The Spoleto Festival USA recently announced its 2014 season, to be held May 23 through June 8 in Charleston, S.C. Tickets will go on sale to the general public at spoletousa.org starting on Monday, December 9.
Musical highlights of the season include three opera productions: a new staging of John Adams' opera El Niño, the American première of Michael Nyman's Facing Goya, and the opera directorial debut of Garry Hynes in Leoš Janáček's Kát'a Kabanová.
El Niño will receive a new staging by British director John La Bouchardière, who is best known for his production of The Full Monteverdi. The libretto--adapted by Adams and Peter Sellars--is a retelling of the Nativity story through a tapestry of European writings and sermons, Gospels from the Bible and the Apocrypha, and Latin American poetry. Joe Miller, the new director of choral activities for the festival, will conduct this new production.
Michael Nyman re-composed a large portion of his opera Facing Goya for this American première, directed by Ong Keng Sen and conducted by John Kennedy. The opera, originally designed to be amplified, will be presented acoustically for the first time. The contemporary story mixes sci-fi, art history, and conspiracy theory to raise questions about human relationships.
Michael Nyman is widely known for his film music including Gattaca and the Academy Award-winning film The Piano. He will also appear in "An Evening with Michael Nyman" during the festival. The concert will feature Nyman at the piano performing works from his film repertoire, original chamber works with members of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and the première of his new string quartet.
The festival will also present the opera directorial debut of Garry Hynes, the first woman to win a Tony Award for directing a Broadway play. She will direct Janáček's Kát'a Kabanová. Anne Manson, who led the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in 2012, will return to conduct this production.
Orchestral highlights include a Beethoven-themed concert by the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, conducted by John Kennedy. The program features Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 paired with two modern homages to the masterpiece: Louis Andriessen's The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven and Michael Gordon's Rewriting Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
The orchestra will also present a concert of Barber's Adagio for Strings, John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony, and Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, led by Joana Carneiro.
For a complete schedule of festival concerts, visit spoletousa.org.
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