Guerilla Opera Looks To The Future In Their Season Finale

Whet your appetite for the "enterprising" (Opera News) Guerilla Opera's productions and recordings to come at "Emergence I," a concert presentation featuring a first-listen to new music from Mischa Salkind-Pearl's A Dead Body based on the short story by Anton Chekhov, libretto by Franny Zhang, as well as beloved revivals of Marti Epstein's magical Rumpelstiltskin and Per Bloland's dark and brilliant Pedr Solis with libretto by Paul Schick."Emergence I" plays on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 8:00PM in the OBERON at 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Admission is $20.00 and tickets can be purchased online at cluboberon.com, by phone at 617-547-8300 and at-the-door one hour before curtain at the OBERON.

Adapted from The Brothers Grimm fairy-tale, Epstein's Rumpelstiltskin is a tragedy about a hideously deformed little man with mysterious magic powers who believes that he is unlovable. Co-founding artist Aliana de la Guardia revives her original title role in a new semi-staged concert production featuring shadow puppetry by Iranian theater artist Deniz Khateri. Scored for two sopranos, mezzo-soprano, baritone, violin, cello, saxophone and percussion, Rumpelstiltskin by Marti Epstein was commissioned and premiered by Guerilla Opera in 2009. The new production is scheduled for Spring 2019.

Pedr Solis is partially based on The Tower, a play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and the life of Norwegian author Pedr Solis. In 1970, Solis' novel Stillaset spills into his real life in Oslo. The Nordic god Loki narrates. Scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, countertenor, baritone, violin, clarinet, saxophone, percussion and electronics, the opera is full of "deliberate and often compelling abrasion" (The Boston Globe). Commissioned and premiered by Guerilla Opera in 2015, will be recorded in the Fall of 2018.

Composer Mischa Salkind-Pearl and librettist Franny Zheng team up to set Anton Chekhov's dark and mysterious A Dead Body, in which a traveler encounters two people keeping watch over a dead body. Scored for soprano, countertenor, baritone, violin, clarinet, saxophone and percussion this world premiere opera is currently scheduled for Fall 2019.

The performing ensemble includes Guerilla Opera co-stars: baritone Brian Church and soprano Aliana de la Guardia reprising original roles, violinist Gabriela Diaz, clarinetist Rane Moore, saxophonist Philipp Stäudlin, percussionist and artistic director Mike Williams, and newcomers: cellist Stephen Marotto, mezzo-soprano Carrie Cheron and soprano Rose Hegele.

This concert is made possible through the generosity of Timothy and Jane Gillette, The Amphion Foundation and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where Guerilla Opera is an Ensemble-in-Residence.

For more information visit Guerilla Opera online at www.guerillaopera.org; like them on Facebook at facebook.com/guerillaopera, and follow @guerillaoperaon twitter.com/guerillaoperaand instagram.com/guerillaoperausing #EmergenceI and #GOSeason11.

Guerilla Opera is a Boston-based experimental opera company now in its 11th season. Its mission is to commission new chamber operas written specifically for their ensemble of artists, and to perform in intimate theatrical settings without the use of a conductor or formal music director. Guerilla Opera is a 2017-2018 Ensemble-in-Residence at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Visit guerillaopera.org for more information,

To post a comment, you must register and login.