BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT

I admit it, I’ve been a bad blogger!  My best laid intentions to regularly update Behind the Spotlight veered a bit off course in the latter half of 2009, in part due the amount of directing I was doing for other companies.  I had a very busy fall, directing the World Premiere of a new musical called The Toymaker for the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and the New York Premiere of a Gabriel Fauré’s rarely produced Pénélope for The Manhattan School of Music. This winter, I had the pleasure of creating a new production of Cosi fan tutte for the Opera Institute at Boston University, but now I am back in New York, back in the land of contemporary opera, and  reasserting my commitment to updating our behind the scenes look at ALT on a more regular basis!

Certainly, while I was a guest directing at other companies, the wheels didn’t stop turning at ALT!  So many wonderful things are happening, it’s hard to know where to begin - so in short - a brief summary of upcoming events of note:

THE GOLDEN TICKET: Our first main stage commission, based on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, will receive its world premiere in JUST THREE MONTHS!  June 13, 2010 is the date, and we are so excited to be partnering with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to bring this wonderful new opera by Peter Ash and Donald Sturrock to the stage.   OTSL have been fantastic collaborators - taking the lead in mounting this ambitious piece and working with us to find additional companies to co-produce the production.  There are six chances to see The Golden Ticket at OTSL from June 13-26 - and ALT is putting together a special tour to celebrate the opening night - so if you are interested in joining us for the premiere, do check out the tour! After OTSL, the production will travel to the Wexford Festival in Ireland in October 2010 (exact dates to be announced shortly).  We are so excited for The Golden Ticket, and for Peter and Donald who have put their hearts and souls into this opera for so many years.

THE POE PROJECT: Last year, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, I initiated a special project with six of our Resident Artists.  I asked three composers and three librettists, under the mentorship of Michael Korie, to think about what sort of horror tales Poe might write if he were alive today. Inspired by the challenge and Poe’s brilliant fiction, these six writers are now working on three haunting one-act operas that make up The Poe Project:  BURIED ALIVE (Music by Jeff Myers, Libretto by Quincy Long); OF THE FLESH (Music by Jay Anthony Gach, Libretto by Royce Vavrek); and EMBEDDED (Music by Patrick Soluri, Libretto by Deborah Brevoort).  We couldn’t have initiated a more different opera from The Golden Ticket than The Poe Project, and having read through all of the libretti last month, I am so excited by the direction the pieces are taking.  I promise you will be thoroughly entertained - and somewhat disturbed - by The Poe Project… and you will have your first chance to hear these works in progress on WEDNESDAY MAY 26th at 7PM at the LAURI BEECHMAN THEATER. So save the date - more information to follow shortly.  I must note that The Poe Project was made possible by a generous commissioning grant from The New York State Council on the Arts, and an artist mentorship grant from The ASCAP Foundation - so thank you, thank you, thank you to our funders for helping to bring this project to life!

THE NEA RECOGNIZES ALT FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE: One of the best pieces of news we received this winter was that the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded ALT a $15,000 grant for the 2010-2011 Composer Librettist Development Program.  The CLDP is at the root of all of our new works development, and this grant will enable us to continue growing this vital initiative. Applications for the 2010-2011 CLDP will be available on our website starting March 15th!

So, that is the very brief update! More information on these projects and more will be appearing shortly - so stay tuned… and don’t forget - THE POE PROJECT in NYC on MAY 26th - and THE GOLDEN TICKET in ST. LOUIS from JUNE 13th-26th!

While it took a little longer than I expected to get the video from our workshop of The Golden Ticket edited, I’m glad to report that the sound quality is excellent, and today I am posting a short excerpt for your viewing and listening pleasure! As one of my earlier posts discussed the casting of Veruca Salt, I thought that I would include a scene from the opera in which Veruca is prominently featured.  

In this scene, we see Veruca for the first time. Mike Teavee was just interviewed on television about finding his Golden Ticket, and she is none too pleased that her rich father has yet to buy enough chocolate bars to find her a Golden Ticket. I can’t wait to see how the production team brings this scene to life: a factory floor full of workers opening chocolate bar after chocolate bar, all at the whim of a spoiled little rich girl!

A quick post today to share some photos of last night’s rehearsal.  Peter Ash and Donald Sturrock have been with us since Monday, and it is very exciting to see Peter and Donald working with the cast and conductor, Tim Redmond. One of the most important facets of doing a workshop is having the opportunity for the composer and librettist to not only hear their work, but work one-on-one with the singers creating the roles to look at potential revisions to the score, and to give them musical and dramatic coaching.  I woke up this morning to an email from Peter with a few new pages of music, which we will print out and distribute to the cast this afternoon.  This is what makes a workshop exciting - watching the opera take shape, and having the creators here to polish and refine the score.