SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER to Make Philadelphia Debut at Forrest Theatre

Following its world premiere at the Fisher Center at Bard this summer, Opera Philadelphia will present the Philadelphia premiere of Suddenly Last Summer, the first opera by 2023 MacArthur Fellow Courtney Bryan, October 22, 23 and 25 at the Forrest Theatre. Based on Tennessee Williams’ searing Southern Gothic drama, the new work brings together Bryan, Tony Award-winning director Daniel Fish and Gideon Lester, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Fisher Center at Bard, in a hybrid work of music and theater that probes the dangerous intersection of truth, power, wealth, sexuality and memory.

Co-commissioned and co-produced by Fisher Center LAB and Opera Philadelphia, Suddenly Last Summer received its world premiere at the Fisher Center at Bard in June. The New York Times praised Bryan as a composer who “reveres musical traditions but presents them in entirely fresh ways,” noting that in her operatic debut she approaches the art form “on nothing less than her own terms.” Critic Joshua Barone also highlighted the “smooth eclecticism” and “emotional immediacy” of Bryan’s score, describing a musical language filled with improvisatory freedom, distinctive pacing and sounds that evoke the atmosphere of New Orleans.

The world premiere also drew attention for its unusual theatrical and musical conception. In Bryan’s opera, Catherine Holly—the young woman who witnesses Sebastian Venable’s death—is the only principal character who sings, while the other characters speak. As The New York Times observed, the contrasting modes of speech and song amplify the central battle between competing versions of the truth.

“Suddenly Last Summer is ultimately about who gets to tell the story—and who gets silenced,” said Courtney Bryan. “I was drawn to the complexity of Tennessee Williams’ world, to the beauty and terror of this Southern Gothic story, and especially to the questions it raises about power, sexuality, vulnerability, wealth and the ways that truth can be controlled. Bringing the work to Philadelphia is incredibly meaningful.”

Bryan began developing Suddenly Last Summer during her tenure as an Opera Philadelphia Composer in Residence from 2022 to 2024. The project marks the culmination of a relationship between the composer and the company that has supported the development of new work while introducing Philadelphia audiences to Bryan’s singular musical voice.

Set between the Garden District of New Orleans and the Mediterranean coast, Suddenly Last Summer centers on the mysterious death of the poet Sebastian Venable. Sebastian’s cousin, Catherine (soprano Mikaela Bennett), witnessed his final moments and returned to New Orleans consumed by the need to tell what she saw. But Sebastian’s wealthy and powerful mother, Mrs. Venable (actress Stephanie Roth Haberle), is determined to suppress Catherine’s account—going so far as to attempt to have her lobotomized so that the story can be erased from her memory.

The opera transforms Williams’ confrontation between competing versions of reality into a striking musical premise: the character who tells the truth is given the power of song, while those attempting to control the narrative speak.

Bryan’s score draws on the two worlds at the heart of Williams’ story—the lush Mediterranean landscape where Sebastian dies and the humid Garden District of New Orleans where Catherine returns. Bryan, who grew up in New Orleans, spent time composing in both locations during the development of the opera. The resulting score incorporates an eclectic range of sounds, including bird song improvisations, suspended harmonies and musical gestures rooted in Bryan’s lifelong relationship with the sounds and traditions of her hometown.