Teatro Grattacielo to Present World Premiere of JEFFERSON LIVES! With SUOR ANGELICA
The commissioned opera features music by Joshua Daniel Nichols and a libretto by Stefanos Koroneos.
Teatro Grattacielo will present its America 250 double bill, bringing together the world premiere of Jefferson Lives!and a new production of Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica on November 7 at 4:00 PM and November 8 at 3:00 PM at The Sam at The Flea Theater, 20 Thomas St, New York, NY, 10007. Tickets start at $60 and can be purchased here.
Jefferson Lives! is Teatro Grattacielo's first commissioned opera, created in collaboration with Polyhymnia, with music by Joshua Daniel Nichols, a libretto by Stefanos Koroneos, and concept and source material by James Harrigan. Receiving its world premiere as part of the national commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the opera examines the American Revolution not as distant or fixed history, but as a living human and psychological experience.
Through the ghostly presence of John Adams and a modern figure drawn unexpectedly into the past, Jefferson Lives! traces the movement of revolutionary ideas from private thought into public action, revealing the doubt, moral pressure, and personal consequence behind America's struggle for independence.
The world premiere is paired with Puccini's Suor Angelica, presented in a new production shaped by memory, absence, and the lives of women whose voices have been silenced. In this interpretation, Angelica is the only living presence in a convent inhabited by ghosts-women who once obeyed, loved, and surrendered parts of themselves within a system that demanded submission.
Together, the two operas explore freedom from opposite but connected perspectives: Jefferson Lives! considers liberty as a civic and political struggle, while Suor Angelica examines its deeply personal and spiritual cost. An empire tightening its control and a convent demanding obedience become parallel worlds in which individual conviction is tested against institutions far larger than the individual.
Jefferson Lives! and Suor Angelica will be presented together on November 7 and 8, with one intermission.
