Gotham Chamber Opera has announced its 2013-2014 season, featuring four new productions--including a world premiere and a U.S. premiere.
The season begins with Baden-Baden 1927, a staged evening of four one-act operas that appeared together at the Baden-Baden Festival in 1927, from October 23 through November 1, 2013 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater.
This production will be followed by a co-production (with Trinity Church) of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers. That show will run January 1-5, 2014.
The season continues in February with a double bill--co-produced with and staged at The Metropolitan Museum of Art--consisting of Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, and a newly commissioned work, I Have No Stories to Tell You, by Gotham Chamber Opera Composer-In-Residence Lembit Beecher.
In May, the United States premiere of The Raven by Toshio Hosakawa at the Gerald Lynch Theater will conclude the season as part of the New York Philharmonic's inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL.
Baden-Baden 1927
Music by Kurt Weill, Darius Milhaud, Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch.
Neal Goren, conductor; Paul Curran, stage director; production design by Georg Baselitz and Court Watson
October 23, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. and October 26, 27 and 29 at 8 p.m.
Gerald W. Lynch Theater-John Jay College
Gotham Chamber Opera will begin its 12th season with a fully-staged production recreating the legendary Baden-Baden Festival of Contemporary Music performance of July 17, 1927. During the composer-organized summer festival, four one-act operas were presented in one evening: Kurt Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel, Paul Hindemith's Hin und zurück (There and Back), Darius Milhaud's L'enlèvement d'Europe (The Abduction of Europa) and Ernst Toch's Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse (The Princess and the Pea). Most noteworthy among the works is Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel, which was premiered at the festival and later developed into the complete opera, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. The production marks the long-awaited return to the New York stage of legendary soprano Helen Donath and also stars soprano Maeve Höglund, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera, tenors Daniel Montenegro and Matthew Tuell, baritone Michael Mayes and bass John Cheek.
Helen Donath, soprano
La descente d'Orphée aux Enfers
Music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Neal Goren, conductor; Andrew Eggert, stage director
January 1 and 3, 2014 at 7 p.m. and January 5 at 5 p.m.
Trinity Church Wall Street, St. Paul's Chapel
For the New York stage premiere of Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, Gotham Chamber Opera partners with members of The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra. The cast will be led by Daniel Curran as Orphée, Jeff Beruan as Pluton and Jamilyn Manning-White as Eurydice. Charpentier's 1686 opera retells the story of Orpheus who, upon learning of Eurydice's sudden death, descends to Hades in order to convince Pluto to allow her to return with him to earth. This classic story of selfless love and the power of music to overcome death will be staged by Andrew Eggert and presented in historic St. Paul's Chapel.
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
Music by Claudio Monteverdi
I Have No Stories To Tell You (World Premiere)
Music by Lembit Beecher, Libretto by Hannah Moscovitch
Neal Goren, conductor; Robin Guarino, stage director
February 26-27, 2014 at 7 p.m.
Bloomberg Arms and Armor Court-Medieval Sculpture Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda was published in 1638 in the composer's Eight Book of Madrigals. This operatic scena tells the story of the Christian soldier Tancredi who battles with a Muslim soldier, unknown to Tancredi as his lover Clorinda because she is disguised in armor. When Clorinda is mortally wounded, Tancredi discovers her identity. As she lies dying, she asks to be baptized. The instrumentation for the scena is string quartet and continuo.
Gotham Chamber Opera composer-in-residence Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch respond to Monteverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by focusing on the after-effects of war. Their 30-minute opera, I Have No Stories To Tell You, turns from the battlefield to domestic life to tell the story of a photojournalist's return home after extended assignment in the Middle East. Haunted by her experiences and reluctant to discuss them with a husband who no longer seems to understand her, she struggles to readjust to home. As we see glimpses into her life over the course of a year, we begin to understand the burden of guilt she carries, her inability to communicate it with her husband and the way in which her husband's need to know will drive their relationship to the brink. Scored for a period instrument ensemble and inspired by interviews with soldiers and army psychologists, I Have No Stories To Tell You explores the effects of war on one's identity and sense of home. The instrumentation for the opera is string quartet, theorbo, harpsichord, Baroque oboe and electronics. The cast includes mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton and baritone Craig Verm.
Lembit Beecher, composer
The Raven (U.S. Premiere)
Music by Toshio Hosokawa, after Edgar Allen Poe
Neal Goren, conductor; Luca Veggetti, stage director/choreographer
May 28, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. and May 30-31 at 8 p.m.
Gerald W. Lynch Theater-John Jay College
Toshio Hosakawa's The Raven, a monodrama for mezzo-soprano and twelve instrumentalists, will be given its U.S. Premiere as part of the New York Philharmonic's inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL festival. Directed and choreographed by Luca Veggetti, it will star Fredrika Brillembourg in the role of the Narrator and danced by Alessandra Ferri, former prima ballerina assoluta with the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and La Scala Theatre Ballet.
Of Hosakawa's The Raven, Gotham Chamber Opera Artistic Director Neal Goren writes:
"I first became aware of Toshio Hosokowa after reading the ecstatic reviews coming from Europe for his chamber opera Matsukaze in summer 2011. Upon hearing his music, I was shocked that I had not known of this modern master previously. His music is wildly sensual and atmospheric, with luminous colors and exhibiting a huge emotional range. Poe's unsettling text interacts with Hosokowa's diaphanous, iridescent colors to create an unforgettable evening of haunting, intense beauty. It will be my joy and honor to conduct the U.S. premiere of The Raven for the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL."
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