BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT
Exploring the Development of New Opera for New Audiences with American Lyric Theater
ABOUT ALT AND BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT
What is American Lyric Theater?
Founded in 2005, American Lyric Theater’s mission is to build a new body of operatic repertoire for new audiences by nurturing composers and librettists, developing sustainable artistic collaborations, and contributing new works to the national canon. While many opera companies actively commission and perform new works, ALT is the only company in the United States that also offers extensive, full time mentorship for emerging operatic writers. ALT’s artistic staff, guest faculty, and mentorship team includes some of the country’s leading operatic writers, directors and dramaturges, including Mark Adamo, Daniel Catán, Anthony Davis, Cori Ellison, William Hoffman, and Rhoda Levine.
ALT’s model for developing new works has some important differences when compared with prevailing practices in the opera field. While the traditional company model in the United States focuses on producing a season, ALT’s entire operations are structured to mentor artists, to develop new works, and to collaborate with larger producing companies to help usher those works into the repertoire. This model draws on best practices not only from the opera field, but also from successful practices of other industries; including the non-profit and commercial theater sectors, television, and motion picture development and production.
Commissioning new operas is admittedly a risky endeavor, and increasingly, opera companies are becoming more risk averse. ALT’s ability to shift the developmental risk away from other opera companies is the critical benefit of the company’s unique business model. When commissioning a new work, a company needs to acquire intellectual property rights, pay commission fees, hold developmental workshops, create spec recordings, and distribute information about the opera to appropriate potential producing partners. These developmental costs must be incurred without any guarantee that the new opera will ever be produced on stage. By taking on these responsibilities during the development stage, ALT absorbs an enormous portion of the risk opera companies face when producing new works. ALT’s internal expertise, combined with the amount of time dedicated to each project, allows us to provide the most comprehensive development environment possible.
The goal of this new development model is to ensure that by the time an opera developed by ALT reaches the point where it is being considered for production by other companies, that work has been artistically vetted much more thoroughly than is often possible in other environments. In addition, companies that join with ALT to produce a new work acquire the rights to an opera that they have had no financial risk in developing. Artistically and financially, the risk for these companies is much less than commissioning a new work outright. Opera companies that join with ALT on a project do so at a stage where they can better judge the potential of each project. The Golden Ticket represents ALT’s first main stage commission and collaboration with Opera Theatre of St. Louis under this new model.
Who is behind Behind the Spotlight?
Behind the Spotlight is ALT’s Blog by Lawrence Edelson, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater. Mr. Edelson completed his Masters in Performing Arts Administration at New York University, authoring the thesis Opera: The Irrelevant Art: Uniting Marketing and Organizational Strategy to Combat the Depopularization of Opera in the United States which served as a strategic plan for the new operational model being developed by ALT. As an arts administrator, he has consulted on projects for MCC Theater, Opera Orchestra of New York, New York City Opera, and on the cultural development of Lower Manhattan for New York City councilmember Alan Gerson. Lawrence oversees the diverse artistic programs of ALT, including the commissioning of new works, and an innovative new program for emerging opera composers and librettists.
As a stage director, Lawrence’s work has been praised by Opera Now magazine as doing a “splendid job of making (opera) relevant and understandable.” Lawrence studied Voice and Musicology at The University of Ottawa, Canada, and received his Bachelors Degree in Stage Direction from New York University. He has served as a staff director for Glimmerglass Opera, where he taught for the Young American Artists Program, and was the Assistant Director on multiple productions. He has been a guest member on the directing staff of New York City Opera, where he has restaged Little Women twice; for the work’s Lincoln Center premiere, and most recently, for New York City Opera’s tour to Japan. Other directing credits include original productions of La Voix Humaine at New York’s Maison Française;; the American Premiere of Telemann’s Orpheus for Wolf Trap Opera, which the Washington Post called “a stunningly touching and entertaining production”; Carmen for Toledo Opera, which was hailed by the press as “one of, if not the, best production in the long history of the company.”; and new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Hawaii Opera Theater drawing strongly upon the opera’s roots in Commedia dell’Arte that was praised by The Honolulu Advertiser as “creating an impact that was simultaneously old and new, European and American… a perfect introduction for opera first-timers of all ages.”
