or unexplainable. A lot of it is compelling to me that I want to explore it and go further and see where it will go. Sometimes I think songwriting has this mysterious element which is also like a hallucination or a fever dream. Then I also think there’s a crossword puzzle brain, where the challenge is solving a puzzle and it’s a challenging fun.

With Hadestown, I had no idea what was going on at first when just a few songs were going on. By the time I was trying to finish it, it felt like there was this world that had been created and I had to suddenly become consistent within it — with the lyrics, the images I would choose would have to fit in this world. So it then felt like this crossword puzzle that only had a couple of spaces left. It could only be one specific thing, and that was a different type of challenge.

SSv: Our own reviewer loved the album and it seems that those who found it just absolutely fell for it. Is that true? Do you feel that same thing or am I just reading certain segments?

Anais: I think people are responding to a piece of work that’s a more collaborative project than most things you come across. For me, it was the most collaborative record I’ve ever made. You had so many people behind the scenes and the singers like Justin Vernon and Ani DiFranco… those folks are heroes of mine, so to have them on the record, I still don’t understand it. I wouldn’t have come up with something like that alone in my bedroom. It was definitely the people involved that kept the wind in the sails of the project.

So that’s a cool feeling. There has been a good response. I feel like it’s this kid that grew up and ran away and then everyone was into it. It isn’t mine and it’s never really felt like mine. So it’s nice to not have this get all up in your head. This project doesn’t feel that way at all.

SSv: What sort of creative space are you inhabiting now or are you still in full support mode for Hadestown?

Anais: For sure there are a couple of other projects I’ve been working on. There are two records I want to make this year. One of them is just another solo record of songs I want to make with Todd [Sickafoose], who produced Hadestown. That’s almost ready to happen. Then there’s another project which is another collaboration with a friend of mine named Jefferson Hamer and we’re doing these arrangements of old British and Scottish folk ballads. We’re definitely taking a pretty free hand with the lyrics and making them our own. That’s been cool because it’s another collaboration, but it’s not like the material is all on us. There’s a lot to lean on in terms of the source material.

The promotion of the record has been a curious thing, because I have to say that I barely toured with a band before this project. I usually toured with one or two other people or would even play solo in a singer/songwriter realm. To really do justice to this record, I gotta have this six-piece orchestra to play the arrangements and even to do it even better, you gotta have the singers. It’s not like you can tour really hard every night with 16 people. So you become, ‘Okay, how do we make these happen on shoestring budgets in all these towns.’

It’s been so much fun and interesting all of the time doing this project with so many people. It’s been a cool way to meet people. Usually you just work with people that you know can do the parts, but sometimes I’ll feel emboldened to reach out to someone that I’m a fan of, and you just say, ‘Hey, do you want to sing the role of Orpheus in this folk opera?’ [Laughs] It’s much better than, ‘Hey, can I open for you sometime?’ It’s a cool way to get to know people.

SSv: Does that open doors as you move forward?

Anais: Well, like I was saying, the chance to work with my friends as well as people I admire on a project as weird as this is really awesome. In fact, there’s a lot of people I’ve reached out to asking, ‘Hey, do you want to do this part?’ and they’re touring or can’t do it, but I’ve made a connection with them anyway, so that’s sweet, too.

One cool thing about doing the show in different towns is that the concert becomes a celebration of the scene in that part of the country. If you move to Boston and you’re a part of the songwriter scene, you become a part of that scene there. Then when we come in, you tap into that and really discover the scene and community of the town that you’re going to. Not only is that warm and fuzzy feeling, but people bring their own fans to the show. People hear about the record and catch wind of the opera who would not normally know about it, so it’s good for everyone involved.

SSv: What can you tell us about the new solo project with Todd?

Anais: It’s been a funny thing. Some of the songs were written during the time of the Hadestown record — songs can just take so long to bake and take out of the oven. There’s some stuff that’s older and some others that are pretty new. The songs are connected in my mind, but it’s really nice that they don’t have to lean on each other as hard as the songs in the Hadestown show. The songs can be looser in that way.

I’m excited to work with Todd, because he’s such a brilliant musician and he knows how to make the music breathe. He was playing shows in New York City and it was so great to have him there. Just to have him in the beginning of the show tell everyone to keep the tempos slow was so good, even for me. It’s so easy for me as a word person to just think it’s all about the word. I just have to get the words out as fast as possible.

If there’s a weakness in my writing, it’s not trusting the music enough and not letting the music breathe enough. But that’s so important. That’s a key reason why you can digest poetry, for instance, if the music is there to help it. It’s the sugar with the medicine. So I’m excited to work with Todd to make a record that can breathe and really lean on the music as well as the words.