American Opera Projects and Bare Opera present One Drop on November 2nd, 7:30pm at 138 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, a new opera composed and adapted by Thomas Cabaniss.

In a small rural outpost of South Carolina in the early 1930s, Ruth & Larry Leamer await the birth of their second child. As a segregationist, Larry is part of a group of white men who seek to exclude those with “one drop” of mixed race blood from their local school. Aware of the complexity of their own family histories, Ruth confides in Dr. Wainright that their newborn will have black features.

Porgy And Bess (1935) is the second story following Brass Ankle (1931) by DuBose Heyward, that opened on Broadway, about his hometown in Charleston, South Carolina. Brass Ankle is the source material of One Drop.

Thomas Cabaniss (Composer, Librettist/Adapter) His string quartets, Four Elements, will be released on CD this fall. Tom's works for Carnegie Hall’s orchestra education program (LinkUp!), are performed every year by over 120 orchestras in the U.S. and around the world. He teaches at The Juilliard School and serves as a consultant for the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, where he helped to create The Lullaby Project, collaborating with young parents in shelters, hospitals, and prisons. More at: http://www.thomascabaniss.com

David Rosenmeyer (Music Director) David Rosenmeyer in his eleventh season as music director of the Fairfield County Chorale. Mr. Rosenmeyer conducts major orchestras in Latin America, including the National Symphonic Orchestra of Argentina, Symphonic Orchestra of Concepción of Chile, and Bellas Artes of Mexico, and has led concerts in the old city of Jaffa in Israel with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. David is the Oratorio Society’s Associate Conductor, and has conducted them on tour in Hungary, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Uruguay and Japan. More at: https://www.davidrosenmeyer.com/

David Herskovits (Director) David Herskovits is the Founding Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater. He directs a broad range of work, classics and neglected older work, new opera and music-theater, and adaptations of history and literature, for TMT and theaters, festivals, and universities all over, including The Spoleto Festival USA, Theatre for A New Audience, AOP for the Lincoln Center Festival, The Bonn Biennale, The Kitchen, Mass MoCA. David does not know what a play is and seeks to answer that question. More at: https://www.targetmargin.org/who-we-are/staff/david-herskovits/

Explore more of AOP's past and future projects at www.aopopera.org

Founded in 1988, American Opera Projects (AOP) has been at the forefront of contemporary opera for over 30 years. The Brooklyn-based producing organization commissions, develops and produces lyric theater projects, trains emerging composers and librettists, and creates personal connections within its community. Its works have received critical acclaim at opera companies and venues around the world, establishing a new musical canon that recognizes the operatic story in every life. AOP further expands the operatic field through its training program Composers & the Voice, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists.

Bare Opera is alternative opera company in New York City reinventing the opera experience. Founded in 2014 by three women—Min Lew, Laetitia Ruccolo, and Kirsten Scott—the company has only evolved its mission and broadened its artistic base. With minimalist, modern aesthetics, our exceptional emerging and established artists bring you the bare essentials of opera—a candid, immersive theatrical experience with breathtakingly beautiful music at its core. Taking place in unconventional spaces like galleries and warehouses, we strive to strip opera of its clichés and create a visceral and intimate experience for audiences, experienced and new alike. Bare Opera is keeping opera alive in the 21st century, one fresh production at a time.

AOP's C&V alum Joseph Rubinstein's work presents at New York Festival Of Song

AOP presented House of Legendary (composed by Joseph Rubinstein, libretto by Jason Kim, both Composers & the Voice fellows) at The Tank during Pride Month 2024.

Now, Rubinstein's art song uncoil, commissioned for Juilliard's Pride Songbook in 2023, featured on the NYFOS concert on Sunday, November 3, 2024, at The Theater at the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W 17th Street, NYC.

Tickets available here: https://nyfos.org/nyfos-next/.

AOP is supported through generous funding from the following organizations: