DINNER 4 3, live

 

DINNER 4 3, my mini opera with librettist Deborah Brevoort, plays in Singapore on December third. It plays with Tony Solitro's SHE'S FABULOUS and Samuel Barber's HAND OF BRIDGE.

Commissioned by Fargo Moorhead opera as part of the Decameron Opera Coalition, DINNER 4 3 premiered online during the pandemic. This will be its first live production, which will be followed by a live version in Fargo later this year. 

Thanks L'arietta productions!

Amarillo

 Just had a great time doing BARBER OF SEVILLE in Amarillo. The cast (pictured: Ashley Dixon, Andrew Brown, Federico de Michelis, Carlos Santelli, and Tim Mix) was terrific--they sang out in rehearsal practically all the time and were such fun onstage. The production, by Fenlon Lamb, was just right for Amarillo--inventive, lighthearted, and very streamlined.  I am envisioning this as my sixth and last BARBER. My conducting is mostly a process of "stealing from the best" and after six productions I think I've learned lots of lessons from it. 
 

An additional bonus is that I got some nice action photos from my longtime host, Bill Byrd. 

BOW(EL) MUSIC

 I just dictated a text message about BOW MUSIC and it wrote down BOWEL MUSIC.

I can be a sh*ty composer, but I would never stoop so low.

Interview and a New Song

 

I recently recorded a zoom interview with mezzo soprano Audrey Johnson for her "Of thee I sing" series. I met Audrey when she sang Berta in a production of BARBER OF SEVILLE I was conducting at Shreveport Opera. The format of the interview concludes with singing a song. The song we selected is a new one, "Pondering Twilight." The song is published in Northstar Music's Modern Music for New Singers series. This lyric might be a little dark for a song meant to be sung by a young singer, but young people ponder their fate and future all the time. Thank you, Audrey!

When I see the coming twilight of my days

I hope I still can change my ways

And still learn something new

Let go of enmity

Forge new friendships

Thank those who helped me before they are gone

Apologize to those I have wronged

I hope that I will still bring something valuable to the table when asked

Not just stuff about the good 'ol days, or how it used to be

And when it's time for me to go,

I'll know it and slip gracefully away,

Ready to embrace what's in store

Even if its... nothing.

EIGHT WOODS AND A VAN

The main purpose of this post is to provide a link to further information about my 2018 opera, EIGHT WOODS AND A VAN. This 33 minute opera was commissioned and premiered by Cedar Rapids Opera and is about the life of the painter Grant Wood. You can download the information here. It's a direct download pdf. It hasn't been done since the 2018 premiere and is definitely good enough and easy enough to be done again! 

Per la gloria arrangement

Several years ago I did some arrangements of the old Italian songs. They were premiered by the artists in residence at Opera Memphis. One of them was Per la gloria d'adorarvi. A few years later, I borrowed the arrangement and put it into Speed Dating Tonight! #29-#30. The idea is that the daters are talking while the song is playing in the background. Because of balance, it's tricky and the singer singing the song can cover the daters. 

We are giving it another try right now at Taos Opera Institute, where we will be doing Speed Dating Tonight! for the second time in late June 2022. Here's a lovely phone recording of one of the participants Gabriel Chona Rueda, who is a student at University of British Columbia.  

 

 

Interview about ALICE AND ANNA

Interview about ALICE RYLEY AND ANNA HUNTER

Earlier this week I did an Instagram Live interview with Savannah Voice Festival Artistic Director Jorge Parodi about ALICE AND ANNA. You can view it here. Jorge was interested in the process of figuring out the story, writing the libretto, and composing the music. I was my usual opinionated self, talking about the need for repetition, melody, many more female characters, and a contemporary point of view--why will a modern audience member be interested in these stories, set in the 1730s and 1940s-50s. 

ALICE AND ANNA plays in Savannah (hey that rhymes!) August 12 and 13, 2022.  The first one act, ALICE RYLEY premiered in 2015 and ANNA HUNTER played for the first time a few years later. COVID-19 delayed their culmination as a full evening. 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Voices%20of%20the%20festival 

National Opera Association board meeting in Houston

I'm proud to be on the board of the National Opera Association, which serves opera at colleges, universities, and small opera companies. We recently had a board meeting in Houston, which is the location for the January 2023 conference. Since the most active members are usually the directors of university opera programs, I'm able to provide a bit of a perspective from other parts of the opera ecosystem such as professional companies and composers. I particularly would encourage composers to think about writing operas that can be performed by small and medium sized college programs. (The largest universities and conservatories can often do what professional opera companies can do.) NOA has a vocal competition, a scenes program competition, a bi-annual new one act opera competition, and an important new composer fellowship supported by the estate of Dominick Argento. 

 

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, this time with orchestration

Thanks to Courtney Kalbacker, the intrepid and enthusiastic opera producer and teacher at Towson University, my version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM had its first production in ten years. Originally premiered in 2011 with an all a cappella voicestra in the pit, it's been perceived--perhaps correctly--as very difficult to produce. Now, with a small orchestration of eight winds, much of the difficulty has gone away. These winds, along with a keyboard, keep the voicestra on pitch, but still allow the show to retain its a cappella character.

COVID provided much drama, but the double cast group of 57 managed to have only one drop out due to the pandemic. 

This is, IMO, my best work and I have Jay Mednikow and DeltaCappella to thank for it bringing it to life and making the cast recording, along with Opera Memphis and Playhouse on the Square for the 2011 production. I now have Courtney to thank for seeing the potential in MIDSUMMER as a perfect work for midsized university opera programs.

You can get the piano vocal perusal score here (an autodownload) and there will be video samples available soon.

 

Introducing Reg Huston (Thank you Susanne Mentzer)

 

Earlier this month, Susanne Mentzer did a concert of premieres at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. It featured new songs by fourteen different composers! All of the texts were written by Reg Huston during the pandemic, hence the title: STANDING STILL: STILL STANDING, Thoughts from a pandemic isolation. I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to Reg's work and promise there is more to come. There were so many new songs on the program that Susanne didn't premiere all of them. Here's one of mine from the concert, "Heaven's Gaze." It's performed by Matthew Worth and Kevin Korth. 

What can heaven show me

that I can’t see in your eyes;

when I look upon their beauty

they reflect the starry skies.

What can nature offer,

what magnificence, indeed;

your humanity is deeper

than all of her vast seas.

Can the mountain ranges

overpower the strength you own;

they bow in humbled silence

by the goodness that you’ve sown.

They cast empty shadows

but your light shines through, I find;

and your laughter echoes clearly

and your kindness clears my mind.

When I look to heaven

and I seek to find what’s true,

I am thankful that you love me

and that "heaven’s gaze" is you.

Reg Huston

December 30, 2020