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Press Releases
David T. Little’s GRAMMY®-Nominated Opera Film 'Black Lodge' Wins Music Theatre Now Competition 2023
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David T. Little’s GRAMMY®-Nominated Opera Film
Black Lodge Wins Music Theatre Now Competition 2023
One of six exceptional projects that reflect the evolving
landscape of contemporary music theatre.
Art Film by Beth Morrison Projects
Full Album Out on Cantaloupe Music
“a knack for overturning musical conventions” – The New York Times
New York, NY (January 16, 2024) – David T. Little’s GRAMMY® Award-nominated opera Black Lodge has been named one of six winners of the Music Theatre Now Competition 2023. Projects chosen by an esteemed jury reflect the evolving landscape of contemporary music theater in the post-COVID era, including the artists whose vision and ingenuity have embraced these new horizons, pushing the boundaries of music theater and offering profound insights into our shared human experience.
With libretto by celebrated poet Anne Waldman and performances by Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet, Black Lodge continues to garner attention and recognition. It is currently nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY(r)-Award for Best Opera Recording – a powerful statement on the evolving opera landscape and the impact of new forms on the genre. The opera’s 78-minute film version was produced during the pandemic by director Michael Joseph McQuilken and Beth Morrison Projects and had its world premiere with live music at Opera Philadelphia during the Festival O22 in October 2022. The album was released in June 2023 on Cantaloupe Music. In 2025, productions of Black Lodge will be staged in New York City and Los Angeles, and the work will receive its European debut. Little’s opera Soldier Songs, also produced as a film and presented by Opera Philadelphia, was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for Best Opera Recording in the 64th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2022.
Discover the Six Laureates
The Urban Tale of a Hippo – produced by Kokoras, Katinas, Vapaavuori, Nakaite, Synaesthesis & Operomanija – Lithuania
Black Lodge – produced by Beth Morrison Projects – USA
At Your Doorstep – produced by Market Theatre Foundation & Theater Bielefeld – South Africa & Germany
Woman at Point Zero – produced by Laila Soliman, Bushra El-Turk, Stacy Hardy & LOD – Egypt, UK & Belgium
Halleluja – produced by Fleur Khani & the Khani Foundation – Belgium
History of the Present – produced by Maria Fusco and Margaret Salmon – Northern Ireland, UK & USA
Jury Music Theatre Now Competition 2023
Sarah Crabtree – creative producer Royal Opera House, London – UK
Tisa Ho – veteran arts manager & former executive director of Hong Kong Arts Festival – Hong Kong
Marlene Le Roux – CEO Artscape Theatre Cape Town & activist – South Africa
Andrea Caruso Saturnino – general director Teatro Municipal, São Paulo – Brazil
About David T. Little
A natural musical storyteller with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times), composer David T. Little is known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with the power of the unexpected. Little’s broad catalog speaks to the mix of light and dark that we experience in life, unafraid to invoke the mythical, bewitching, disturbing, surreal, or comedic. His new work Black Lodge has been nominated for Best Opera Recording in the 2024 GRAMMY® Awards.
David T. Little has drawn acclaim for operas including Dog Days, JFK, and the comedy Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (all with libretto by Royce Vavrek), as well as his GRAMMY-nominated opera, Soldier Songs. Little’s Black Lodge, a metal-infused opera with a libretto by poet Anne Waldman, was premiered by Beth Morrison Projects at Opera Philadelphia, with a soundtrack released by Cantaloupe Music.
Recent and upcoming projects include the world premiere of SIN-EATER by The Crossing at Penn Live Arts; the monodrama What Belongs to You, developed for tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound; and a commission from the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program.
Little’s music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Learn more at www.davidtlittle.com.
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