Commissioned by Opernhaus Zürich, the world premiere of Marc-André Dalbavie’s opera Gesualdo [Billaudot] took place in Switzerland on October 9th, with additional performances throughout the month and in November.

Dalbavie takes the stranger-than-fiction accounts of the 16th-century composer Carlo Gesualdo in the latter part of his life, when, after the death of his infant son and withdrawn from public life, he struggles with neurosis, masochism, and guilt for the murder of his first wife and her lover 20 years earlier.

Gesualdo
Opera in 3 Acts, with libretto by Richard Millet
for 8 voices, choir and orchestra, in French, surtitled in English and German
Dur: 2 hours
Performance materials on rental; score available for sale

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Rob meets a tall, good-looking man named Joe Coogan on a public golf course. When he learns by chance that Joe was once in love with Laura, courting her by writing her love sonnets, he becomes uncharacteristically jealous and insecure. When Laura invites Joe to dinner, Rob counters by inviting his co-writer Sally to flirt with Joe. Unbeknownst to Rob, Joe is now a priest! The mix-up leads to a zany dinner party and a surprise ending.

Dur: 60'
Cast: 2 Soprano, 1 Mezzo-soprano, 1 Tenor, 2 Baritone, 1 Bass-baritone, 1 Speaking role
Instr: A.Sax. Tpt. Tbn. 1Perc.(incl. trap set) Pno. 2Vln. Vla. Vcl. Cb.

May be presented in a double bill with Tony Caruso's Final Broadcast (some role doublings possible)
[Merion Music]

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The Family Room is a drama/mystery about two women who find a very fragile strength in the face of adversity. Written for Lauren Flanigan and Catherine Malfitano, the libretto is by Daphne Malfitano.

     Cast: Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Actor
     Dur: 85’
     Instr: 1 1 1 1 – 1 1 1 0; Pno. Hp. Str.5tet(or section)

• available for premiere

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Dicken’s A Christmas Carol leaves us with Scrooge as a reformed character, and Tiny Tim still holding on to his fragile life. But what happens next? God Bless Us, Everyone (The Christmas Spirit) takes place after Scrooge has died, but he reappears as a happy ghost. DiCapo Opera Theatre presents the world premiere performances on December 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th.

     Instr: 1(d.Picc.) 1(d.E.H.) 1(d.B.Cl.) 1 – 1 1 1 0; Pno. Hp. Str.5tet(or section)
     Voices: 2 Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Tenor, Baritone, 2 Bass-baritone, Chorus

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What lies beyond the yellow wallpaper? A woman confined to her bedroom by her well-meaning yet misguided husband struggles with motherhood, imprisonment, isolation and madness. Sentenced to a country rest cure to remedy her nervous condition after the birth of her son, The Woman writes a secret journal in a stifling domestic situation which allows no more than two hours intellectual life a day. In her furtive scribbling, she describes her initial joys to her ultimate descent into madness as she creates a reality of her own which lies beyond the hypnotic pattern of the faded yellow wallpaper - a pattern that has come to symbolize her imprisonment.

Written for soprano Lucy Schaufer, Dan Welcher’s chamber opera, The Yellow Wallpaper, is based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s shocking and seminal short story from 1892, drawn from her own experiences of the treatment she received for severe depression.

     Cast: Mezzo-soprano or Dramatic Soprano; Off-stage Soprano
     Dur: 85’
     Instr: 1(d.Picc.) 1(d.E.H.) 1 1 – 1 1 0 0; 1Perc. Pno./Syn. Hp. Str.(min.1 1 1 1 1; pref. 4 4 3 2 1)

• available for premiere

for more information, visit The Yellow Wallpaper

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Scheduled for premiere in 2013, and commissioned by Minnesota Opera, who also commissioned and premiered The Grapes of Wrath in 2007.

Once again teaming up with The Grapes of Wrath librettist Michael Korie, Gordon has chosen the novel The Garden of the Finzi Continis by Giorgio Bassani as the basis of his next opera for Minnesota. The novel depicts the lives and relationships of a group of young Italian Jews during the rise of fascism. When the younger members of the wealthy Finzi-Contini family are prohibited from interacting with Christians, they decide to form a tennis club in their garden, which continues until the escalation of the war begins to affect their activities.

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In 2011, Gordon’s new theatrical song cycle, Rappahannock County, will premiere at the Virginia Arts Festival, performed by the Virginia Opera, starting on April 12th, marking the exact day of the start of the American Civil War, when Confederate Forces attacked Fort Sumter in 1861. The libretto, by Mark Campbell, weaves a fictional story inspired by letters, diaries, and personal accounts during the Civil War. However, with imaginative direction and the use of props, the work moves beyond a song-cycle to an engrossing dramatic presentation. The work is co-produced and co-commissioned by the Virginia Opera, Virginia Arts Festival, the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, and the Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas in Austin, where it will receive subsequent performances.

dur: 80’
voices: Soprano (African-American), Mezzo-soprano (Caucasian), Tenor (Caucasian), 2 Baritone (1 African-American, 1 Caucasian)
instr: 1(d.Picc.) 1(d.E.H.) 2(d.B.Cl.) 1 – 1 1(d.Flglhn.) 1 0; Timp. Perc. Pno.(d.Cel.) Str.(3Vln. 2Vla. 2Vcl. 2Cb.)

For more information, please read this preview from The Virginian-Pilot

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premiere: April 29th, 2011. Sylvia Vadimova, mezzo-soprano, TM+ ensemble orchestral de la musique d’aujourd’hui,
     conducted by Laurent Cuniot, directed by Philippe Mercier; Maison de la Musique de Nanterre,

dur: 60’
voice: Mezzo-soprano
instr: 1 1 2 0 – 2 0 0 0; Perc. Hp. 2Vln. 2Vla. 2Vcl. Cb.

At the heart of the show, of the music, the text and emotion, is a voice; or rather, a woman searching for her lost voice, her identity. Singing to rediscover singing and regain a place in the world of men. In four tableaux - in a taxi, at a café, in her bed, on a walk in the country - this woman gets into trouble with her voice, as if her voice is no longer in synch with her, or with her body; as if her body and voice are no longer one. The fifth and final tableau brings about a recovery, reuniting the fragments, which burst forth in the throat of this woman who is revealed in her humanity, nakedness and sensuality.

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