Gallery
Anthony Pulgram and Ricardo Herrera in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2001)
Stage design by Kelly Hanson for the opening scene of Fireworks (2002)
Family Opera Initiative (FOI) is an American opera company based in New York City that commissions, develops, and premieres original works for cross-generational audiences. It was founded in 1995 by Grethe Barrett Holby, originally as part of American Opera Projects (also founded by Holby). Its mission was and remains to create new repertory for family audiences, to bring the experience of opera to a diverse audience, and to engage the community in the process and performance of their works. [1]
Since its founding, Family Opera Initiative has developed a series of "opera-musicals" for family audiences: Flurry Tale (1999), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2001), Fireworks! (2002), and Animal Tales (2008). Past and present collaborators on their productions include Billy Aronson, George Plimpton, Kitty Brazelton, Rusty Magee, Franco Colavecchia, Richard Peaslee, and Eugenio Carmi. The company performs around the United States in partnership with other theaters, theater companies, and public or educational institutions. Their performances range from workshops to fully staged productions. Family Opera Initiative is a non-profit organization. Its commissions and productions have been supported by the Jaffe Family Foundation, the New York State Council for the Arts, and TADA! Youth Theater. Their development partners include the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Ardea Arts, and Montclair State University.
Flurry Tale had its premiere in December 1999 at the Clark Studio Theater in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, [2] and has been presented at many workshops at the American Opera Projects South Oxford Space, New York area schools, and the New York Public Library. Flurry Tale is a one-act opera-musical composed by Rusty Magee [3] to a libretto by Billy Aronson and was originated, developed and directed by Grethe Barrett Holby. It is scored for piano, two male voices (tenor and bass) and three female voices (2 sopranos, 1 mezzo-soprano)
The comic plot revolves around a young girl, Emma, and her harried father who proclaims his disbelief in Santa Claus and talking snowmen. A group of familiar holiday figures set out to prove that they really exist. The holiday figures squabble amongst themselves while plotting the downfall of Emma's father until she reminds them all of the spirit of the season.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had its stage premiere in New York City in October 2001, presented by American Opera Projects and TADA! Youth Theater, with Anthony Pulgram as Sir Gawain [4] It has since played in Boston [5] and Orlando, Florida. [6] The 70 minute, one-act work was composed by Richard Peaslee to a libretto by Kenneth Cavander. The direction and dramaturgy are by Grethe Barrett Holby. . The work is scored for three male voices (tenor, bass-baritone, and bass) and one female voice (mezzo-soprano). The story is based on the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Fireworks premiered in an outdoor performance in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn on July 2, 2002, produced by American Opera Projects. A comic "opera-musical", it was composed by Kitty Brazelton to a libretto by Billy Aronson, [7] originated and directed by Grethe Barrett Holby. The full orchestra version is scored for violin, electric guitar, cello, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto and baritone saxophone, percussion, and synthesizer. The work is cast for a chorus and six solo voices: [8]
The story involves a benevolent alien (Intergalactic Toqueville) who travels to Earth to find out why humans shoot "colored lights" into the sky at the same time each year. In the course of her investigations, she encounters a series of characters gathered in a park to watch the 4th of July fireworks – a nerdy high school student, a rebellious teenage girl, her single working mother, a pompous actor who's preparing for the July 4th play, and a groundskeeper, who wishes people would take more pride in their park. The alien is won over to the idea of democracy and vows to take the message to the rest of the universe.
Act I of Animal Tales was first performed in a workshop for the Atlantic Center for the Arts in January 2005. Act II had its first performance in a workshop for the Montclair State University Peak Performances Series in July 2006. The work was first performed in its entirety in Theater Works USA workshops at the Chelsea Studios on November 11, 12, 13, 14, and 16, 2008.
Animal Tales is a full length musical-opera in two acts composed by Kitty Brazelton to a libretto by George Plimpton, [9] originated and directed Grethe Barrett Holby. The score integrates American musical idioms into classical structures, using classically trained, R&B and jazz vocal styles as well as DJ turntable, and Latin percussion. The full premiere version orchestra uses 1 pianist, 1 Latin percussionist/hand drummer, 1 DJ, 5 string players, 1 plucked string player (doubling on mandolin and guitar or harp), 4 wind instrumentalists (flute, oboe, saxophone/clarinet, and bassoon) and 2 brass players (trumpet and trombone). The touring version of the orchestra consists of DJ, Piano, and Latin Percussion. The cast has a children's chorus plus six male voices (boy soprano, tenor, bass-baritone, bass, and 2 baritones) and two female voices (soprano and mezzo-soprano)
The story revolves around seven animals who go to their veterinarian with the desire to change their lives. Each animal is granted their wish. Following a large storm, the animals return one by one, to recount their adventures, supplemented with dancing and exclamations from the chorus. The animals include a break dancing turtle, a horse who wants to be a 'rider', a dog who wants to howl like a wolf, and a goldfish who wants to swim in the Sea of Japan.
As of 2009, The Three Astronauts is a collaborative project being developed by the Family Opera Initiative. Conceived by its director, Grethe Barrett Holby, as a space opera, The Three Astronauts is based on the children's picture book of the same name written by Umberto Eco and illustrated by Eugenio Carmi. The story involves a Russian, a Chinese, and an American astronaut who all arrive on Mars at the same time. In their fear and loneliness, they band together to hunt down and kill the Martian they encounter, but ultimately embrace him as a friend. [10] The work is envisaged as an integration of orchestral passages, children's chorus, sung and spoken text, movement, and visual theater. It will be performed in English, Chinese, Russian and "Martian" with each of the astronauts performing in their own language without supertitles. Librettists and composers from each country will write the dialogue and music for the astronauts, with a new language created for the Martian. American poet Nikki Giovanni's We're Going to Mars forms the text for the children's chorus. Eugenio Carmi will be the lead designer. [1]
The project's development partners are Ardea Arts and Atlantic Center for the Arts, with major funding provided The Jaffe Family Foundation.
Jake Heggie is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers.
Catherine B. Brazelton is a New York-based American composer, bandleader, improviser, singer/songwriter, and instrumentalist. She has released albums and fronted bands across varied genres, including contemporary classical, electronic music, pop, art rock, punk, and avant-garde jazz. She was awarded the 2012 Carl von Ossietsky Composition Prize for Storm, a choral setting of Psalm 104 featuring Brazelton's own retranslation. Her opera Art of Memory was awarded the 2015 Grant for Female Composers from Opera America.
Jack Hamilton Beeson was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There!, and The Sweet Bye and Bye.
Alice Shields is an American classical composer. She is one of the pioneers of electronic music, and is particularly known for her cross-cultural operas.
Gawain is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by David Harsent. The story is based on the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The opera was a commission from the Royal Opera House, London, where it was first performed on 30 May 1991. Rhian Samuel has published a detailed analysis of the opera. Birtwistle revised it in 1994, and the premiere of the revised version was given at the Royal Opera House on 20 April 1994.
Daniel Steven Crafts is an American composer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, but has spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Hendrik Pienaar Hofmeyr is a South African composer. Born in Cape Town, he furthered his studies in Italy during 10 years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector. While there, he won the South African Opera Competition with The Fall of the House of Usher. He also received the annual Nederburg Prize for Opera for this work subsequent to its performance at the State Theatre in Pretoria in 1988. In the same year, he obtained first prize in an international competition in Italy with music for a short film by Wim Wenders. He returned to South Africa in 1992, and in 1997 won two major international composition competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition of Belgium and the first edition of the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Athens. His 'Incantesimo' for solo flute was selected to represent South Africa at the ISCM World Music Days in Croatia in 2005. In 2008 he was honoured with a Kanna award by the Kleinkaroo National Arts Festival. He is currently Professor and Head of Composition and Theory at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, where he obtained a DMus in 1999.
Our Town is a three-act opera by composer Ned Rorem and librettist J. D. McClatchy. It is the first opera to be adapted from Thornton Wilder's 1938 play of the same name. The opera was commissioned by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Opera Boston, the Aspen Music Festival and School, North Carolina School of the Arts, Lake George Opera in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, Calif.
The Last Supper is an opera with music by Sir Harrison Birtwistle to an English and Latin libretto by Robin Blaser. Birtwistle composed the music over the period written in 1998–1999. The world premiere was given by the Berlin State Opera on 18 April 2000, with the production directed by Martin Duncan and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. It was subsequently performed by the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in October/November 2000 and the following summer at the 2001 Glyndebourne Festival. Many of the original cast returned for two concert performances at the Piccolo Teatro Studio Expo, Milan and the Teatro Valdocco, Turin on 4–5 September 2008 with the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Elgar Howarth as part of the Settembre Musica festival.
The Juniper Tree is an opera co-composed by Philip Glass and Robert Moran in 1985 to a libretto by Arthur Yorinks based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
The American Opera Project (AOP) is a professional opera company based in Brooklyn, New York City, and is a member of Opera America, the Fort Greene Association, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./NY). The company's primary mission is to develop and present new operatic and music theatre works and has gained a reputation for the "rarefied range" of the projects it fosters. AOP was founded in 1988 by Grethe Barrett Holby who served as Artistic Director of AOP from 1988 until 2001, at which point Charles Jarden became the company's Executive Director and Steven Osgood the company's Artistic Director. Steven Osgood left the post of Artistic Director in 2008 to pursue conducting full-time but remains the Artistic Director for AOP's "Composers & the Voice" program.
Will Todd is an English musician and composer. He is a pianist, who performs regularly with others in his own works.
William L. Lewis is an American operatic tenor and academic.
William Mayer was an American composer, best known for his prize-winning opera A Death in the Family.
The Golden Ticket is an opera based on Roald Dahl's classic 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by the contemporary American composer Peter Ash, with a libretto by Donald Sturrock. The Golden Ticket was commissioned by American Lyric Theater, Lawrence Edelson, Producing Artistic Director; and Felicity Dahl. It premiered at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis on June 13, 2010 in a co-production between OTSL, Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera, and American Lyric Theater.
Odaline de la Martinez is a Cuban-American composer and conductor, currently residing in the UK. She is the artistic director of Lontano, a London-based contemporary music ensemble which she co-founded in 1976 with New Zealander flautist Ingrid Culliford, and was the first woman to conduct at the BBC Promenade Concerts in 1984. As well as frequent appearances as a guest conductor with leading orchestras throughout Great Britain, including all the BBC orchestras, she has conducted several leading ensembles around the world, including the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris; the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; the Australian Youth Orchestra; the OFUNAM and the Camerata of the Americas in Mexico; and the Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. She is also known as a broadcaster for BBC Radio and Television and has recorded extensively for several labels.
Grethe Barrett Holby is an American theatre producer, stage director, choreographer, and dramaturge best known for her work in opera. Holby is noted as the founder of American Opera Projects, where she served as Artistic Director from 1988 until 2001. She serves as Executive Artistic Director of Family Opera Initiative which she founded in 1995, and Ardea Arts, Inc., which she founded in 2006. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded Holby a 2006 Creative Arts Residency The Bellagio Center.
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