Opera San José Commissions New Opera SOLARIS In Honor of Maestro Marcheso

Opera San José will present an exclusive workshop performance of a new  opera, Solaris. Composed by Stefan Cwik with a libretto by Anthony Asaro, this new work was commissioned by Opera San Jose to honor Maestro Joseph Marcheso’s decade of leadership and musical excellence. Admission to this workshop performance will be made available exclusively to a limited number of Opera San José subscribers as an added subscription benefit. Solaris will be performed in English, Saturday, October 11 at the Heiman Rehearsal Hall.
 
Based on the acclaimed 1961 science fiction novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem—widely considered one of his most influential works — “Solaris” explores the limits of human understanding and the nature of consciousness. The story has been adapted numerous times for film, radio, and stage, with the most notable screen versions directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and Steven Soderbergh in 2002. 
 
In the opera Solaris, Dr. Kris Kelvin arrives at a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris in response to a distress signal, only to find the crew in psychological turmoil. He soon learns that the planet has the ability to materialize physical manifestations from the subconscious minds of those aboard. When Kelvin is confronted by a replica of his deceased wife, Rheya, he is forced to relive buried trauma and question the boundaries between memory and reality. As the station's crew grapples with the moral and existential implications of these "visitors," tensions escalate, culminating in a haunting exploration of grief, perception, and the unknown forces of the universe.