Tag: opera

12 Jun 2012
Oksana G. Act 2 Workshop Performance
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Tapestry presents workshop performances of the 2nd act of my opera in development, The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G.

June 11 & 12, 2012

From the Tapestry website:

“Sung in Ukrainian, Russian and English, this opera vérité with prologue and epilogue uses non-operatic music from various cultures to enhance the composed score and drama. The tragic ménage à trois is a topic as ancient as Greek drama, but in Oksana G. it takes on a life as immediate as today’s headlines, yet honours the ingredients common to all great operas: universality, timelessness and high emotion.”

8:00pm, Ernest Balmer Studio
55 Mill Street (map)
Toronto, Canada
Tickets: $25/$20
www.tapestrynewopera.com    
11 Jun 2012
Oksana G. Act 2 Workshop Performance
Tags: , , ,

Tapestry presents workshop performances of the 2nd act of my opera in development, The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G.

June 11 & 12, 2012

From the Tapestry website:

“Sung in Ukrainian, Russian and English, this opera vérité with prologue and epilogue uses non-operatic music from various cultures to enhance the composed score and drama. The tragic ménage à trois is a topic as ancient as Greek drama, but in Oksana G. it takes on a life as immediate as today’s headlines, yet honours the ingredients common to all great operas: universality, timelessness and high emotion.”

8:00pm, Ernest Balmer Studio
55 Mill Street (map)
Toronto, Canada
Tickets: $25/$20
www.tapestrynewopera.com    
9 Mar 2011
Oksana G. Act 1 Workshop Presentations
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March 9 and 10, 2011

From the Tapestry website:

“Sung in Ukranian, Russian and English, this opera vérité with prologue and epilogue uses non-operatic music from various cultures to enhance the composed score and drama. The tragic ménage à trois is a topic as ancient as Greek drama, but in Oksana G. it takes on a life as immediate as today’s headlines, yet honours the ingredients common to all great operas: universality, timelessness and high emotion.”

7:30pm, Ernest Balmer Studio
55 Mill Street (map)
Toronto, Canada
Tickets: $25/$20
www.tapestrynewopera.com    
Christian Baldini Interview
19 April 2010, 10:13 amTags: , , , , ,
Christian Baldini

Recently, I interviewed conductor/composer Christian Baldini for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Christian is conducting a piece by French composer, Philippe Hurel for SFCMP’s upcoming concert on April 26. Baldini is an Argentine musician by birth, currently teaching conducting at UC Davis near San Francisco.

Interestingly enough, in the process of the interview, we discovered we have some things in common, including a love of contemporary music and new opera!

28 Feb 2010
Oksana G. Orchestra Reading
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The Canadian Opera Company does a rehearsed reading of one scene from the opera I am developing with Colleen Murphy and Tapestry New Opera. This is the same scene that was workshopped in Banff in August 2009. This scene includes several of the principal roles, the chorus, full orchestra, and an electronic component.

8:00pm, Jackman Studios
227 Front Street East (map)
Toronto, Canada
www.tapestrynewopera.com    www.coc.ca    
Tapestry New Opera Works — Opera.ca
4 March 2009, 10:33 pmTags: , , , , ,

A long-term pro­ject of mine is moving for­ward this year. Tapes­try New Opera applied for and received fund­ing from Opera.ca to pro­duce the first act of the opera I have been devel­op­ing with libret­tist, Colleen Murphy. We’ll be involved in round­table dis­cus­sions on the opera in Toronto this spring, and I will be com­pos­ing the music for one act of the opera, to be work­shopped at the Banff Centre in August of this year. The act will then be fully pro­duced in the first part of 2010. More details to fol­low as they become avail­able.

The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. (2006)
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Instru­men­ta­tion: sop, ten, bari, clar, perc, pno, vln, vc, cb
Dura­tion: 15’00
Com­mis­sioned by Tapes­try New Opera Works
score view score
cmc get per­for­mance materials
Pro­gramme Note

I wrote this cham­ber opera for three singers and six instru­men­tal­ists in con­junc­tion with Colleen Murphy for Tapestry’s Opera To Go series. It tells the story of a young East­ern Euro­pean woman (Oksana) who has found her­self in the safe­house of an Ital­ian priest (Alessan­dro). She has escaped from a pimp (Kon­stan­tin), who tricked her into pros­ti­tu­tion, and now finds that she is falling in love with Alessan­dro. He in turn, despite his priestly call­ing, finds him­self tempted by Oksana. During this scene, they dance around the com­pli­ca­tions of their sit­u­a­tion, each one afraid to reveal him- or her- self to the other. In addi­tion, another prob­lem presents itself at the end of the scene.

The Secret (2005)
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Instru­men­ta­tion: sop, ten, pno
Dura­tion: 4’00
Libretto by Colleen Murphy, used by permission
score view score
cmc get per­for­mance materials
Pro­gramme Note

This is the first work I did with Colleen Murphy, while we were par­tic­i­pat­ing in Tapestry’s LibLab in August 2005. The story is about a man who has had an acci­dent, and his unfaith­ful wife/girlfriend who acci­den­tally reveals her infi­delity as she tries to com­fort him.

Scene from Euripides’ Medea (2004)
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Instru­men­ta­tion: sop, bari, flt, ob, clar, bsn, hrn, accord, vln, vc
Dura­tion: 12’00
Libretto adapted from the Greek tragedy (public domain)
score view score
Pro­gramme Note
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