Mark Campbell News

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion of American opera, is pleased to announce the recipients of the second cycle of Innovation Grants, generously funded by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

The Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) is pleased to announce that its second annual award for Best New Opera has been given to composer David Hertzberg for The Wake World, which received its premiere on September 18, 2017, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia in a co-presentation with The Barnes Foundation. The award was created to honor musical and theatrical excellence in a fully staged opera that received its world premiere in North America during the preceding calendar year. The inaugural award went to  Breaking the Waves, composed by Missy Mazzoli with libretto by Royce Vavrek.

Washington National Opera concludes its 2017-2018 season with the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein's biting satire Candide, May 5-26, 2018, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Candide is one of Bernstein's most popular and enduring works, blurring the lines between opera and musical theater. Heading the all-American cast are three powerhouses from the world of opera: tenor Alek Shrader in his WNO debut in the title role, soprano Kathryn Lewek as his forlorn love interest Cunegonde, and WNO audience favorite and local legend Denyce Graves as the Old Lady. This new-to-Washington production, the centerpiece of the Kennedy Center's season-long Leonard Bernstein at 100 celebration, is directed by WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and conducted by Nicole Paiement.

The new incarnation of Skylark Opera Theatre, under new Artistic Director Robert Neu, is presenting their third work of accessible, intimate opera. As someone who usually stays on the musical theater side of the music-theater spectrum, this approach seems like a good one for me, sort of bridging that gap between opera and music theater. After last year's stripped down adaptation of CARMEN and an immersive DON GIOVANNI, they're now presenting a contemporary opera about a very timely subject. AS ONE is a two-person 90-minute English language opera about Hannah, a transgender woman becoming herself. She is played by both a man and a woman, pre- and post-transition. It's a beautiful, heart-breaking, inspirational, ultimately hopeful story gorgeously told through music. The intimate new space that is North Garden Theater, in St. Paul's West 7th neighborhood, is the perfect location to experience this sparse-in-spectacle but rich-in-substance opera. But act fast - only three more performances remain this weekend.

The upcoming April 26 concert by American Modern Ensemble represents two firsts: it is the ensemble's first concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (or any of the Carnegie halls) in its 13-year history, and it is the first program devoted completely to the vocal works of composer and AME founder Robert Paterson (and the second all-Paterson program). About the program, which features six works for voice and piano, including three world premieres, Paterson says, "The texts are wildly diverse, and include poems constructed from reCAPTCHA texts (those texts you type online to prove that you're human), songs about the life of baseball catcher Mike Piazza, online dating, and settings of poems by W. H. Auden, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Richard Wilbur, William Carlos Williams, Sara Teasdale, David Cote (my collaborator on the opera Three Way), and others."

When Opera Philadelphia's inaugural Festival O launched the present season, the opera world responded with a standing ovation, welcoming it as 'one of the most enjoyable additions to the fall calendar in years'

Texas Christian University's School of Music is proud to present the world premiere of a new opera, The Falling and the Rising, by contemporary artistic duo Zach Redler, composer, and Jerre Dye, librettist. The new opera paints a powerful portrait of the incredible resiliency, fortitude and heroism of our nation's wounded warriors, and is the culmination of a large-scale project commissioned by TCU together with the Arizona Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Memphis, Seagle Music Colony, Seattle Opera and the U.S. Department of Defense. A product of the TCU School of Music's dedication to commissioning new music, The Falling and the Rising will premiere at 7 p.m. April 6 at Ed Landreth Hall and Auditorium and run for five performances.

When Opera Philadelphia's inaugural Festival O launched the present season, the opera world responded with a standing ovation, welcoming it as "one of the most enjoyable additions to the fall calendar in years"

There is no comparison to the amazing creative expression director Julie Taymor has woven into Disney's 'The Lion King.' This beautiful presentation of the iconic animated film is built on a collective of striking theatrical elements indicative of theatre styles found on a global scale. The artistic expression found in this touring company is candy for your eyes and ears that you cannot get enough of.

The Living Libretto: Opera in Eden gives audiences a first glimpse at three new one-act operas being written by first year resident artists in American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP)

World premieres of an oratorio about the Underground Railroad that sets narratives of slaves running for freedom and their lives, and a work that sets poems calling for peace in Farsi, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English: Sanctuary Road, music by Paul Moravec and text by Mark Campbell based upon the writings of William Still, a conductor for the Underground Railroad; and We Are One for chorus and orchestra by Behzad Ranjbaran, both completed within the last year, will be given their first performances by the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) led by Music Director Kent Tritle as the culminating concert of the OSNY's 145th season on Monday, May 7, 2018, at Carnegie Hall.

Ahead of the opening of priority booking for Friends of the Festival on Saturday, 24 March, details of the full programme for the 67th Wexford Festival Opera are announced. Continuing its tradition of presenting the 'best operas rarely seen', this year's Festival includes a verismo double-bill, a European premiere and a classic Wexford offering involving kidnapping, murder, arson and a posh New York dinner party that doesn't quite go to plan! All this plus three daytime ShortWorks operas, concerts, recitals, theatre and talks. 62 public events over the autumn 17-day period.

American Lyric Theater presents The Living Libretto: Opera in Eden on March 18, 2018 at 3pm at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYC.

The Art of the Score, exploring some of the most distinctive uses of music in film, will return for its fifth season with Amadeus: Live, the New York Premiere screening of Amadeus with the Mozart-centered score performed live to the complete film. Conducted by Richard Kaufman in his Philharmonic debut and featuring Musica Sacra, directed by Kent Tritle, Amadeus: Live will take place Wednesday, April 11, 2018, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 13 at 11:00 a.m.; Saturday, April l4 at 7:30 p.m.; and Tuesday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. On April 11 actor Alec Baldwin - Philharmonic Board Member and Artistic Advisor of The Art of the Score - and special guest F. Murray Abraham - who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Salieri - will introduce the film.

SKYLARK OPERA THEATRE IS THRILLED TO PRESENT The Minnesota premiere of AS ONE. Music and Concept by Laura Kaminsky. Libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. Film by Kimberly Reed. Starring Luke Williams as Hannah Before and Bergen Baker as Hannah After Robert Neu, Director Jeffrey Stirling, Music Director

American Lyric Theater presents The Living Libretto: Opera in Eden on March 18, 2018 at 3pm at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $20.

Rooted in its history as an animated treasure since its release in 1994, 'The Lion King' manages to transform into a visual masterpiece on the stage as well-and has maintained its rightful place in Broadway royalty for nearly 21 years.

Washington National Opera (WNO), led by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, announces its 2018-2019 season, one that continues its focus on bold productions of classic operas, fascinating contemporary perspectives, and the best in American artistry. The season includes a new WNO production of Verdi's classic romantic drama La traviata, the company premiere of Kevin Puts's and Mark Campbell's Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night, Tchaikovsky's epic Eugene Onegin, Gounod's devilishly entertaining Faust, and Puccini's towering masterpiece Tosca. The season also features a weekend of four world premieres during the American Opera Initiative Festival; a revival of WNO's hit world-premiere holiday family opera The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me; a special Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist performance of La traviata; and other exciting vocal events, including the annual Mars, lnc.'s Opera in the Outfield.

In many areas of the arts in New York, January is a quiet month. But in the opera world, the last few weeks certainly have been jumping. It has also been a fine time for asking 'What is an Opera?' For me, January started with Prototype 2018's ACQUANETTA and ended this past weekend--with many in between--with New York City Opera's 'first mariachi opera,' CRUZAR LA CARA DE LA LUNA (TO CROSS THE FACE OF THE MOON).

Casting has been announced for the Orlando return engagement of Disney's The Lion King. The show's first appearance in the Walt Disney Theater at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and it's third time to Orlando, the four-week engagement runs from February 14 through March 11.