Merola Unveils Digital Film BACK HOME Streaming Starts August 13

The acclaimed Merola Opera Program continues its summer season with Back Home: Through the Stage Door, a thrilling new digital production.

Conceived and directed for film by award-winning director David Paul, this innovative work will celebrate the joys of making music together - a sensation sadly missed during the pandemic. Through classic and lesser-known gems of the vocal repertoire, Back Home: Through the Stage Door will share the many moments, small and large, that comprise singers' lives as they return to creating music together for the stage.

The film will feature all 2021 Merola participants as they celebrate a return "home" to the theater and experience the artistic fulfilment that comes with performing once again. Filmed at San Francisco's magnificent Herbst Theatre, Back Home: Through the Stage Door will feature music by Dominick Argento, Vincenzo Bellini, Carlisle Floyd, Francis Poulenc, and Anton Webern, as well as Handel, Mozart, and others.

The streaming on-demand production will become available for Merola members on August 13, and to the public on August 27. For more information, visit www.merola.org.

David Paul, born in Germany and based in Brooklyn, is an award-winning director for opera, theater, and film. His work has been praised by The New York Times and The Washington Post for its energy, humor, and emotional depth, and has been seen across four continents in five languages. His film Dichterliebe: POETLOVE won several awards at film festivals around the world, and streams on the PBS "ALL ARTS" platform. Recent highlights include projects with LA Opera, Shakespeare Theatre Company (Washington, DC), the Metropolitan Opera/Juilliard, Washington National Opera, Arizona Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, North Carolina Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. Paul serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship Program, and the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program.

The Merola Opera Program is widely regarded as the foremost opera training program for aspiring singers, pianist/coaches, and stage directors. Merola nurtures the opera stars of tomorrow with master classes and private coaching with opera's most accomplished singers, coaches, conductors, and directors. Participants also receive training in operatic repertoire, languages, diction, acting, stage movement, and professional development.

Offered free of charge for all participants, the Merola Opera Program is unique in the industry in many ways. It is the only young artist program to provide financial support to developing artists for five years following their participation, offering aid for essential career development expenses including coaching, language classes, and audition travel. In summer 2020, the company initiated the Merola Artists Emergency Fund to offer much-needed financial assistance to those artists who lost wages and incurred unreimbursed expenses as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo credit: Da Ping Luo