Morning Star

Based on Sylvia Regan’s play and on parallels with the composer’s own family, Morning Star is a deeply touching character piece about life among Jewish immigrants in New York City’s Lower East Side, where the family must learn how to adapt to the country’s ever-changing landscape. Hope blossoms and is dashed as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, World War I, and the Great Depression lead to death, divorce, and despair. Through it all, William M. Hoffman’s colorful libretto and Ricky Ian Gordon’s engaging score maintain charming threads of love and optimism, comedy amid tragedy, and luscious sonorities featuring a large cast of singers – in English, Yiddish, Italian, and Haitian French.