Sarasota Youth Opera to Present LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND, 11/10 & 11

Sarasota Youth Opera will present the world premiere of a brand new work, Little Nemo in Slumberland, with music by Daron Hagen and words by J.D. McClatchy, commissioned by the Sarasota Opera Association. This will mark the Sarasota Youth Opera and Sarasota Opera Association's 5th commission since the programs inception in 1984. The child principal roles will be performed by members of the Sarasota Youth Opera program and the adult principal roles will be performed by members of the Sarasota Opera Apprentice and Studio Artists Program. In addition, singers and performers from Booker High School, Out of Door Academy and Sailor Circus will help to round out the cast making for a total of 107 Sarasota young people on the stage of the Sarasota Opera House.

Little Nemo in Slumberland Synopsis:
Based on Winsor McCay's early-twentieth-century comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland is a 60 minute, two-act magic opera. The story recounts the adventures of a boy over the course of two nights on a quest to save Slumberland from the evil Emperor Sol who wants it to be bright all night and all day. Nemo's adventures along the way include encounters with a crystal enchantress, menacing giants, a floating bed and a balloon ride, dizzying changes of scale and a palace that turns upside down.

The Creators:
Daron Hagen, the composer, has established himself as one of the most prolific American composers writing today. His music enjoys more than a hundred performances a year and has been recorded on over two dozen CDs. In addition to Sarasota Opera, Mr. Hagen has been commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, The National Symphony, both the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
J.D. McClatchy is one of America's foremost librettists, authors and, poets. His five collections of poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted Hazmat, are widely acclaimed for their formal ingenuity, coupled with their fluency of thought and feeling. His opera librettos have been performed in opera houses around the world including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and Covent Garden. Mr. McClatchy has served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is currently Professor of English at Yale where he edits The Yale Review.

For more information, visit http://www.sarasotaopera.org/nemo.aspx.