Posts Tagged “opera”
Wednesday, May 26-Friday, May 28, 8pm: The staged production of Pascal Dusapin’s chamber opera “To Be Sung,” in its West Coast Premiere.
This haunting work, with text by Gertrude Stein, is a kaleidoscope of colors and textures for both voices and instruments; by turns whimsical, dramatic and poignant. Since its 1993 premiere, To Be Sung has been presented more than fifty times throughout Europe.
The cast features singers from from UCSD’s graduate program, along with UCSD faculty member Philip Larson. Directed by Susan Narucki (one of the works’ original cast members), To Be Sung takes place in the Department’s new experimental theatre in the Conrad Prebys Music Center. Guest conductor Julian Pellicano leads members of the Department’s new music group Palimpsest.
Conrad Prebys Music Center Experimental Theatre, 7PM: $25 general, 20% discount for UCSD faculty, staff, students. Subscription tickets also available at a greater discount. Tickets available at UCSD Box Office (858.534.TIXS) or at the door.
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On January 23 and January 30, 2010, Long Beach Opera will recruit The Good Soldier Schweik back to active duty in composer Robert Kurka’s anti-war opera based on Czech novelist Jaroslav HaÅ¡ek’s 1923 witty military satire of the same name. The opera follows the misadventures of Schweik as he stumbles through World War I attempting to do the “right” thing while turning the world around him into chaos. Irrepressible, unpredictable, perpetually optimistic, he leaves observers wondering whether he is a fool or a very wise observer of humanity. Kurka’s punchy score is a mixture of American musical, brass band riffs, jazz notes, and Czech folk tunes with overtones of Kurt Weill. Tenor Matthew DiBattista, who will sing the demanding role of Schweik, has been described as “brilliant” by Opera News. He has performed on national and international opera and concert stages with conductors James Conlon, Seiji Ozawa, Keith Lockhart, and Robert Shaw and more. The opera will be conducted by Long Beach Opera Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek. Director/Choreographer Ken Roht states, “A slightly raw, guerilla-circus aesthetic combined with darker Brechtian-storytelling will be our approach to exploiting as many of the opera’s varied tones as possible.”
Tickets are $45-$95 online at www.longbeachopera.org or by calling 562-432-5934.
Dates and Times:
Jan 23, 2010 at 8PM at the Center Theater in Long Beach, California.
Jan. 30, 2010 at 4PM at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica.
Addl info at www.longbeachopera.org
 Schweik Marches into Long Beach and Santa Monica
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 The After Dinner Opera Company presents the world premiere of Jordan Wentworth Farrar’s The Day Boy and the Night Girl, an operatic re-imagining of the classic Victorian fairy tale by George MacDonald. Wentworth Farrar’s new three-act opera debuts at Symphony Space on December 29, 2009.
The Day Boy and the Night Girl follows the lives of Phytogen and Nycteris, both of whom have been imprisoned by the sorcery of Watho, the she-wolf. The boy, Phytogen, has been cursed never to see night while Nycteris, the girl, is doomed never to see the light of day. This retelling of the fairy tale was adapted by Wentworth Farrar from her memory of reading the story as a child. “I wanted to take the premise of the book and make it my own,” she says.
According to Curator Magazine, “Wentworth Farrar’s music is tonal, with haunting melodic themes interspersed with tightly stacked vocal harmonies… a new and unusual work.”
AOL-DigitalCity notes “an eerie yet beautifully melodic chorus adorned with splendid vocal harmonies reverberates out from a fantastical scene of dancing fireflies, mystical mermaids and other apparitions.”
The Village Voice calls it “An enchanted evening.”
The opera also marks the 60th anniversary of the After Dinner Opera Company, which commissioned The Day Boy and Night Girl to celebrate its milestone birthday. Since 1950, the After Dinner Opera has produced hundreds of American chamber operas by more than 70 composers, many of them historic debuts; including works by Gian-Carlo Menotti, Ned Rorem, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein.
For more information about The Day Boy and the Night Girl by Jordan Wentworth Farrar please visit www.dayboynightgirl.com.
To hear music samples from The Day Boy and the Night Girl go to the DBNG Facebook page: click here
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Hall at Symphony Space
December 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m.
2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, NY 10025
Tickets: $12 students and seniors, $15 general admission, $10 each for groups of 10 or more. For tickets, call 212-864-5400 or go to symphonyspace.org.
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