In "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig" ("Oh how fleeting, oh how trifling") the orchestra even conveys the self-important bustle of an urban crowd.
Mr. Rothenberg, who provided a memorably boyish Stanley Kowalski in the recent Kennedy Center revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire," affectingly conveys the self-sabotaging impulses of someone afraid to hope.
He also conveys the self-loathing of a man who is aware of his own moral shabbiness in seeking to save himself by ditching his wife and putting his old father back on the halls.
But his early promise has been more than fulfilled; at 54, he remains a literary phenomenon - his last novel, Never Let Me Go, is currently being made into a film starring Keira Knightley - and in person he conveys the self-contained confidence of a writer who knows his new work, Nocturnes, will be another major publishing event.
Emma Hall, the youngest member of a theatrical dynasty, distinguishes deftly between Phaedra, Aphrodite and Artemis, David Shields conveys the self-regarding arrogance of Hippolytos, Martin McGlade's Theseus is all-tearing temper and Emma Amos is subtly persuasive as the Nurse, urging her mistress "to lie back and enjoy it".
The cast, which also includes Anne L. Nathan and Michael Pemberton as Tom's vigilant best friends, is expert at conveying the self-consciousness that comes with such bumbling attempts.
He made words matter and conveyed the self-delusion of thOis likable laughingstock, a character convinced that his girth is actually an imposing physique with natural appeal for cultured women.
Three photographs of Newton at 16 -- one with three girls, the others posing with cameras in Yva's studio -- convey the self-assurance of a young man who, he readily admitted, was spoiled by his wealthy parents.
It contains mechanisms for conveying the self-control information to the Manager in charge of processing QoS violation events.
And, completing the trio of lead roles, Gavin Creel as Elder Price wittily conveys the implacable self-regard and gleaming teeth of the door-to-door religious salesman.
But Craig Rubano, the Broadway baritone whose life was changed in that blinding moment of discovery, conveys the humorous self-awareness of a Broadway baby who understands that confessing the slightly embarrassing truth can be a way into an audience's heart.
