THE TEMPEST to Make World Staged Premiere With Teatro Grattacielo
Joseph Summer's opera, with a libretto by Eve Summer, will be staged at Ellen Stewart Theatre with conductor Enrico Fagone.
Teatro Grattacielo will present the world staged premiere of THE TEMPEST, an opera by Joseph Summer based on Shakespeare's final play. Featuring a libretto by Eve Summer, the work reimagines the story of exile, forgiveness, and reconciliation through a contemporary operatic score.
The production will be conducted by Enrico Fagone and directed by Teatro Grattacielo Artistic Director Stefanos Koroneos. The cast includes Daniel Klein, Kelly Guerra, Sara Kennedy, Benjamin Sieverding, Omar Najmi, Maggie Finnegan, Chantelle Grant, Sarah Johnson, Jordan Rutter-Covatto, Eliam Ramos, David Gordon, Justin Ryan, DeAndre Simmons, Heather Green, Valia Karagiorga, Shira Ziv, and Jenna Weitman, among others. The production will feature the Teatro Grattacielo Orchestra.
Koroneos' staging reimagines Prospero as an exiled filmmaker living within a decaying film studio in the 1980s. In this interpretation, the island becomes a landscape shaped by memory, performance, and artistic obsession, with former audience risers transformed into the physical terrain of the story.
"The Tempest has always been a play about a man who cannot stop directing," said Koroneos. "Prospero conjures, manipulates, and stages every encounter on his island - and it is that compulsion, the obsessive need for absolute control, that ultimately destroys him from within."
He continued, "This is a Tempest about the destructive cost of control, what artists do to the people they love, and what it takes to finally put down the pen, break the staff, and let the story end without you."
Summer's score features ensemble-driven writing, including duets and large-scale choral moments, while remaining rooted in the emotional and thematic foundations of Shakespeare's original text.
Cast
The cast includes Daniel Klein, Kelly Guerra, Sara Kennedy, Benjamin Sieverding, Omar Najmi, Maggie Finnegan, Chantelle Grant, Sarah Johnson, Jordan Rutter-Covatto, Eliam Ramos, David Gordon, Justin Ryan, DeAndre Simmons, Heather Green, Valia Karagiorga, Shira Ziv, and Jenna Weitman.
Creative Team
The production is conducted by Enrico Fagone and directed by Stefanos Koroneos. The opera features music by Joseph Summer and a libretto by Eve Summer.
Ticket Information
Performances are on July 16 at 7PM and July 18 at 3PM at Ellen Stewart Theatre- (Shares at La MaMa), 66 East 4th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY. Tickets start at $60 and can be purchased at https://grattacielo.org/season/world-staged-premiere-the-tempest.
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