Nashville Opera Releases First Complete Recording of Carly Simon's Opera ROMULUS HUNT

Nashville Opera has teamed with Lexicon Classics to release the first complete recording of Carly Simon's only opera, ROMULUS HUNT.  Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Kennedy Center in 1993, ROMULUS HUNT is a semi-autobiographical opera by pop singer Carly Simon, in which the 12-year-old hero Romulus is faced with the choice between two divorced parents (Simon notes her own son was caught in the same bind), but the “magic realism” intercession of a dreadlocked Rastafarian called Zoogy (invisible to all but Romulus), manages to set things right.  

ROMULUS HUNT played at the Noah Liff Opera Center Studio in December 2014.  Afterward, John Hoomes, Artistic Director and CEO of Nashville Opera; Maestro Dean Williamson; the Nashville Opera Orchestra; and the cast entered Ocean Way Studios to preserve ROMULUS forever.  And while it’s taken a number of years, the time is right to share it with you.  This is Nashville Opera's birthday present to its legendary creator, who marks her 80th Birthday on Sunday. 

Ms. Simon considers ROMULUS HUNT one of her best compositions and worked with John Hoomes to revise sections of the opera, including some minor musical revisions, and substantial staging and directorial revisions, for this production. From the opera’s original production, Ms. Simon recorded excerpts of the opera in 1993 for commercial release, but the complete opera has never been released, until now. 

Ms. Simon's one-act dramatic opera is a tale of divorce and joint child custody. ROMULUS HUNT is 75 minutes long, sung in English, and utilizes 5 singers (4 adults and 1 male child) and 11 players in the orchestra (conducted by Nashville Opera’s Music Director, Maestro Dean Williamson). 

More information on ROMULUS HUNT can be found at
https://www.nashvilleopera.org/romulus 

Nashville Opera’s 23.24 Season, JOURNEY, opens with Leoncavallo’s PAGLIACCI in September, continues with Michael Nyman’s THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT in November, moves into 2024 with Daniel Catán’s FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS, and concludes in April with Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE.  

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