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Press Releases
New York OperaFest Announces Opening 2022 Programming April 15 to June 15
NEW YORK OPERAFEST
Announces Opening 2022 Programming
APRIL 15 to JUNE 15, 2022
Presented by New York Opera Alliance
(New York, New York) NEW YORK OPERAFEST returns to in-person programming after two years of producing content virtually. For the first time since 2020, the festival will offer in-person productions in New York City from April 15 to June 15, 2022. The festival will showcase the breadth and diversity of opera in New York City through events ranging from virtual reality to improv opera, with productions in theaters, gardens, garages, bars, playgrounds, and beyond.
NEW YORK OPERAFEST was founded to both bring increased visibility of opera to New Yorkers and to unite participant companies with collaborative and accessible performance opportunities. It is produced by the NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE (NYOA), a community of passionate and resilient opera producers. NYOA is fiscally sponsored by OPERA America, the national membership organization for artists, administrators, trustees, and audiences, dedicated to supporting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera.
Participating companies for the 2022 festival season include NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE, BRONX OPERA, CHELSEA OPERA, OPERA LAFAYETTE, OPERA PRAKTIKOS, UNTITLED THEATER COMPANY NO. 61, THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT, THE REGINA OPERA COMPANY, INC., and CITY LYRIC OPERA. More participating companies and productions to be announced as the season begins.
The festival launches on April 14 at 7:00pm with the NY OperaFest 2022 Kick-Off & Service Awards Concert, featuring highlights from the 2022 Fest’s selected programming. The show takes place at OPERA America's National Opera Center. This year’s event will honor former New York City Council Member JIMMY VAN BRAMER and prolific librettist MARK CAMPBELL with the 2022 NYOA Service Award, which cites those who have gone above and beyond in enriching the opera community in New York City.
Explains festival chair PENNY PUN, “The theme for this year’s OPERAFEST is ‘building’ as NYOA sets its eyes on building a future for opera, after two years of uncertainty and challenges for our industry and our community. OPERAFEST 2022 will celebrate the return of in-person performances, as participating production ranges from virtual to hybrid to in-person. It’s so exciting to see how these productions and artists are building the future of opera with innovation, fearlessness and adaptability!"
For more information and ticket availability, visit newyorkoperafest.org.
Featured Productions
NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE
@nyoperaalliance
What: NY OperaFest 2022 Kick-Off & Service Awards Concert
When: April 14 at 7:00pm
Where: Marc A. Scorca Hall at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, 7th Floor, NY, NY 10001
Service Award Honorees: Jimmy Van Bramer & Mark Campbell
Concert will include excerpts from NY OperaFest productions from these companies: Bronx Opera, Chelsea Opera, City Lyric Opera, Encompass New Opera Theatre, The Little Opera Theater of NY, MORE Opera, Opera Praktikos, Regina Opera & Untitled Theater Company No. 61
The New York Opera Alliance presents the 7th Annual NY OperaFest Kick-Off and NYOA Service Award Concert. Mark Campbell, librettist and Jimmy Van Bramer, former NYC District 26 Council Member and longtime chair of the Council’s Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations Committee will receive the NYOA Service Award. This award honors an individual outside of NYOA who has gone above and beyond in nurturing and enriching the opera community in New York City. Nine NYOA participant companies will be presenting excerpts from their upcoming NYOperaFest productions through out the evening.
Past Service Award Honorees:
2016 - Fred Plotkin
2017 - Lauren Flanigan
2018 - Anne Midgette
2019 - Ira Siff
2021 - Antoine Hodge*
*deceased
New York Opera Alliance: “People need opera and the performing arts now more than ever to bring us all together, bridge political divides and nourish our souls.”
THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT
@aopopera
What: Note/Books: La Hora de la Estrella (Suzanne Farrin & Sergio Chejfec)
When: April 28 at 7:00pm (EST)
Where: Center for Fiction, Fort Greene, Brooklyn and Virtual
Centering on an impoverished 19 year-old living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who dreams of a better life, La Hora de la Estrella is a new opera by composer Suzanne Farrin, with a libretto adapted by Argentinian novelist Sergio Chejfec from the landmark novel by Clarice Lispector. The opera is written in Spanish and has been translated into English twice (most recently by Lispector biographer Benjamin Moser). Free for online attendees and $10 for in-person audience (limited seating).
AOP and The Center for Fiction will bring together Suzanne Farrin, Benjamin Moser, and Paolo Fasoli (CUNY’s Professor and Coordinator of Comparative Literature) to appear as the latest guests for Note/Books, a series that showcases the transformation of fiction to opera.
The American Opera Project: “We hope that people can view opera (and new opera!) as an interesting and beautiful form of storytelling.”
Cast: Suzanne Farrin (2020 Guggenheim Fellow in Composition), Benjamin Moser (his latest book, Sontag: Her Life and Work, won the Pulitzer Prize), Paolo Fasoli (Chairperson of the Department of Romance Languages and the Coordinator of the Comparative Literature Program at Hunter College)
THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT
@aopopera
What: Composers & the Voice: First Glimpse World Premiere
When: May 21 and 22, at 7:30pm (EST)
Where: The Great Room at South Oxford Space, 138 S. Oxford St, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
A collection of world premiere songs created in Cycle 11 of The American Opera Project’s “Composers & the Voice” Fellowship Training Program.
Justine Aronson (coloratura soprano), Jasmine Muhammad (lyric soprano), Max Potter (mezzo-soprano), Aaren Rivard (tenor), Mario Diaz-Moresco (baritone), Kofi Hayford (bass), and Music Directors Ron Robinson, Mila Henry, and Kelly Horsted.
Cycle 11 Composers and Librettists
Gabrielle Herbst / Composer
J.E. Hernández / Composer
Raquel Acevedo Klein / Composer
Paul Pinto / Composer
Tidtaya Sinutoke / Composer
Ania Vu / Composer
Jeesun Choi / Librettist
Isabella Dawis / Librettist
Troy Defour / Librettist
Cycle 11 Singers
Justine Aronson / Lyric Coloratura Soprano
Jasmine Muhammad / Lyric Soprano
Max Potter / Mezzo-Soprano
Aaren Rivard / Tenor
Mario Diaz-Moresco / Baritone
Kofi Hayford / Bass
THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT
@aopopera
What: MSM Opera Theatre: Contemporary Opera Ensemble (non AOP-production)
When: May 4 and 5 at 7:30pm
Where: Manhattan School of Music, Ades Performing Space, 130 Claremont Ave.
New York, NY 10027
This concert will feature a trio from Protectress, created during AOP’s 2019-21 Composers & the Voice program by composer fellow Jessica Rudman and librettist Kendra Preston Leonard.
Djordje Nesic — Music Director for the "Protectress Trio"
Miriam Charney — Music Director for the Contemporary Opera Ensemble
Kristen Kemp — Head of Music in Opera for Vocal Arts
(non AOP production)
Jessica Rudman (The American Opera Project 2019-21 Composers & the Voice program fellow), Kendra Preston (Woman Waits with Sword), Djordje Nesic (Music Director), Miriam Charney (Music Director), Kristen Kemp (Head of Music in Opera for Vocal Arts)
THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT
@aopopera
What: The Brooklyn Cultural District Tour with live music performed by Contralto, Nicole Mitchell
When: May 7 and 14 at 10:00am
Where: BAM Plaza, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY
The Brooklyn Cultural District in Fort Greene has come to fruition in the past two decades as vacant lots and empty buildings have been occupied by more and more cultural institutions, making this one of the major arts destinations in the city and the world. Historian Ron Janoff leads this walking tour through two land-marked districts and the original vaudeville cultural district of more than 100 years ago – an important historical dimension. The experience is amplified through a collection of original songs related to the tour provided by Fort Greene's The American Opera Project.
Today, with help from numerous funding sources and with the addition of movie theaters, independent book stores, new restaurants, and new outdoor performance spaces, the Brooklyn Cultural District has emerged as one of the city’s largest and most innovative destinations for a year round creative experience.
Music: "If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)" (1926) - Player piano version. Composer: James P. Johnson
Produced by The American Opera Project and supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Cast TBD.
THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT
@aopopera
What: Losing Control, presented by The American Opera Project and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program & Department of Design for Stage & Film present NYU/Tisch Advanced Opera Lab
When: May 26 and 27
Where: New York, NY
This year’s NYU/Tisch Advanced Opera Lab theme is Reproductive Rights. 2022 marks the centennial of the incorporation of the American Birth Control League (now Planned Parenthood) under NY State Laws. The writing teams will write 15-minute operas inspired by this historic, and current, systemic struggle, called Losing Control.
Composers - Sean Havrilla, Ella Yoon, Teresa Lotz, Danny Ursetti, Zach Catron, Mark T Evans, Erin Hoerchler, Henco Espag, Julio Vaquero, Ben Ginsberg, Angelique Mouyis, Pablo Concha
Librettists - Peyton Marion, Troy Defour, Vaibu Mohan, James Salem, Jessie Field, Andi Lee Carter, Andrew Strano, Dani Koenig, Clare Bierman, Mikey Rosenbaum, Gabe Caruso, Momo Akashi
Performers - Ariadne Greif, Soprano; Brittany Fowler, Mezzo-soprano; Laura Virella, Mezzo-soprano; Ariadne Greif, Soprano; Lucas Bouk, Baritone; Kris Königin, Tenor; Amelia Watkins, soprano; MaKayla McDonald, Soprano; Cáitlín Burke, Mezzo-soprano; Aaron-Casey Gould, Tenor; Jordan Rutter, Countertenor
BRONX OPERA
@bronxopera
What: La clemenza di Tito - Mozart (in English)
When: May 14 and 21 at 7:30pm; May 15 and 22 at 2:00pm
Where: Lovinger Theatre, Lehman College, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx
What if the Roman Empire existed as a 2022 nation-state? What if it had had to deal with COVID, and with the rest of modern life? What if it had some level of freedom of the press, and what if everyone had a smartphone with a camera, pointed at leaders and others? This is the world in which CLEMENZA DI TITO exists. The timeless question of tempering justice with mercy is explored in this opera from Mozart's last year. The plot’s triangular relationships are explored in a modern setting as Mozart's gorgeous, intense music frames a story which resonates through the years, to the ears and eyes of audiences in 2022.
Bronx Opera: “We seek connection. We seek a reminder that the human condition has not changed, and that people still try to balance selfish needs with friendship and mercy. Opera brings us that connection; opera is the ultimate team sport, and creating a production reminds us that only through working together can we find true fulfillment.”
Double-cast: Vitellia - Alexis Rodda (Rosalinda) /Barbee Monk (Fiordiligi); Sesto - Perri di Christina (Orfeo)/Devony Smith (Cendrillon); Tito - David Charles Tay (Florestan)/Steven Wallace (Bacchus); Servilia - Ashley Larkin (Donna Anna)/Alina Tamborini (Adele); Annio - Elisabeth Harris (Orlofsky)/Emily Hughes (Rosina); Publio - Benjamin Howard (Don Giovanni)/Jonathan Harris (Superintendent Budd)
CHELSEA OPERA
@chelsea_opera
What: Songs of Summers Past
When: Ongoing
Where: Virtual
Songs of Summers Past is a virtual concert, recorded live at Saint John's in the Village in November 2021, marking Chelsea Opera's return to performing in NYC. The program features an eclectic mix of opera arias, duets, classical songs, and a little musical theater, featuring the voices of artists from Chelsea Opera's past and present, accompanied by piano.
Chelsea Opera: “As Chelsea Opera's first live performance in 20 months in New York City, we were so bursting with ideas, we couldn't bring you just one. Songs of Summers Past is a concert inspired by fond thoughts back to warmer days, when the world held so much promise and love was at the doorstep.”
Cast: Bradley Bickhardt, Joanie Brittingham, Sarah Daniels, Richard Hobson, Chad Kranak, Leonarda Priore, and Jestin Pieper (Piano).
CHELSEA OPERA
@chelsea_opera
What: The Parting
When: Saturday, May 21 at 8:00pm and Sunday, May 22 at 2:00pm
Where: CNY Jazz Central (441 East Washington Street, Syracuse, NY 13202)
Chelsea Opera is proud to present a limited, two performance engagement of The Parting by Tom Cipullo. This exciting contemporary work for voice and chamber ensemble is presented in its New York premiere. Cipullo's chamber opera concerns personal encounters with the evils of the Holocaust and attests to the life-affirming value of poetry and historic reflection.
Chelsea Opera: “Chelsea Opera's New York premiere of The Parting was in the late stages of production as part of a double bill in Spring 2020 that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are pleased to finally present Tom Cipullo's chamber opera in 2022, originally commissioned by Music of Remembrance and premiered in Seattle, WA in 2019.”
Cast: Peter Kendall Clark (Miklós Radnóti), Laura Dixon Strickling (Fanni Gyarmati), Sarah Heltzel (Death)
CHELSEA OPERA
@chelsea_opera
What: The Medium
When: Friday, April 15 at 8pm and Saturday, April 16, at 8pm
Where: CNY Jazz Central (441 East Washington Street, Syracuse, NY 13202)
Chelsea Opera is pleased to collaborate with the Setnor School of Music Opera Workshop of
Syracuse University College of Visual & Performing Arts in their presentation of Chelsea Opera's production of Gian Carlo Menotti's psychological thriller The Medium. A thrilling blend of mysticism and madness. Madam Flora's sham seances come back to haunt her
in this intimate and unique staging. Sung in English.
Chelsea Opera: “Our October 2021 Syracuse production of Menotti's classic thriller is returning in a co-production with Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music opera workshop, featuring a cast of current students, and actor Maxwel Anderson reprising the role of Toby.”
Cast: Friday – Madison Karten (Madam Flora), Campbelle Stencel (Monica). Saturday – McKenzie Rybka (Madam Flora), Katherine Craig (Monica). Both Nights: Maxwel Anderson (Toby), Julianne Stein (Mrs. Nolan), Emma Pitts (Mrs. Gobineau), Tara Sandlin (Logan Gobineau), Lucille Chatfield Stienmier (A Voice), and Dr. Dan Sato (Pianist).
CITY LYRIC OPERA
@citylyricopera
What: The Garden of Alice
When: May 17, 18, 19, 20 at 7:00pm and May 21 at 2pm and 7pm
Where: The Blue Gallery, 222 E. 46th St., New York, NY
City Lyric Opera’s US Premiere of Elizabeth Raum's The Garden of Alice is an interactive journey down a digital rabbit hole, where the landscapes and characters of Wonderland become metaphors for the different virtual realities and identities we create within the internet. Alice, entranced by the illusion of the garden as an idyllic place where she can be a new person, jumps enthusiastically into Wonderland, only to discover the garden is a dark trap for lost souls. She searches for truth inside this darker, internet version of Wonderland, and eventually realizes that it’s better to live with her questions and doubts than try to have them answered by an imagined, comfortable place. What begins as a zany, quirky trip through Wonderland and its characters eventually turns into a dark, violent, and treacherous place, the seemingly idyllic Garden is nothing more than a façade for a darker twisted set of rules.
City Lyric Opera: “We started conceptualizing Alice over a year ago in early 2021 and started to pose questions around what Wonderland would represent in the new and ever changing reality of the pandemic. As we all started in shock horror at our screens on January 6, 2021, the inspiration for a darker Wonderland took place. Through a seemingly innocent onset, Wonderland is a representation of the power of social media and influence.”
Cast: Laura Soto-Bayomi (Opera Southwest) - Alice, Nathaniel Mattingly (Met Opera) - White Rabbit, Kelly Guerra (Chautauqua Opera Company) - Duchess/Queen, Robert Feng (Opera West) - Mad Hatter, Ramon Gabriel Tenefrancia (Bronx Opera Company) - March Hare, Gileann Tan (Eastman Opera Theater), Mary Rice (Rome Chamber Music Festival) - Card
OPERA LAFAYETTE
@operalafayette
What: Silvain
When: June 7, 2022 at 7pm
Where: Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Silvain (1770) was both a favorite of Marie-Antoinette in France and the first opera performed in New Orleans in 1796. Surprisingly, the opera’s story of family conflict?and reconciliation also upheld the rights of peasants to use land owned by the nobles.
In the early 19th century, French entrepreneurs moved to the American southwest and acquired vast tracts of land from the Mexican government. They guaranteed the peasants who settled these lands the same privileges as those at the center of the drama in Grétry and Marmontel’s opera. Conflicts around these rights in the United States have continued to the present day, and this story’s resonance in the New World has inspired Opera Lafayette’s setting of this modern premiere of Silvain.
Artistic Team:
Ryan Brown, conductor
Tania Hernández Velasco, stage direction and scenic images
Patricia Michaels, costume design
Josh Higgason, projection design
Linn Cary Mehta, translation and adaptation
Cast:
Camille Ortiz, Hélène
Victor Sicard, Dolmon, Fils ainé, sous le nom de Silvain
Samantha Louis-Jean, Pauline
Teresa Castillo, Lucette
Jehú Otero, Bazile
Nathan Berg, Dolmon père
The Opera Lafayette Orchestra
Chorus:
Juan Hernandez
Gilbert Chavez
Jose M. Pietri-Coimbre
OPERA LAFAYETTE
@operalafayette
What: The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette
When: June 8, 2022 at 7pm
Where: Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
As the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette had ?an extraordinary education? in ?music and dance.? After marrying? the? French Dauphin?in ?1770 ?and becoming Queen of France? in? 1774, she became ?a ?patron ?of contemporary composers?and performed? frequently? in her own salon as ?a? harpist. This program brings the listener into her salon at Versailles to hear airs and chamber works? of Gluck, the Caribbean-born Chevalier de Saint Georges, and Phillip Hinner, a survivor of the ill-fated colony Kourou in Guinea, among others.?
Cast:
Sandrine ?Chatron, harp
Nicholas Phan,?tenor
Sophia Burgos,?soprano
Jacob Ashworth,?violin
Charles Brink, flute
OPERA LAFAYETTE
@operalafayette
What: Concert Spirituel Aux Caraïbes
When: June 9, 2022 at 7pm
Where: Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Pedro Memelsdorff, a musician scholar whose recent research has focused on music in the French colonies in the Caribbean during the 18th century, conceives and leads a program highlighting French music performed there between 1760 and 1790.? The musical life of the colonies involved enslaved, formerly enslaved, and free peoples, and Memelsdorff’s program addresses the extraordinarily complicated dynamics between the musical culture of imperial France and the people of the Caribbean.? Well-known French composers from the 18th?century and newly rediscovered works are represented in this orchestral?concert with vocal soloists and ensemble.
Artistic Team:
Pedro Memelsdorff, guest conductor
Josh Higgason, projection design
Cast:
Samantha Louis-Jean, soprano
Sophia Burgos, soprano
Sishel Claverie, mezzo-soprano
Jehú Otero, tenor
Victor Sicard, baritone
Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone
Théotime Langlois de Swarte, violin
The Opera Lafayette Orchestra
OPERA PRAKTIKOS
Instagram: @opera.praktikos
Twitter: @OPraktikos
What: Orlando: Hero of Love
When: May 27, 28 June 2, and June 11
Where: Campos Community Garden & Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Handel’s baroque opera Orlando, about a knight from the Crusades, dramatizes the classic struggle between love and glory. Our adaptation views this story with a contemporary sensibility, centering on the core question ‘What is love?’, exploring how we can confront madness and transcend pain during a great time of loss.
Opera Praktikos: “We make opera accessible and want our audience to ‘feel seen’ when they come to see Orlando. We want you to have an experience of identifying with the struggles of our characters and be with them as they find a pathway through into healing.”
Cast:
Jeffrey Mandelbaum as Orlando - (The Enchanted Island)
Heather Hill as Angelica - (Other World)
Hai-Ting Chinn as Medoro - (Einstein on the Beach)
Elyse Anne Kakacek as Dorinda - (Princess Maleine)
Hans Tashjian as Zoroastro - (The Barber of Seville)*
*appearing courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera
THE REGINA OPERA COMPANY, INC.
@ReginaOperaCo
facebook.com/reginaopera.org
What: La Boheme (Puccini)
When: May 10 at 7:00pm and May 14, 15, 21, 22 at 3:00pm
Where: Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, 5902 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220
Christmas Eve in a Paris garret, a lost key, and two hands that find each other in the dark lead to love and loss.
Cast: Rodolfo’s – Heejae Kim, Christopher Trapani, Lindell Carter. Mimi’s – Kimberly Lloyd, Dilara Unsal, Liza Bryce. Marcello’s – Peter Hakjoon Kim, Jin Hoe, Nathan Bahny. Musetta’s – Jennifer Gliere, Cate Webber, Arina Ayzen.
UNTITLED THEATER COMPANY NO. 61
@EdwardEinhorn
What: Holiday Operas Workshop
When: June 2 at 7:30pm
Where: OperaAmerica
Selections from two operas in development. Exagoge, composed by Avner Finberg, adapts the oldest known Jewish play (written in the 2nd Century by Ezekiel the Tragedian) into a modern opera. The original play was based on the story of the Exodus, and the modern opera is set at a Passover seder. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, composed by Nell Carter Cohen, adapts the L. Frank Baum book of the same name. It is a fantasy adjacent to Baum's best know works, with characters from Oz series as well as classic characters like a young Santa Claus and Jack Frost. Both have librettos written by Edward Einhorn.
Untitled Theater Company No. 61: “The arts are a celebration of what it means to be human, and in the most difficult times, it is good to be reminded there are also still reasons to celebrate.”
Cast TBD.
NEW YORK OPERA ALLIANCE (NYOA) is a consortium of New York City opera companies and producers established to enhance and support the visibility and viability of opera in NYC. Founded in 2011, NYOA has grown from 13 organizations to close to 50 strong. Since 2013, NYOA has been fiscally sponsored by OPERA America. They believe that New Yorkers and visitors to New York alike can be better informed about the breadth, range and vitality of New York City’s opera-producing community. NYOA is a community-driven organization; together, they aspire to increase awareness of participating organizations, share ideas and resources, and generate revenue for collaborative projects. nyoperaalliance.org
OPERA America is the national membership organization for artists, administrators, trustees, and audiences, dedicated to supporting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera. Based in New York City at the National Opera Center, a custom-built rehearsal and performance facility for the opera field, OPERA America is committed to advancing new work, audience engagement, civic practice, artist and leadership development, research, national advocacy, and an inclusive industry that moves opera forward in America. operaamerica.org
Contact: Amy Sapp
press@amyesapp.com
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