Boston's Odyssey Opera Performs Two One-Acts by Dominick Argento This Weekend

Odyssey Opera, a new, Boston-based opera company dedicated to exploring the full spectrum of adventurous repertoire, presents two one-act operas by Dominick Argento (b.1927) at Suffolk University's Modern Theatre. With music and stage direction by Gil Rose, the "monodramas" A Water Bird Talk and Miss Havisham's Wedding Night provide an effective showpiece for two experienced and versatile singer-actors, Aaron Engebreth (Lecturer) and Heather Buck (Miss Havisham, pictured left).

Considered to be America's pre-eminent living composer of lyric opera, Argento has written 14 operas as well as major song cycles that are built "with wit and passion, and always with the dramatic shape and color that make them theater" (music critic Heidi Waleson). Argento himself states that he is committed to working with characters, feelings and emotions. "Dominick Argento is a true American Romantic," says Gil Rose, Artistic and General Director of Odyssey Opera. "His pieces speak from and to the heart. Nearly all of his music is driven by the soaring lines of the human voice, both instrument and vocal."

A Water Bird Talk and Miss Havisham's Wedding Night are two richly melodic one-act operas set in the 19th century and adapted from eclectic texts by Anton Chekov, John James Audubon, and Charles Dickens. Argento terms them "monodramas" - extended monologues in operatic form that blur the distinction between song cycle and dramatic work. A Water Bird Talk (1977) is a one-man enterprise to be sung by baritone Aaron Engebreth (Lecturer). Adapted from Chekhov's On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, with images and passages from Audubon's Birds of America, this 40-minute chamber-sized work takes the form of a slide lecture on the subject of birds, in particular on species whose traits and condition mirror the Lecturer's own meek personality. Argento's nimble score cleverly weaves colorful orchestration with recordings of birdcalls and off-stage coughing and throat clearing. The Boston Globe hailed Engebreth's athletic portrayal at the 2012 Monadnock Music Festival, describing his command of "the character's tragicomic pathos, yearning, and awkwardness."

A nice companion piece to the comical A Water Bird Talk is the tragic, darkly romantic Miss Havisham's Wedding Night (1981). Inspired by a character in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations, the opera is a musical illustration of the manic psychological state of the character, Miss Havisham, to be performed by soprano Heather Buck. Miss Havisham, deserted by her lover on their wedding day 50 years before, lives her life in an unstable, obsessive suspension of that disastrous moment, forever clothed in her moldering wedding gown. Miss Havisham's Wedding Night contains some of Argento's most beautiful and challenging music.

About Odyssey Opera - Founded in 2013 by Artistic Director/Conductor Gil Rose, Odyssey Opera presents adventurous and eclectic works that affirm opera as a powerful expression of the human experience. Its world-class artists perform the operatic repertoire from its historic beginnings through lesser-known masterpieces to contemporary new works and commissions in a variety of formats and venues. Odyssey Opera sets standards of high musical and theatrical excellence and innovative programming to advance the operatic genre beyond the familiar and into undiscovered territory. Odyssey Opera takes its audience on a journey to places they've never been before.

DETAILS:

WHAT: Double-bill of Dominick Argento's A Water Bird Talk + Miss Havisham's Wedding Night

WHEN: Saturday, November 22 at 8:00pm + Sunday, November 23 at 3:00pm

WHERE: Suffolk University's Modern Theatre, 525 Washington St, Boston, MA, 02111 Train: State/Park

TICKETS: $50 and up, Students + Seniors $5 Off, Special Discounts for WGBH + WBUR members. To purchase, visit odysseyopera.org.

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