Aaron Gervais, composer » opera http://aarongervais.com Website for composer Aaron Gervais Wed, 09 May 2012 13:22:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Oksana G. Act 2 Workshop Performance http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-2-workshop-performance/ http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-2-workshop-performance/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 16:54:41 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/?p=1893 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.”

]]> http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-2-workshop-performance/feed/ 0 Oksana G. Act 2 Workshop Performance http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-2-workshops/ http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-2-workshops/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 16:51:02 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/?p=1889 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.”

]]> http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-2-workshops/feed/ 0 Oksana G. Act 1 Workshop Presentations http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-1-workshop-presentations/ http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-1-workshop-presentations/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:17:37 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/?p=1408 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.”

]]> http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-act-1-workshop-presentations/feed/ 0 Christian Baldini Interview http://aarongervais.com/blog/christian-baldini-interview/ http://aarongervais.com/blog/christian-baldini-interview/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:13:44 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/?p=1083 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!

]]> http://aarongervais.com/blog/christian-baldini-interview/feed/ 0 Oksana G. Orchestra Reading http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-orchestra-reading/ http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-orchestra-reading/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:17:55 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/?p=946 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.

]]> http://aarongervais.com/performances/oksana-g-orchestra-reading/feed/ 0 Tapestry New Opera Works — Opera.ca http://aarongervais.com/news/tapestry-new-opera-works-opera-ca/ http://aarongervais.com/news/tapestry-new-opera-works-opera-ca/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:33:43 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/wp/?p=259 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.

]]> http://aarongervais.com/news/tapestry-new-opera-works-opera-ca/feed/ 0 The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. http://aarongervais.com/music/the-enslavement-and-liberation-of-oksana-g/ http://aarongervais.com/music/the-enslavement-and-liberation-of-oksana-g/#comments Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:29:24 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/wp/?p=356 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.

]]> http://aarongervais.com/music/the-enslavement-and-liberation-of-oksana-g/feed/ 0 The Secret http://aarongervais.com/music/the-secret/ http://aarongervais.com/music/the-secret/#comments Sun, 07 Aug 2005 08:28:25 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/wp/?p=421 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.

]]> http://aarongervais.com/music/the-secret/feed/ 0 Scene from Euripides’ Medea http://aarongervais.com/music/scene-from-euripides-medea/ http://aarongervais.com/music/scene-from-euripides-medea/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2005 08:19:58 +0000 Aaron Gervais http://aarongervais.com/wp/?p=415 http://aarongervais.com/music/scene-from-euripides-medea/feed/ 0