OPERA America Next Stage Grants 2020

OPERA America announce the eight Professional Company Members receiving a total of $250,000 as part of the newly reestablished Next Stage Grants program.

The grants support the presentation of second or subsequent productions of existing, underperformed North American works, with the opportunity to edit, adjust, and refine the works for new audiences. Next Stage Grants are generously funded by Gene Kaufman, Terry Eder-Kaufman, and New Vision for NYC Opera, with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The recipients of this round of Next Stage Grants are:

• Anchorage Opera (Anchorage, AK) for Missing

• El Paso Opera (El Paso, TX) for Frida

• IN Series (Washington, D.C.) for I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky • Knoxville Opera (Knoxville, TN) for Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom • Michigan Opera Theatre (Detroit, MI) for X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X

• Odyssey Opera (Boston, MA) for The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe

• Opera Parallèle (San Francisco, CA) for Harvey Milk

• Opera Saratoga (Saratoga Springs, NY) for Sky on Swings

See below for details about all the funded initiatives.

The grantees were selected from a pool of 35 applications, which were adjudicated by an independent panel of experts consisting of Cori Ellison, dramaturg, American Lyric Theater; Kelly Kuo, artistic director, Oregon Mozart Players; David T. Little, composer; Alison Moritz, stage director; and Luna Pearl Woolf, composer and dramaturg.

Next Stage Grants award up to 50 percent of performance costs: up to $25,000 to present an existing production, up to $50,000 to originate a new production, or up to $75,000 to originate a new production as part of a consortium. Supplemental support is available for score, libretto, or orchestration revisions.

"OPERA America is committed to building the American opera repertoire. In addition to supporting the creation and production of new works, this effort must include the review and revision of works that have great merit, but have been underperformed since their premieres," stated Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO of OPERA America. "Thanks to the generosity of Gene Kaufman and Terry Eder-Kaufman, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, these works can be refreshed and reintroduced to new audiences."

Next Stage Grants were first offered in the late 1990s. The revival of this program is part of a larger strategy dedicated to increasing the number and diversity of works in the American opera canon that includes Repertoire Development Grants, Opera Grants for Female Composers, IDEA Opera Grants, IDEA Opera Residencies, and the newly announced Campbell Opera Librettist Prize. Since the inception of its granting programs, OPERA America has awarded over $20 million to support the work of opera creators and companies.

Visit operaamerica.org/Grants to learn more about OPERA America's complete grant offerings.

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