WUTHERING HEIGHTS to Open at the little OPERA theatre of ny

The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY) will present Wuthering Heights, an opera by Carlisle Floyd after the novel by Emily Brontë, from November 19-22 at the Loreto Theater, Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, 18 Bleecker St, New York, NY, 10012. Performances take place Thursday-Saturday at 7:30PM and Sunday at 3PM. General admission tickets are $30-60 ($15 student rush available day of the performance with valid ID).

Wuthering Heights, an opera by Carlisle Floyd after the novel by Emily Brontë, is the iconic story of Cathy and Heathcliff, whose bond in childhood grows into an unbreakable love, set against the raw landscape of the Yorkshire Moors. Their attempt to reform their interior nature and conform to society's expectations of them ends in tragedy for them and the people around them.

American composer Carlisle Floyd's setting of the story has not been seen in NYC since its premiere in 1959, when it was presented by the New York City Opera. Many operas followed including Of Mice and Men (1969), which became one of Floyd's most performed works throughout the world. Long associated with Houston Grand Opera, they commissioned three of Carlisle Floyd's major operas. In 1999, his most celebrated opera, Susannah finally reached The MET in a production featuring Renée Fleming and Samuel Ramey in the iconic leading roles. 

Among Floyd's numerous awards and honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship (1956), his induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2001), the National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House (2004), South Carolina Hall of Fame (2011) and the Florida Artist Hall of Fame (2015). 

With a richly harmonic and lyric score, Floyd's opera adaptation of Emily Brontë's groundbreaking novel blends traditional opera with an American voice. The production by the little OPERA theatre of ny is being presented as part of the nationwide celebration of the composer's centennial.

Wuthering Heights is little OPERA's third production of the work of Carlisle Floyd. Previously, LOTNY presented the original double bill Slow Dusk & Markheim in 2014 and the NYC premiere of Prince of Players in 2017. The composer attended both productions, and for the latter he was directly involved. Slow Dusk & Markheim paired his very first opera, Slow Dusk [1948], with another one-act Markheim [1966]. It was hailed as “rewarding and ambitious” in Opera News, and “sublime and extraordinary” in the New York Classical Review. The online journal Let's Talk Off-Bway said, “What a wonderful evening of theater. Two short American operas, narratives set to dramatic music, superbly performed. One leaves thrilled and elated.” Several seasons later, little OPERA's production of Prince of Players attracted the attention of The New York Times, which said the production was “stylish... and tells it story vividly and compactly, while fleshing out characters who win your sympathy” with “fine singers” and proclaimed “at 90, Carlisle Floyd scores a fresh opera hit.” The New York Classical Review called the evening “delightful, impressive, and affective.” WQXR, Playbill Arts, Huffington Post, Berkshire Fine Arts, among others, all featured the production in their listings. The UK magazine Opera called Prince of Players an “intimate epic of an opera; the performers... gave acting performances that were on the same high level as their singing.”

Emily Brontë's (1818-1848) novel Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847. She published the novel under the name of Ellis Bell, believing no one would accept that a woman could write her vision of the inhabitants of Yorkshire. Her sister, Jane, protected her identity. The story has inspired numerous film and television adaptations beginning as early as 1920. Other opera settings, ballets, music videos, and stage adaptations have all brought their own lens to this iconic tale.

Already featured in the cast are sopranos Vanessa Isiguen and Sara Kennedy doubling in the role of Cathy, mezzo-sopranos Janara Kellerman and Margaret Lattimore as Nelly, soprano Teresa Castillo as Isabella, tenor Hayden Smith as Edgar, tenor Spencer Hamlin as Hindley, bass Bert K. Johnson as Earnshaw, and tenor Omar Bowey as Lockwood.  Other Artists will be announced in the coming weeks. 

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