Current Projects
Visitations
photo by Vera Gutkina (painting)
composed by Jonathan Berger
libretto by Dan O'Brien
directed by Rinde Eckert
produced by Stanford Live Arts in association with Beth Morrison Projects
Two new operas by an award-winning creative team are brought to the Bing stage in their premiere performances. With an all-star cast of leading performers from the worlds of opera, chamber music, and contemporary music, the two chamber operas traverse powerful emotional, and psychological terrain. WAR REPORTER depicts the true story of the inner struggle of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Paul Watson, who believes he is being haunted by the spirit of the American soldier, whose mutilated body he photographed in the streets of Mogadishu in 1993. Its counterpart, THEOTOKIA presents the hallucinatory voices of a delusional schizophrenia who believes he is God.
PERFORMANCE DATES
Stanford Live Arts / Apr. 12 - 13, 2013 TICKETS
PROTOTYPE: OPERA | THEATRE | NOW
PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now is an annual festival of visionary opera-theatre and music-theatre works by pioneering artists from New York and around the world. A new body of work is on the brink of exploding out of New York and onto the national scene, as an exciting new generation of composers and collaborators focus on the creation of chamber-sized theatre works in new and unique ways. PROTOTYPE is at the forefront of the movement, showcasing these works for new audiences and presenters alike.
"A New Music Festival Downtown to Offer Fresh Sounds and Words"
— The New York Times, January 2012
PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
SUMEIDA'S SONG (Mohammed Fairouz) January 9-15 @ HERE Mainstage
BLUEBEARD (33 1/3 Collective) January 10-13 @ 3LD
SOLDIER SONGS (David T. Little) January 11-18 @ The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts
TIMUR AND THE DIME MUSEUM (Timur Bekbosunov) January 10-12 @ HERE Dot
AGING MAGICIAN (Paola Prestini) January 15-16 @ HERE Dot
BUY TICKETS/ VIEW CALENDAR HERE
Immerse Yourself in PROTOTYPE with a PROTO Pack!
See all the shows and immerse yourself fully in the PROTOTYPE experience by purchasing a festival ticket package and receive a 40% discount off the total face value of the tickets! Click Here to build and purchase your PROTO Pack.
Sumeida’s Song
photo by David Degner
created and composed by Mohammed Fairouz
directed by David Herskovits
based on Tawfiq El-Hakim's "Song of Death"
adapted by Mohammed Fairouz
co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE in a PROTOTYPE Festival Presentation
"Biblical in sweep, the opera [Sumeida's Song] tells a story of a clash of old thought and new thought and, while written in 2009, comes, for Western listeners, on the heels of the unrest in Egypt that has led to the forming of a new type of government for that region. This opera has winds of change swirling around and through it, and it's one you must see."
-Sherri Rase for [Q]onstage
SUMEIDA'S SONG is Mohammed Fairouz's first opera, and the first Arab-American opera to be fully staged in America. Based on the classic Tawfiq El-Hakim play, Song of Death, the opera follows the return of a young man, Alwan, from Cairo to his Upper Egyptian peasant village. He defies his family's expectations to fulfill an age-old blood feud, intead revealing the true purpose of his return: to end the cycle of violence. For his attempts to bring light and modernity to his village, and for challenging the structure of his society, he pays the ultimate price. This world premiere production will feature a chamber orchestration with Arabic and western instruments. Mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway leads the cast of four singers.
a PROTOTYPE prsentation / January 9-15 @ HERE, Mainstage
Soldier Songs
photo by Jill Steinberg
composed by David T. Little
directed by Yuval Sharon
conducted by Todd Reynolds
produced by Beth Morrison Projects
a PROTOTYPE and Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts presentation
"Soldier Songs rocks. David T. Little brilliantly expounds upon the life of the soldier... His music is both complex and simple, conveying the enormous range of emotions the Soldier experiences."
-The Houston Chronicle (May 2009)
Soldier Songs is a riveting evening-length multimedia event from composer David T. Little that combines elements of theater, opera, rock-infused-concert music, and animation to explore the perceptions versus the realities of the Soldier, the exploration of loss and exploitation of innocence, and the difficulty of expressing the truth of war. The presentation stars baritone Christopher Burchett as the Soldier and features chamber ensemble Newspeak. SOLDIER SONGS premiered in June 2011 at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
PERFORMANCE DATES
The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at PACE University, NYC / Jan. 11 - 18, 2013 TICKETS
Download an electronic press kit here.
Audio Clips
love fail
photo by James Matthew Daniel
composed and directed by David Lang
"With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion... Lang, once a post minimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master."
-The New Yorker
Elsewhere
photo by James Matthew Daniel
a new celloOpera created by cellist Maya Beiser and director Robert Woodruff
composed by Eve Beglarian, Michael Gordon, and Missy Mazzoli
texts by Erin Cressida Wilson and Henri Michaux
commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts
"Salt" by Missy Mazzoli & Erin Cressida Wilson commissioned by Linda & Stuart Nelson
produced by Beth Morrison Projects
"Beiser has become a full-fledged multimedia auteur."
-The Advocate (Mass MoCA workshop performance, December 2011)
"the cello goddess"
-The New Yorker
From what began as a unique collaboration between cellist Maya Beiser and theater director Robert Woodruff (called "the country's most adventurous director" by Time Out New York) comes ELSEWHERE, a new celloOpera featuring Maya Beiser, vocalist Helga Davis, and a chorus of female dancers. A triptych of daring compositions by Eve Beglarian, Michael Gordon, and Missy Mazzoli, ELSEWHERE is an imaginative and psychological retelling of the biblical story of Lot's wife.
PERFORMANCE DATES
Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina / Oct. 11, 2012 TICKETS
The Brooklyn Academy of Music's 2012 Next Wave Festival / Oct. 17 - 2012 TICKETS
Dog Days
photo by James Matthew Daniel
composed by David T. Little
libretto by Royce Vavrek
based on the short story by Judy Budnitz
directed by Robert Woodruff
conducted by Alan Pierson
commissioned by Peak Performances @ MSU (NJ)
produced by Peak Performances in association with Beth Morrison Projects
"dramatically wild and at times exhilarating... Mr. Little's rustling, raunchy,eclectic score showed real imagination."
-The New York Times (New York City Opera's VOX 2010)
"Mr. Little's writing is melodic and shapely, and the five singers... gave wrenching portrayals of a couple and their three children."
-The New York Times (Carnegie Hall workshop presentation 2009)
Based on the haunting short story by Judy Budnitz, this world premiere investigates what happens when a working class American family - and the "dog" that shows up on their front door step - are pitted against an apocalyptic scenario in the not-so-distant future.
PERFORMANCE DATES
Peak Performances @ Montclair State University (NJ) / Sept. 29 - Oct. 7, 2012 TICKETS
Download the electronic press kit here.
