New York City Opera to Produce the World Premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS

New York City Opera under the direction of Michael Capasso, has announced plans to produce the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, a co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, Dominick Balletta, Executive Director). THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, with a libretto by Michael Korie and direction and choreography by Richard Stafford, will open at Edmond J. Safra Hall, Folksbiene's theatrical home, inside the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust - in April 2021.

Later next spring NYCO also plans to present a staged concert version of Anthony Davis's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, venue and date to be announced.

"THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS and THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE continue New York City Opera's mission to produce new and important works by American composers," said Mr. Capasso. "We hope that with the spring there will be an abatement to the protocols placed upon all of us due to the Covid-19 pandemic which will allow New York audiences to discover these two new works."

"We are proud to co-produce the world premiere of THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS by Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie," said Mr. Mlotek. "This important new work illuminates an important part of Italian Jewish history, and sadly, its themes of discrimination and antisemitism still resonate in our world today.

THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS - World Premiere

Music by Ricky Ian Gordon

Libretto by Michael Korie, based on the novel by Giorgio Bassani

Directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford

Conductor: To be announced

Based on Giorgio Bassani's 1962 novel, (considered a modern classic which is also the basis for Vittorio De Sica's 1970 film adaptation starring Dominique Sanda and Helmet Berger - a 1972 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film), THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS is set on the eve of World War II and tells the story of an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, who believe they will be immune to the changes happening around them. As they make a gracious haven for themselves in their garden, walling out the unpleasantness of the world outside, Italy forms its alliance with Germany and begins to enforce anti-Semitic racial laws. But the Finzi-Continis discover too late that no one is immune, no one is untouchable.