CNN opera

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A CNN opera is a contemporary opera taking news events as a theme or a classical opera transposed to a contemporary setting. The somewhat deprecatory term CNN opera alludes to Cable News Network, CNN.

Opera artform combining sung text and musical score in a theatrical setting

Opera is a form of theatre in which music has a leading role and the parts are taken by singers, but is distinct from musical theater. Such a "work" is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor.

CNN American news channel

Cable News Network (CNN) is an American news-based pay television channel owned by WarnerMedia News & Sports, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia. CNN was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel. Upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States.

Operas that have been referred to as a CNN opera include:

John Adams (composer) American composer

John Coolidge Adams is an American composer, clarinetist, and conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism.

<i>The Death of Klinghoffer</i> opera by John Adams

The Death of Klinghoffer is an American opera, with music by John Adams to an English-language libretto by Alice Goodman. First produced in Brussels and New York in 1991, the opera is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of a 69-year-old Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, who was wheelchair-bound.

X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis. Based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X. The opera premiered in a semi-staged production in Philadelphia in 1985 and received its first fully staged production at the New York City Opera in 1986.

Perhaps because of his association with Adams and a record of modern transpositions, some of the output of director Peter Sellars has also been referred to as CNN opera. [3]

Peter Sellars American theatre director

Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is professor at UCLA, where he teaches Art as Social Action and Art as Moral Action.

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<i>Nixon in China</i> opera by John Adams

Nixon in China is an opera in three acts by John Adams, with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams' first opera, it was inspired by U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. The work premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on October 22, 1987, in a production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris. When Sellars approached Adams with the idea for the opera in 1983, Adams was initially reluctant, but eventually decided that the work could be a study in how myths come to be, and accepted the project. Goodman's libretto was the result of considerable research into Nixon's visit, though she disregarded most sources published after the 1972 trip.

Nixon in China is an opera by John Adams. It may also refer to:

<i>Doctor Atomic</i> opera by John Adams

Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on October 1, 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb was being prepared. In 2007, a documentary was made about the creation of the opera, titled Wonders Are Many.

Regietheater is the modern practice of allowing a director freedom in devising the way a given opera or play is staged so that the creator's original, specific intentions or stage directions can be changed, together with major elements of geographical location, chronological situation, casting and plot. Typically such changes may be made to point a particular political point or modern parallels which may be remote from traditional interpretations.

Peter Gelb American arts administrator

Peter Gelb is an American arts administrator. Since August 2006, he has been General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

<i>El Niño</i> (opera) opera

El Niño is an opera-oratorio by the American composer John Adams. It was premiered on December 15, 2000 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris by soloists Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White, the vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices,, the London Voices, La Maîtrise de Paris, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, with Kent Nagano conducting. It has been performed on a number of occasions since, and has been broadcast on BBC Television.

Paul Carey Jones Welsh opera singer

Paul Carey Jones is a Welsh baritone opera singer.

<i>Opera News</i> American classical music magazine.

Opera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City. Opera News was initially focused primarily on the Met, particularly providing information for listeners of the Saturday afternoon live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. Over the years, the magazine has broadened its scope to include the larger American and international opera scenes. Currently published monthly, Opera News offers opera related feature articles; artist interviews; production profiles; musicological pieces; music-business reportage; reviews of performances in the United States and Europe; reviews of recordings, videos, books and audio equipment; and listings of opera performances in the U.S.

John Duykers is a prominent American operatic tenor, especially known for his work in modern and contemporary opera. He made his formal debut with the Seattle Opera, in 1966.

Mark Grey is an American Classical music composer, sound designer and sound engineer. He has been commissioned by The National Opera of Belgium La Monnaie de Munt Opera to write an evening length grand opera to premiere during the spring of 2019 in Brussels. The subject of the opera will be Mary Shelley's Frankenstein – to commemorate the novel's 200 year anniversary. Co-producers to be announced. Libretto by Júlia Canosa i Serra and stage direction by Àlex Ollé.

The Chairman Dances is a ballet made by New York City Ballet ballet master in chief Peter Martins to John Adams' eponymous music from 1985. The music was originally written for Adams' opera, Nixon in China, but not used in production: the scene is that in which Mao Zedong dances with his future bride, movie star Chiang Ch'ing. The premiere took place on 14 May 1988, as part of City Ballet's American Music Festival at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, with scenery and costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, and lighting by Mark Stanley.

Nora Koito Kimball-Mentzos or simply Nora Kimball is a ballet teacher and former American ballerina, who is often overlooked for being one of the first African American female soloists—the second -- [at American Ballet Theatre (ABT). She danced with the ABT in the mid 1980s and as an African American who is also Asian American, preceded Misty Copeland, who is often credited as the first. ABT has been described as one of the three great American-style classical ballet companies on the world stage today.

Sanford Sylvan American opera singer

Sanford Sylvan was an American baritone.

Robert Brubaker is an American operatic tenor. Born in Manheim, Pennsylvania, he is an alumnus of the Hartt College of Music. Robert Brubaker began his professional career as a baritone chorister with the New York City Opera. He left there 17 years later as a leading tenor, in La bohème as Rodolfo.

James Maddalena is an American baritone who is chiefly associated with contemporary American opera. He gained international recognition in 1987 when he created the role of Richard Nixon at the premiere of Adams's opera Nixon in China at Houston. He has since reprised the role on many occasions, and recorded it for the Nonesuch Records release of the opera in 1987. In addition to Maddelena's role as Nixon, he has created two other Adams characters: the Captain in The Death of Klinghoffer and Jack Hubbard in Doctor Atomic. He has also performed roles in the premieres of operas by Paul Moravec and Stewart Wallace among other American composers.

<i>The Gospel According to the Other Mary</i> opera

The Gospel According to the Other Mary is an opera/oratorio by contemporary American composer John Adams. The world premiere took place on May 31, 2012, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic who also premiered the staged version on March 7, 2013, at the same venue.

Girls of the Golden West is an opera in two acts with music by John Adams and a libretto by Peter Sellars. The San Francisco Opera commissioned the work jointly with Dallas Opera, the Dutch National Opera and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The opera was premiered in San Francisco on November 21, 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Writers Enchanted by the Freedom of Opera" by Dinitia Smith, The New York Times (28 September 1995)
  2. "Opera review: Nixon in China at the Metropolitan Opera" by Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times (13 February 2011)
  3. "Mind-altering Mozart: Peter Sellars' famous stagings of three operas now out on DVD" by Tim Pfaff, Bay Area Reporter (23 March 2006), a review dismissing Sellar's setting of The Marriage of Figaro in the Trump Tower, as "the "CNN Opera" Sellars' detractors dismissed them all as".