Chamber Opera A CERTAIN QUIET Plays Theater for the New City This Month

Running now through May 17 at Theater for the New City is the chamber opera A CERTAIN QUIET. This contemporary opera by Haim Elisha, commissioned by Theater for the New City and composed with support grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the NY State Council on the Arts, is a work for eight singers and a chamber ensemble.

Its libretto, adapted by Rina W. Elisha from "La Strana Quiete" by Italian playwright Renato Mainardi, centers on a love triangle clinging to a life of utopian isolationism. Olympia, Gaia and Dino are lovers under the same roof. Dino accepts them both while pursuing a physical relationship with a young nymphet. An unspoken attraction between Gaia and Olympia cements the peace. The calm is interrupted by the arrival of uninvited guests: Carla, an impetuous young lover, and Raimondo, Olympia's former lover returning from abroad. Circumstances conspire to disrupt the peace as the various players congregate at a celebration for the New Year. Will the house break apart, or will a certain quiet be restored?

Composer Haim Elisha was Artistic Director of Rockland Opera for 24 years and is associated with numerous New York City theater companies. His "Metamorphosis for Brass Quintet" won first prize in the National Competition for New Music at Illinois Fine Arts Festival.

The opera is directed by Rina W. Elisha, a recipient of Artists' Fellowship Award in Playwriting/Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her experimental theater works have been produced widely in NYC and she was principal stage director for Rockland Opera for 24 years.

Performances play Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (at E. 10th St.), running Thur-Sat at 8 pm, and Sun at 3 pm. Click here for more information.

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