THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT and THE NYU TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS' GRADUATE MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING PROGRAM and DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN FOR STAGE & FILM PRESENT
UNDISCOVERED COUNTRIES
Three 30-minute World Premiere opera films
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November 23, 2021
Brooklyn, NY - The American Opera Project, in partnership with NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and The Department of Design for Stage & Film will present UNDISCOVERED COUNTRIES, a series of three 30-minute filmed operas written in response to the chaotic, momentous year 2020. The World Premiere will take place on December 2, 2021 at 7pm ET on the AOP website with the creators and artists commenting and answering questions live in the chat.
The operas in UNDISCOVERED COUNTRIES were written by librettists and composers from the spring 2021 NYU/Tisch Advanced Opera Lab, including Gavin Knittle, Willem Oosthuysen, Zonia Tsang, Briana Harris, Alex Higgin-Houser, and Tristen Moseley, and directed/designed by members of Tisch's Department of Design for Stage & Film, including Ant Ma, Karen Boyer, Lauren Carmen, New Phase Collective, Nina Pan, Christopher Wong, and I-Chen Wang. The opera films will feature performances by Paul An, Gideon Dabi, Melissa Harvey, Kathryn Krasovec, Nicole Mitchell, Timothy Stoddard, with musical direction by Miriam Charney and audio engineering by Enzo Veiga.
ETERNAL REST
Music by Willem Oosthuysen & Libretto by Tristen Moseley
Design by Karen Boyer and Ant Ma
Direction by I-Chen Wang
Drawing on text and music from the Middle Ages, this show sees a horse-headed priest lead a Catholic Requiem, while those in the pews must reconcile a world situated between continual crisis and the cusp of renaissance.
SHADOW ON THE WALL
Music by Zonia Tsang & Libretto by Alex Higgin-Houser
Design by New Phase Collective
In this shadow puppet opera, a Blackwater mercenary returns to Sparta, TN to live with his sister, having received a presidential pardon for the murders he committed in Iraq. When he moves in, his sister's loyalty is tested when a shadowy presence demands justice.
THE DRAGON TRANSFER
Music by Gavin Knittle & Libretto by Briana Harris
Design by Lauren Carmen, Nina Pan, & Christopher Wong
The Dragon Transfer chronicles the experiences of four astronauts on the International Space Station during the Covid-19 pandemic. A newly arrived American astronaut sends a device to her college age daughter in quarantine, while an escaped spider aboard the ISS causes mayhem among the crew.
AOP's training programs are supported in part through a multi-year grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and OPERA America’s Innovation Grant funded by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.
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The NYU/Tisch Opera Lab is a collaboration between Brooklyn contemporary opera producer The American Opera Project [AOP] and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Each year in the Lab, emerging opera composers and librettists create brand new short operas centered on an historic New York City location. Over several months, the operas are developed with professional opera singers and then given full productions in the very locations that they were written about.
The Lab is a cross-departmental collaboration that has been led since its 2015 inception by faculty members Randall Eng (Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program [GMTWP]) and Sam Helfrich (Department of Design). GMTWP provides the librettists and composers, AOP provides the singers and music directors, Dept. of Design provides the designers, and other Tisch Departments (Dance, Open Arts), other NYU constituents (Grey Art Gallery, Institute of Fine Arts), and other universities (New School for Social Research) often play key roles as well.
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Randall Eng founded and leads the NYU/Tisch Opera Lab with Sam Helfrich. Under their guidance, students from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program have created more than 30 short operas. As a composer, Randall's music lies at the intersection of opera, music-theatre, and jazz. His operas Florida, Before the Night Sky, and Henry's Wife have been performed at UrbanArias, Lyric Opera Cleveland, New York City Opera's VOX Festival, American Opera Projects, Town Hall, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Center for Contemporary Opera, and Manhattan School of Music. His choral work Remain (a setting of an immigration rights pamphlet) premiered in 2018 by the MasterVoices Chorus. Other dramatic works include The Dangers of Electric Lighting (Luna Stage), Usher, Falling (Opera Vindaloo Festival), and the video opera The Woman in the Green Coat (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); non-theatrical works include commissions for Albany Symphony Orchestra's Dogs of Desire, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and Composer's Voice. Randall is a graduate of Harvard University, Cambridge University, and NYU/Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where he is now an Associate Arts Professor. |
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Sam Helfrich is an opera and theater director based in New York. He has directed opera productions at New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto Festival/USA, Virginia Opera, Opera Boston, Pittsburgh Opera, and Wolf Trap, among others. Recent opera highlights include the world premiere of Permadeath, a CGI- based opera about video gaming with White Snake Productions in Boston, and the world premiere of Jeffrey Smith's Why is Eartha Kitt Trying to Kill Me at Urban Arias in Washington DC, Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Indianapolis Symphony, a staging of Haydn’s Creation with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New York premiere of Angels in America at New York City Opera, the world premiere of Dan Sonenberg's The Summer King at Pittsburgh Opera (and, recently, at Michigan Opera Theater), Bach's St. John Passion with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Mark Anthony Turnage's Greek at Boston Lyric Opera, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at Virginia Opera, the world premiere of Enemies: A Love Story, by Ben Moore, at Palm Beach Opera, Embedded, by composer Patrick Soluri, at Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at Virginia Opera, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at Eugene Opera, Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Virginia Opera, the American premiere of Philip Glass' Kepler at Spoleto Festival/USA, Adams' Nixon in China at Eugene Opera, a fully staged Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the world premiere of Michael Dellaira's The Secret Agent at Center for Contemporary Opera in New York, the Armel Opera Festival in Hungary, and Opera Avignon, The Turn of the Screw at Boston Lyric Opera, Philip Glass' Orphée at Pittsburgh Opera, Virginia Opera, Portland Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, and Anthony Davis’ Amistad at Spoleto Festival/USA. Recent theater credits include Arthur Miller’s After The Fall at NYU/Tisch Grad Acting, off-Broadway productions of Owned, a world premier play by Julian Sheppard, and Tape, by Stephen Belber, both of which played to wide audience- and critical acclaim, and a double bill of plays by Shaw and De Musset at the Franklin Stage Company. Upcoming projects, all postponed due to the pandemic, include a revival of his acclaimed production of Péter Eötvös’ Angels in America at the Salzburg Landestheater, and a production of Elizabeth Cree with West Edge Opera in Oakland, CA. BA (Russian Literature), M.F.A. (Theatre Arts) Columbia University. |
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ABOUT THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT |
Founded in 1988, The American Opera Project (AOP) has been at the forefront of contemporary opera for over 30 years. The Brooklyn-based producing organization commissions, develops and produces music-theatre 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 programs The NYU Opera Lab, in partnership with NYU and for students and alumni in The NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and Composers & the Voice, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists.
Press for AOP:
"known for bringing cutting-edge vocal productions to the masses" — New York Magazine
"a perfect first exposure to opera." — Time Out NY
"Bravo to AOP for supporting such controversial and ultimately important work." — Opera Today
"The future of American opera is in good hands." — Opera News
Media Contact: Meagan Brus, Director of Marketing and Communications
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