Matt Marks News

PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now is pleased to announce programming for the seventh annual festival of fresh opera-theatre & music-theatre running January 5-13, 2019, featuring eight presentations that "shift the whole paradigm of what opera is and can be" (New York Observer).

The 2018 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF) will be held Monday, July 23 through Saturday, July 28, featuring three concerts of new music presented at the Missouri Theatre, 203 South 9th Street in Columbia:

Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced Utah Opera's 2018-19 season. Featuring two new productions by the company's in-house Production Studios, Utah Opera's 41st season runs from October 2018 to May 2019 and comprises three main-stage productions at Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and a semi-staged production at Abravanel Hall.

Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced Utah Opera's 2018-19 season. Featuring two new productions by the company's in-house Production Studios, Utah Opera's 41st season runs from October 2018 to May 2019 and comprises three main-stage productions at Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and a semi-staged production at Abravanel Hall.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its series of holiday operas with the world premiere presentation of The House without a Christmas Tree by the widely admired composer/librettist team of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek, in the HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The opera is based on the uplifting story by Gail Rock and the beloved 1972 television film of the same name about a family that is healed by the holiday spirit. A precocious daughter struggles to understand her father's resentment of the holidays and longs for a beautiful Christmas tree like other families have, to make her house look happy. The opera includes a new setting of the carol Gather Around the Christmas Tree, sung by a juvenile chorus. Tickets for the new venue are available at HGO.org. Group discounts are available. Parking for HGO's performances will be available at the Avenida North garage located at 1815 Rusk Street, across from HGO's new venue. A sky bridge connects the parking garage to the GRB, and there is clear signage directing patrons to the theater. More information about parking can be found here.

The life and times of the spy-as-femme-fatale, Mata Hari, has always attracted the interest of film and stage artists. Now we have the Matt Marks-Paul Peers opera MATA HARI—which opened New York's fifth Prototype Festival last week and continues through Saturday the 14th—though I think of it as more of a dance than an opera. Not literally, of course, but dramatically, as a dance of death for the title character and the men (and one woman) who surround her in this compelling, though somewhat messy, work.

Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now invigorates New York City tonight, January 5, through January 15, 2017, with its fifth annual explosion of provocative and pioneering opera- and music-theatre, curated by co-founding producers, Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of Beth Morrison Projects) and Kim Whitener (of HERE).

Beth Morrison Projects and HERE's fifth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival begins this week, running January 5-15!

For a new opera to have its second major showing less than four months after its premiere is unheard of—but then BREAKING THE WAVES, based on the Lars Von Trier film of the same name, isn't just any opera. This triumph by composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek, and direction by James Darrah—with a star-making turn by soprano Kiera Duffy in the central role of Bess—debuted at Opera Philadelphia last September and is having its New York premiere on January 6-9, 2017, over the first weekend of the Prototype Festival at NYU's Skirball Center.

For one night only, singer/songwriter Jeremy Schonfeld's Iron & Coal will make its U.S. debut at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. The original concept album will be presented in concert with vibrant multimedia content today, December 6, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust (80 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249).

For one night only, singer/songwriter Jeremy Schonfeld's Iron & Coal will make its U.S. debut at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. The original concept album will be presented in concert with vibrant multimedia content on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at National Sawdust (80 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249).

Tribeca New Music continues its 2016-2017 Festival season with a doubleheader concert featuring pianist Kathleen Supove and composer Neil Rolnick as they perform works from their new CDs The Debussy Effect (Supove) and EX MACHINA (Rolnick).

Tribeca New Music opens its 2017 Festival season with violinist Yuki Numata Resnick as she performs the complete works from her newly released album, For Ko, on Innova Recordings.

Tribeca New Music opens its 2017 Festival season with violinist Yuki Numata Resnick as she performs the complete works from her newly released album, For Ko, on Innova Recordings.

I attended the world premiere of THE HUNGER, a new operatic work by Donnacha Dennehy in collaboration with the group Alarm Will Sound, and co-produced by Opera Theatre of St. Louis this weekend, and I was blown away by how affecting and compelling this 90 minute piece is. It's a multi-media exercise that attempts to convey a sense of the seven year famine that Ireland suffered through from 1845 - 1852. It was a time of starvation and widespread disease that saw many families emigrate to other countries, cutting the overall population by a nearly a quarter. This production at the Touhill (September 17, 2016) is both harrowing and invigorating in equal measure, and an absolute must-see for people interested in modern opera.

Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now invigorates New York City January 5-15, 2017, with its fifth annual explosion of provocative and pioneering opera- and music-theatre, curated by co-founding producers, Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of Beth Morrison Projects) and Kim Whitener (of HERE).

HERE has announced its 2016-2017 producing season, featuring three HERE Resident Artist world premieres, two international presentations from HERE's renowned Dream Music Puppetry Program, the fifth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, and HERE's yearly CULTUREMART festival, where HERE serves up a first look at new work in process from artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

HERE announces its 2015-2016 producing season, featuring three HERE Resident Artist productions, an Artistic Director production, the fourth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival and HERE's yearly CULTUREMART festival, which gives audiences a first look at new work in process from artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).  The multidisciplinary works in HERE's 2015-2016 season represent the culmination of commissions and developmental residencies of up to three years through HARP, and/or the Dream Music Puppetry Program.

The New York Composers Circle will present a concert of new music at 7:30 PM tonight, April 21 at Saint Peter's Church, Citigroup Center, 619 Lexington Ave. in Manhattan.

The New York Composers Circle will present a concert of new music at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, April 21 at Saint Peter's Church, Citigroup Center, 619 Lexington Ave. in Manhattan.