Cincinnati Opera and CCM to Workshop New Opera by Carlos Simon, Lynn Nottage, and Ruby Aiyo Gerber

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Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music have revealed the next workshop in their joint program, Opera Fusion: New Works.

In March 2024, the partners will host a workshop of Act I of the new two-act opera The Highlands, with music by GRAMMY-nominated composer Carlos Simon and a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and her daughter, poet and writer Ruby Aiyo Gerber. The Highlands is a commission of the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program, a co-venture between the two institutions that aims to nurture, promote, and stage new opera and music theater works.

Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is co-directed by Robin Guarino, professor of opera at CCM, and Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera, and provides composers and librettists the opportunity to collaborate with singers and creative personnel to refine their works-in-progress. During the March workshop, Simon, Nottage, and Gerber will work alongside conductor Donald Lee III, dramaturg Paul Cremo, and a cast of singers to take the opera to its next creative stage.

The OF:NW workshop for The Highlands will culminate in a public performance of excerpts on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at 2 p.m. at Cincinnati Music Hall's Wilks Studio (1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202). The performance will be followed by a conversation about the opera with the creative team and cast moderated by Guarino and Mirageas. Admission to the performance and post-performance conversation is free, though seating is limited and reservations are required. Tickets become available on Thursday, February 8, 2024, and can be reserved at cincinnatiopera.org or by calling 513-241-2742.

About The Highlands

In the near future amid the flood-ravaged Louisiana territory known as The Highlands, the matriarch of the Lenox family informs her heirs of a deeply-held family secret—that they are the keepers of an ancient griot magic originating with their African ancestors. On the eve of Carnival, one of the Lenox siblings—Clarence, Darius, or their younger sister, Lucinda—will inherit this great gift, as well as the responsibilities that come with it. When the family's secret is revealed, members of their community debate how it should be used and whom it should benefit. Amid arguments and struggles, the magic is eventually entrusted to the compassionate yet reluctant Lucinda, who must decide how best to wield its power.

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