Christopher Sly (opera)

Last updated

Christopher Sly is an opera in one act and two scenes and an interlude by composer Dominick Argento. The work uses an English language libretto by John Gay Manlove that is based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew . Commissioned by the Mu Phi Epsilon fraternity, the opera was given its world premiere at the Scott Hall Theater at the University of Minnesota on 31 May 1963 under the baton of William Johnson. The premiere cast included tenor Vern Sutton as the Lord. [1]

The Center for Contemporary Opera presented the first professional production of the work in January 1987 at the Harry De Jur Playhouse in New York City. Conductor Richard Marshall led the performance whose cast included Shawn Roy as Christopher Sly, Robert Trentham as the Lord, and Kathryn Fields as Marion Hackett. [2]

Roles

Role [3] Voice type
Christopher Sly, a tinker bass-baritone
Henry Pimpernel, a smithbass-baritone
PeterTurph, a tailor tenor
Marion Hacket, hostess of the ale-house mezzo-soprano
A Lordtenor
A Page soprano
First Huntsmanbaritone
Second Huntsmantenor
Third Huntsmanbass
First Ladysoprano
Second Ladysoprano
An officer of the Lawspoken

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Opera</span> Opera company based in New York City, United States

The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013, and again since 2016 when it was revived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominick Argento</span> American composer (1927–2019)

Dominick Argento was an American composer known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham's Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. He also is known for the song cycles Six Elizabethan Songs and From the Diary of Virginia Woolf; the latter earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. In a predominantly tonal context, his music freely combines tonality, atonality and a lyrical use of twelve-tone writing. None of Argento's music approaches the experimental, stringent avant-garde fashions of the post-World War II era.

Bernard Rogers was an American composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Weisgall</span> American composer and conductor

Hugo David Weisgall was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions. He was born in Ivančice, Moravia and moved to the United States at the age of eight.

<i>Sly</i> (opera) Opera by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari

Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on the Induction to William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Unlike most of Wolf-Ferrari's other operas, this is a tragedy.

Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Marriott</span> American composer

Richard Marriott is an American composer and performer. He has composed for film, television, dance, theater, opera, installations and video games. He is the founder and artistic director of the Club Foot Orchestra, an important modern ensemble for live music performance with silent films. His teachers include Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota, Pauline Oliveros at UCSD, North Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, shakuhachi master Masayuki Koga, and Balinese composers Nyoman Windha and Made Subandi. Marriott was a member of Snakefinger's History of the Blues and has recorded with The Residents, Brazilian Girls, "Singer at Large" Johnny J. Blair, and many others. He performs on brass and woodwind instruments, Western and Asian.

Postcard from Morocco is an opera in one act composed by Dominick Argento and libretto written by John Donahue that was commissioned by the Center Opera Company. It is based on A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. The setting is a train station in an exotic place, 1914. The world premier of the opera was on October 14, 1971, at the Cedar Village Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Conducted by Philip Brunelle and stage direction by John Donahue. The set and costume designer was Jon Barkla and the lighting designer was Karlis Ozols. It was a huge success and went on to be produced in New York and around the world. This was Argento’s first international success. A masterpiece, it exemplifies Argento’s abilities as a composer. “Argento’s Music speaks to his audience with a singular freshness and ardour”. Postcard is a moving and artful piece, which asks us to think about our motivations in life.

The Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO) is a professional opera company based in New York City, and a member of OPERA America. The company focuses on producing and developing new opera and music theater works and reviving rarely seen American operas written after the second World War. The Center for Contemporary Opera has staged the premieres of many works written during the latter half of the twentieth century. Works are performed at all stages of development from readings to workshops to full productions on the professional stage. In line with its mission to promote an interest in new operatic and music-theater culture among the American public, the company presents panel discussions and colloquia, and publishes a bi-annual newsletter Opera Today. Since 2004, the company has been a regular participant in the New York City Opera's annual festival, "Vox: Showcasing American Composers".

Mark A. Thomsen is an American operatic tenor. He is also a professor and artist in residence at Florida Southern College. His performance repertoire includes the history of opera, from Cavalli, Bach, and Mozart, to Puccini, Verdi, and Richard Strauss, and the premieres of operas by composers such as Dominick Argento, Leonard Bernstein, Carlisle Floyd and Lowell Liebermann.

Gallantry is a one-act opera by composer Douglas Moore. The work is a parody of soap opera, complete with sung commercial interruptions. The work uses an English-language libretto by Arnold Sundgaard.

Brian Mulligan is an American operatic baritone who has performed in major opera houses and concert halls all over the world.

The Aspern Papers is a 1987 opera in two acts with music and libretto by Dominick Argento, commissioned by The Dallas Opera. It is based on the novella The Aspern Papers by Henry James. The opera premiered on November 19, 1988, in Dallas with a cast including Elisabeth Söderström, Frederica von Stade, and Richard Stilwell, conducted by Nicola Rescigno. The premiere was telecast in the United States on Great Performances on PBS.

Elaine Bonazzi was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international career from the 1950s through the 1990s. A singer with an unusually broad repertoire that encompassed both classical and contemporary works, she notably created roles in the world premieres of operas by composers Dominick Argento, David Carlson, Carlisle Floyd, Gian Carlo Menotti, Thomas Pasatieri, and Ned Rorem. In the United States she was particularly active with the New York City Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Washington National Opera.

Miss Havisham's Fire is an opera in 2 acts by composer Dominick Argento with an English language libretto by John Olon-Scrymgeour. The work is loosely based on Charles Dickens' 1861 novel Great Expectations, and centers on an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death of Aurelia Havisham. Commissioned by the New York City Opera, the work premiered on March 22, 1979, at the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.

Shawn Roy is an American operatic bass-baritone and academic. Since 1998, he has served as the head of the opera program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Vern Sutton is an American operatic tenor, opera director, and academic. A founding member of the Minnesota Opera, he has created roles in the world premieres of several contemporary operas with that company; including works composed for his voice by Dominick Argento, Libby Larsen, Eric Stokes, Conrad Susa, and Robert Ward. He was also a regularly featured singer on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion for three decades, beginning with its first broadcast in 1974.

<i>Faustus, the Last Night</i>

Faustus, the Last Night is an opera in English by French composer Pascal Dusapin, inspired by Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. The work was premiered on 21 January 2006 by the Berlin State Opera, a coproduction with the Opéra de Lyon. It was first staged in the United States at the Spoleto Festival USA 2007.

Barbara Brandt is an American spinto soprano, known especially for her association with contemporary opera.

John Lankston was an American tenor and actor who had a career in opera and musical theater from the 1950s through the 2000s. After making his Broadway debut in Redhead (1959), he went on to create the roles of Adolph and the Ziegfeld Tenor in Jule Styne's Funny Girl (1963) in which he was a featured soloist with Barbra Streisand. For his work, he and the rest of the main cast were awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album at the 7th Annual Grammy Awards. He was a regular performer with the New York City Opera from 1966 to 2001. His greatest success with the NYCO was his creation of the quintuple role of Voltaire/Pangloss/Businessman/Governor/Gambler in the 1982 revival of Leonard Bernstein's Candide which was directed by Hal Prince and filmed for national broadcast on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center. The company later recorded the production on disc, and Langston and the rest of the artists involved were awarded the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 1987.

References

  1. Dominick Argento (2004). "Catalogue Raisonnâe as Memoir: A Composer's Life". University of Minnesota Press. pp. 34–36. ISBN   9781452907260.
  2. "Opera: Argento Work, 'Christopher Sly'". The New York Times . January 27, 1987.
  3. "Argento, Dominick: Christopher Sly (1962)". www.boosey.com. Retrieved October 21, 2015.