Concert Workshop Of JUDGMENT OF MIDAS To Be Performed By AOP 5/11

AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS (AOP) will present a concert workshop of scenes from Judgment of Midas, the first opera by Turkish-American composer Kamran Ince, on Saturday, May 9, 8pm and on Monday, May 11, 7:30pm at South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The story of the mythical musical battle between Apollo and Pan, Judgment of Midas is slated for production in 2010 in Turkey to mark the 50th anniversary of the archaeological excavations of Sardis/Lydia where the musical contest was set. A post-show reception with the creators will take place after each performance. Tickets are $10.

The piano-vocal workshop will include performances by tenor John Duykers (The Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera), mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer (Bronx Opera, AOP) and tenor Matt Morgan (New York City Opera, New Orleans Opera) under the musical direction of J. David Jackson (5/9) and Jonathan Khuner (5/11) with Charity Wicks on piano.

Judgment of Midas features a libretto by Miriam Seidel (Violet Fire at BAM) and takes as its starting point a series of mythical musical contests described in Ovid's Metamorphoses between Pan, maker of "street" music-music of the people-and Apollo, maker of the Gods' music-the spiritual or "high" music and judged by King Midas on Mount Tmolus, near the current excavation site in Sardis, Turkey. The opera's musical language will exploit popular, ethnic, and folk musical styles side by side with serious music of epic proportions, creating a vivid blaze of musical contrasts.

The opera is being commissioned and developed to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sardis/Lydia excavations (sponsored by Harvard and Cornell Universities) and is slated for production in 2010. It marks the first collaboration between American Opera Projects and Berkeley Opera in California, led by music director Jonathan Khuner.

Judgment of Midas is part of American Opera Projects' First Chance series, a seasonal program that allows composers and librettists to hear their work in part or in full for the first time before an audience, with live singers and accompaniment. AOP produced a libretto reading of the opera in November 2007 in Brooklyn.

Tickets to Judgment of Midas are $10 and may be reserved by calling 718-398-4024 or by visiting www.operaprojects.org.