American Lyric Theater Alumni Series to Begin at National Sawdust Next Weekend

American Lyric Theater is proud to launch a new series, ALT Alumni: Composers and Librettists in Concert, celebrating the successes of its Composer Librettist Development Program. The series includes two upcoming concerts at the brand new National Sawdust, November 15, 2015 and February 7, 2016, each featuring excerpts from five different operas with scores and/or librettos written by alumni of the CLDP.

Launched in 2007, the CLDP provides unprecedented mentorship to composers and librettists who have not yet had the opportunity to work extensively in opera, or to have their operatic work professionally produced. It is the only full time mentorship initiative for emerging creators of opera in the country. The program has gone on to cultivate the success of American opera's most innovative and exciting contemporary voices.

Composer-librettist Christopher Cerrone, librettists Royce Vavrek, Stephanie Fleischmann, and Rob Handel, and composers Jeremy Howard Beck and Kamala Sankaram are the alumni to be featured in the first ALT Alumni concert, taking place on November 15 at 2:30pm. Their collaborators on works included in the program will be composers Gregory Spears, and Ricky Ian Gordon.

In recent news, Cerrone's Invisible Cities was a nominated finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, and Fleischmann and Beck's The Long Walk opened last July to a rave review by Opera News, whose David Shengold called the opera "a strong, moving show." Royce Vavrek has been called by Steve Smith (formerly) of The New York Times, "an exemplary creator of operatic prose," in response to his groundbreaking libretto to David T. Little's Dog Days. Sankaram's Thumbprint earned international notice in its 2014 premiere at the Prototype Festival.

Under the music direction of Djordje Nesic, the alumni's work will be brought to life by the following vocalists:

Cree Carrico, soprano
Caroline Worra, soprano
Heather Johnson, mezzo soprano
Kimberly Sogioka, mezzo soprano
John McVeigh, tenor
Scott Purcell, baritone
Christopher Job, bass-baritone

ALT is particularly pleased to have the like-minded National Sawdust as a venue for the Alumni Series. Composer Paola Prestini--serving as the Executive and Creative Director of National Sawdust, feels likewise: "It is a joy to host American Lyric Theater at National Sawdust. To provide a stage for such a renowned and esteemed organization like ALT is an honor in our opening season, and we look forward to a fruitful relationship."Upon National Sawdust's opening earlier this month, Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times praised the performance space as a "soaring, distinctive surprise," with "impressive acoustics, in music both amplified and not."

"These programs are more than just a concert series," said Lawrence Edelson, American Lyric Theater's founder and producing artistic director. "They celebrate the accomplishments of our brilliant and diverse alumni, who are now contributing to the vibrant new canon of operatic works, from coast to coast. We're thrilled to work with National Sawdust as well, which, like the Alumni Series, is a multi-faceted newcomer to the scene, years in the making."

A detailed description of the November 15 program lies below. More information on the February 7 program will follow at the beginning of 2016.

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ALT Alumni : Composers & Librettists in Concert
November 15, 2015 / 2:30 p.m.
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11249

Program
Invisible Cities(Cerrone) | Commissioned by Raulee Marcus and Stephen Block for The Industry, LA
The Privacy Show (Sankaram/Handel) | Supported by a 2015 OPERA America Grant for Female Composers
27 (Gordon/Vavrek) | Commissioned by Opera Theatre of St. Louis
O Columbia (Spears/Vavrek) | Commissioned by HGOco at Houston Grand Opera
The Long Walk(Beck/Fleischmann) | Commissioned by American Lyric Theater

$20 General Admission / $15 Students & Seniors

Invisible Cities
Composer & Librettist: Christopher Cerrone*
Based on the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Premiered by The Industry, LA (2013)
Nominated Finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize
Scene 2 - Isadora - The City of Desire
Scene 4 - Armilla - The City of Nymphs
(Caroline Worra, soprano; Kim Sogioka, mezzo soprano; John McVeigh, tenor)

Adapted from Italo Calvino's 1972 fantastical novel, the opera imagines a meeting of the emperor Kublai Khan at the end of his life with the explorer Marco Polo. The story depicts a host of fantastical cities that the explorer Marco Polo narrates to Kublai Khan: unreal cities of desire, of memory, of the imagination and mind. Invisible Cities was originally staged in the heart of LA's Union Station by the "ingenious" (New York Times) opera company The Industry, conceived as a site-specific collaboration of music, dance and technology. Mark Swed of the LA Times wrote, however, that Invisible Cities "could, and should, be performed anywhere."

Composer and Librettist Christopher Cerrone notes the following on the work: "To borrow a term from of one of Calvino's favorite writers, Jorge Luis Borges, Invisible Cities is a garden of forking paths. As the work progresses, you might find yourself wandering back to the same place in Union Station again and again only to find new things happening each time. In the same way, the same few musical ideas of Invisible Cities are revisited again and again, just from vastly different perspectives. As we grow and evolve, the same objects in our lives can acquire such different meanings. That above else governs what Invisible Cities is about: how our memories change as we get older, how our map of the world gets larger, and how our past is always being changed by our ever-shifting present."

The Privacy Show
Composer: Kamala Sankaram*
Librettist: Rob Handel*
Supported by a 2015 OPERA America Grant for Female Composers
Aria - Scrolling Back (Kim Sogioaka, mezzo soprano)
Duet - Burn (Kim Sogioaka, mezzo soprano and John McVeigh, tenor)
Aria - Thirteen Eyes (John McVeigh, tenor)

The Privacy Show is a 75-minute techno-noir opera confronting the issue of privacy in our increasingly digitized society. The global architecture of the Internet is proving to be something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it has facilitated access to knowledge, economic growth, and freedom of expression. On the other, it is eroding our right to individual privacy. This is becoming the central question of our time: how much of our individual right to privacy are we willing to relinquish in the name of security? The Privacy Show seeks to express the urgency of this question by confronting the audience with data mined from their online digital footprints.

Note: This is the only opera to be excerpted on the program that is 'in-progress' and has not yet been premiered. ALT has included it on the program to recognize the OPERA America Grant awarded to Sankaram, and because of its distinctiveness from the other works in terms of both style and content.

27
Composer: Ricky Ian Gordon
Librettist: Royce Vavrek*
Commissioned and premiered by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (2014)
Upcoming Production at Pittsburgh Opera in February 2016
Alice and Gertrude's Duet - Look at me, Gertrude
(Cree Caricco, soprano and Heather Johnson, mezzo soprano; with John McVeigh, tenor)
Hemmingway's Aria (Christopher Job, bass baritone)

An opera in a prologue and five acts that explores the relationship of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and the salons that they hosted at their residence at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. With appearances by Ernest Hemingway, Man Ray, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, 27 is an enchanting love letter to the eccentricities of Stein's artistic circles, and to the larger-than-life Stein herself.

Heidi Waleson of The Wall Street Journal offered the following commentary at 27's premiere: "With so many contemporary composers falling into the trap of endless declamation, it is a treat to hear this lively fantasia about a curious historical figure that embraces her peculiarities but makes her sympathetic." Writes The Washington Post, "[Ricky Ian Gordon] clearly found much to inspire him in this libretto and subject, to judge from a score that has an engaging vitality from the opening bars, and is delightfully studded with allusions (a touch of "Lakmé," a hint of "Vanessa") and adroit vocal ensembles."

O Columbia
Composer: Gregory Spears
Librettist: Royce Vavrek*
Commissioned and premiered by HGOco at Houston Grand Opera (2015)
Becca's Aria: Imagine (Cree Caricco, soprano)
Astronaut Scene (Scott Purcell, baritone; Cree Caricco, soprano)
Lady Columbia's Aria: (Kim Sogioka, mezzo soprano)

O Columbia is an opera-oratorio that examines the past, present, and future of the American spirit of exploration. From Sir Walter Raleigh on his way to the New World, to the heartbreak of the Columbia space shuttle accident, to a future voyage to the far reaches of the solar system, each of the opera's three parts imagines a conversation that crosses space and time to create a unified story. The work is a celebration of the identity of the American frontiersperson, an ode to America's national mythology.

Heidi Waleson of The Wall Street Journal described O Columbia as "a haunting meditation on exploration," and lauded the creative team as follows: "Mr. Spears writes brilliantly for vocal ensembles. Starting with neoclassical-style clarity, he builds textured, complex musical structures that sound old and new at the same time, and his skillful text settings use minimalist-like repetition to give Mr. Vavrek's pointed, thoughtful words even more power and emotional specificity."

The Long Walk
Composer: Jeremy Howard Beck*
Librettist: Stephanie Fleischmann*
Commissioned by American Lyric Theater
World Premiere at Opera Saratoga (2015)
Upcoming Production at Utah Opera in March 2017
Brian's Aria - There are two of me now (Scott Purcell, baritone)
Jessie's Aria - I used to think we'd travel to the ends of the earth (Heather Johnson, mezzo soprano)
The Airport - Scene and Duet (Scott Purcell, baritone and Heather Johnson, mezzo soprano)

Based on Brian Castner's eponymous and critically acclaimed memoir, The Long Walk describes a soldier's return from Iraq to domestic life. Brian's coming home is rife with struggle and hardship after serving as an officer in an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, and his story of the growing distance between his family and his tormented spirit is one that reflects on the aftermath of military service with truth and solemnity. "The context is recent, but the story is timeless," Lawrence Edelson told The New York Times Magazine over the summer, citing the archetypal story of a veteran's return, Homer's "Odyssey," which was first retold as an opera, in Monteverdi's "The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland," nearly four centuries ago.

Opera News' David Shengold called the libretto "smart" in a recent review, and had the following to say on the music: "Beck's apt score, eclectically sourced but individual in timbre, represents one of the more effective integrations of rock elements (including two electric guitars) and prerecorded material I have ever heard. Despite relatively small instrumental forces, Beck managed a wide variety of textures and sustained narrative tension with shrewd rhythmic choices...This was a strong, moving show."

(*Denotes an alumni Resident Artist of American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program)

ALT Alumni : Composers & Librettists in Concert
February 7, 2016 / 3:00 p.m.
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11249

Program
The Property (Marhulets/Fleischmann) | Commissioned by Lyric Unlimited at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Daughters of the Bloody Duke (Runstead/Johnston) | Commissioned by Washington National Opera
Breaking the Waves (Mazzoli/Vavrek) | Commissioned by Opera Philadelphia
Embedded (Soluri/Brevoort) | Commissioned by American Lyric Theater
Buried Alive (Myers/Long) | Commissioned by American Lyric Theater

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American Lyric Theater (ALT) was founded by Lawrence Edelson in 2005 to build a new body of operatic repertoire for new audiences by nurturing composers and librettists, developing sustainable artistic collaborations, and contributing new works to the national canon. ALT is not an opera company by any traditional definition. Many opera companies commission and perform new works; but ALT is the only company in the United States that offers extensive, full-time mentorship for emerging operatic writers. While the traditional company model focuses on producing a season, ALT's programs focus on serving the needs of composers and librettists, developing new works, and collaborating with larger producing companies to help usher those works into the repertoire.

?American Lyric Theater's mentorship programs for composers and librettists are supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; and additional funding from The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Amphion Foundation, The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fund, The Friar's Foundation, New Music USA's Cary New Music Performance Fund, New Music USA's Project Grants, OPERA America / The Opera Fund, and The Shapiro Family Charitable Foundation.

For further information, visit altnyc.org.

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