(New York, NY, April 19, 2011) New York City Opera today announced full casting details for the 12^th season of its celebrated annual new music festival, VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab. The festival kicks-off on Saturday, May 14 with performances at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (Skirball), and continues on Sunday, May 15 with a new series called Second Stage, where the second day of the festival will move to the more intimate club setting of Le Poisson Rouge. The VOX program gives composers and librettists an opportunity to workshop pieces that are in early stages of development or have been composed for smaller ensembles.  All of the selected works will be performed by an orchestra and soloists. 

 

City Opera’s 2011 VOX festival will feature performances from several City Opera artists including Meredith Lustig who recently made her debut as Giannetta in The Elixir of Love, Nicholas Pallesen who appeared as Robert Storch in Intermezzo, and Yunah Lee, best known for her portrayal of Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly.

 

For the first time in VOX history, the festival features two works that have been developed out of VOX’sWords First librettist program. Words First began in 2009 as a way to support a working group of established playwrights with an interest in writing opera librettos. The two selections chosen from the Words First program include Arlene Sierra and Lucy Thurber’s Faustine and Paola Prestini and Donna di Novelli’s De Deo.

 

The ten selected operas showcase the many distinguishing traits that make contemporary American opera unique. Featured works include musical theater composer Andrew Gerle’s The Beach; Huang Ruo and Candice Chong’s Sun Yat-Sen, which will have its world premiere in fall 2011 at Opera Hong Kong; and David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s Vinkensport, which was commissioned by Dawn Upshaw's Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College, and had a workshop production in February 2010.

 

Six opera excerpts will be presented at Skirball on Saturday, along with a pre-performance panel discussion on producing art in alternate spaces, and a post-show artist talkback. Both discussions are open to all ticket holders.  Four operatic works arranged for smaller ensembles will be showcased at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday. The audience for Sunday’s performances is also invited for post-show drinks with the composers, librettists and singers.

 

Tickets for VOX will be $25 for the performance at Skirball, and $15 for performance at Le Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased online nycOpera.com/VOX, through CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, or in-person at the David H. Koch Theater Box Office.  Tickets will also be available at the venue on the day of the performances.

 

VOX is an opera lab of new works that offers American composers and librettists the opportunity to hear their works performed by professional musicians in an exploratory setting. Every year, VOX presents up to twelve new and previously un-produced works from both emerging and established composers in orchestra readings that are free and open to the public. For the last half century, New York City Opera has been a leader in the development of American opera. City Opera has presented an unmatched repertory of American works, including those of over 50 American composers, and has shaped an American aesthetic for opera through the world premieres of more than 25 American operas. VOX is at the core of New York City Opera’s commitment to American opera; to date, VOX has presented excerpts from more than 100 new operas, with more than 40 of those going on to full productions — six at City Opera and the others at companies including Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, Michigan Opera Theater and Santa Fe Opera.   

Panel Discussion: Producing art in alternative spaces, moderated by Beth Morrison

Music by Dag Gabrielsen

Libretto by Julie Larios

Set entirely in the comfort of her covers, a woman recounts memories of an affair in her youth.  The relationship begins to deteriorate and only after comparison with new lovers does the woman realize the true love that she had.

Ryan McAdams         Conductor

Meredith Lustig            Lily

Karin Mushegain       Lyle

Music by Arlene Sierra

Libretto by Lucy Thurber

This adaptation of Emma Tennant's Faustine explores the power of a selfish, consumer-oriented desire for eternal youth and beauty.

 

Ryan McAdams           Conductor

Jason Abrams          Devil

Jennifer Roderer      Muriel

Deanna Breiwick       Ella

Amanda Pabyan       Anna

Ian Greenlaw               Harry

 

Music by Allan Jaffe

Libretto by Deborah Atherton

Based on the life of novelist Mary Shelley, this retelling follows the life of the famed Frankenstein author and the personal effects of the literary monster she created.

 

Kazem Abdullah       Conductor

Jon-Michael Ball       Shelley

Joshua Jeremiah      Byron

Nicholas Coppolo      Polidori

Yunah Lee               Mary 

Jennifer Tiller          Clare

Matthew Curran       Monster

Benjamin P. Wenzelberg      Child

 

Music by Huang Ruo

Libretto by Candice Chong

While fleeing an assassination attempt, Sun Yat-Sen, the leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, marries the daughter of a friend and fellow revolutionary without his consent.  After a botched attempt to overthrow the old government, the old friends are reunited and the marriage is blessed.

 

George Manahan       Conductor

Guang Yang            Ni Gui-Zhen

Dong-Jian Gong      Charles Song

Yingxi Zhang          Sun Yat-Sen

Xi Wang                 Lu Mu-Zhen

Music by Andrew Gerle

Libretto by Royce Vavrek

Inspired by recent events in France, this music drama documents the abuse of a wealthy older man by his much-younger wife, who has locked him away in the confines of the laundry room to escape the stress of her husband’s onset of Alzheimer's.  After nearly a year, he is rescued from his fantasies of spending a year at the beach – and his makeshift bed of unwashed towels.

 

George Manahan       Conductor

Caroline Worra        Adele

Jane Shaulis            Margaret

Nicholas Pallesen    Jean-Luc

Bailey Grey                 Dede

William Ledbetter    William

 

Music by David T. Little

Libretto by Royce Vavrek

A motley assortment of contestants participates in a finch-sitting competition to see who has the most melodious bird. Although a seemingly simple and gentle competition, the competitors’ inner monologues and flashbacks to their preparations reveal deep-seated rivalries, painful loneliness, and blossoming romance.

 

George Manahan       Conductor

Amanda Hall           Farinelli’s Trainer

Jennifer Tiller          St. Francis’ Trainer

Michael Marcotte     Hans Sachs’ Trainer

Joshua Jeremiah     Gabriel III’s Trainer

Kerri Marcinko    Sir Elton John’s Trainer

 

 

158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012 

Music and Libretto by Hannah Lash

The classic Beauty and the Beast legend is turned on its head in this updated drama. To alleviate Beast’s sense of rage from the devastation of his garden, he uses the blood of Beauty to water his broken flowers in an attempt to make them bloom again.

 

Robert Trevino           Conductor 

Daryl Freedman      Beauty

Eric Brenner            The Beast

Music by Paola Prestini

Libretto by Donna DiNovelli

In the opera, De Deo, a contemporary young man from Brooklyn, in search of his identity, is led by a Roma tour guide into the medieval mechanism known as the wheel.  Wheels, built into the walls of Catholic churches across the European continent, carry infants into a massive system of foundling hospitals along with the unwed mothers who abandon them. What begins as a search for identity becomes a quest for the divine as the wheel resurfaces throughout history. 

 

Robert Trevino        Conductor 

Meredith Lustig         Roma

Marcello Guzzo       Matteo

Amy Shoremount-Obra Beatrice 

Robert Mack          Pietro

Matthew Curran     Thug/Shepherd/Jailer

 

Music by Jeff Myers

Libretto by Royce Vavrek

Inspired by real events in 17th century Norway, a young girl’s supposed alliances with the devil lead to betrayal and vengeance in their unrequited romance.

 

Robert Trevino           Conductor

Deanna Breiwick       Maren

Nicholas Pallesen     Satan

Yunah Lee               Bodil

Matthew Burns        Priest

 

 

Music by Yoav Gal

Libretto by Reuven Namdar

This docu-opera traces the events surrounding the three-week period leading up to the Ninth of Av Day of Atonement, marking the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70AD.   Partly historical, partly legend, this episode still reverberates today, especially in its mirror relationship to the rebirth of the modern state of Israel.

Robert Trevino           Conductor

Judith Berkson         Narrator/Daughter of Nakidimon

Cherry Duke             Martha/Soprano

Jon-Michael Ball        Yochanan/Tenor

Ian Greenlaw           Messenger/Baritone

Heather Green             Aspasianus

 

The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is the premier venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for New York University and lower Manhattan. Led by executive producer Jay Oliva (President Emeritus, NYU) and senior director Michael Harrington, the programs of the Skirball Center reflect NYU's mission as an international center of scholarship, defined by excellence and innovation and shaped by an intellectually rich and diverse environment. A vital aspect of the Center's mission is to build young adult audiences for the future of live performance.

 

Le Poisson Rouge is a multimedia art cabaret founded by musicians on the site of the historic Village Gate. Dedicated to the fusion of popular and art cultures in music, film, theater, dance, and fine art, the venue's mission is to revive the symbiotic relationship between art and revelry; to establish a creative asylum for both artists and audiences.

 

VOX 2011 is made possible with leadership support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

 

Major support provided is by The Amphion Foundation, Inc., the ASCAP Foundation, John E. Baumgardner Jr., Carol M. and Timothy A. Cole, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Younghee Kim-Wait, Linda and Stuart Nelson, Raymond Steckel, Virgil Thomson Foundation, Ltd., The Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and contributors to the VOX Special Appeal.  VOX is funded, in part, through Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections Program. 

 

Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.

 

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Maggie McKeon

Director of Public Relations

212.870.7718 / mmckeon@nycOpera.com

 

Shara Seigel

Publicity Coordinator

212.870.5632 / sseigel@nycOpera.com