American Lyric Theater presents public performances in New York City to promote the work of gifted emerging artists, and to expose the public to the process of developing new operas.
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The Living Libretto:
OPERA IN EDEN
Featured Librettists: Laura Barati, C.S. Hansen, Samuel Norman.
Featured Composers: Ivette Herman Rodriguez, Kathleen Tagg, and Del’Shawn Taylor.
THE LIVING LIBRETTO - OPERA IN EDEN gives audiences a first glimpse at three new one-act operas being written by first year resident artists in American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP) :
FOURTH WAVE BEAUTY QUEENS
Composer: Kathleen Tagg
Librettist: Laura Barati
FOURTH WAVE BEAUTY QUEENS delves into the relationship between Délia, a feminist academic researching extreme beauty treatments, and her mother, Flora. When Délia receives rare prototypes of the latest, miracle anti-aging and weight loss treatments as a gift, she and Flora are forced to face their ultimate temptations. A darkly comedic mother-daughter story, FOURTH WAVE BEAUTY QUEENS explores the competing desires and gordian knot of living within the female gaze.
GIOVANNI/A
Composer: Del’Shawn Taylor
Librettist: C.S. Hanson
Secrets. Forbidden love. Dreams that dare not be told. Within the confines of a Benedictine monastery in 16th century Padua, monks Nico and Giovanni are devoted to work and prayer until attraction threatens their peaceful existence. The Abbot, no stranger to friendly spying, just wants to keep things in order. When secrets are unleashed, Giovanni’s truth boldly challenges the rules of the monastic community.
THE SHADOW
Composer: Ivette Herryman Rodríguez
Librettist: Samuel Norman
A simple experiment goes terribly wrong. A man accidentally detaches himself from his shadow, which flits off into the night. No matter how hard he tries, he’s unable to recover it, and eventually he is forced to move on… until the evening he receives an unexpected visitor. Adapted from the twisted tale by Hans Christian Andersen, THE SHADOW explores the fragility of identity, and how easily reality itself can be usurped by a good story.
The three libretti will be read by professional actors, followed by discussion with the writers. Moderated by ALT’s Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson, these discussions between the audience, composers and librettists explore dramatic structure, characterization, and timing of action in opera vs. spoken drama, providing audiences with a unique perspective into the early stages of each opera’s development.
The three opera libretti to be featured on this program have been developed through a workshop taught at American Lyric Theater by composer/librettist Mark Adamo. For this project, each writing team is provided with the same structural outline that serves as a thematic scaffold upon which they develop their operas – but the stories for each opera are completely up to the artists. The structural outline is designed to encourage architectural and motivic thinking by librettists and composers alike. This project has been a core element of ALT’s Composer Librettist Development Program since the program’s inception in 2007 and has proven invaluable in fostering collaboration throughout the writing process – from a work’s early outline – through the development of the libretto – to the composition of the score. This project has not only strengthened composers and librettists’ dramaturgical skills, but has also yielded a wide array of exciting one-act operas, many of which have gone on to full production across the country.
Join us for an exciting afternoon of discovery, with an incredible group of artists who are changing the face of American opera!
PAST EVENTS THIS SEASON
InsightALT:
SHE WHO DARED
Composer: Jasmine Arielle Barnes
Librettist: Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
Conducted by Maestro Kelly Kuo
Insight ALT: TEVYE’S DAUGHTERS
Composer: Alex Weiser Librettist: Stephanie Fleischmann
Dramaturg: Cori Ellison
Conducted by Maestro Kelly Kuo
InsightALT events were created to give the public an intimate, insiders look behind the scenes of American Lyric Theater’s process of creating new operas. Each event features a concert reading of a new opera in development at ALT, featuring guest singers from the world's leading opera houses, followed an interactive discussion between the audience and the writers behind each work. These conversations, moderated by ALT's founder, Lawrence Edelson, use Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process to engage with those experiencing the opera for the first time to help the writers on their journeys.
American Lyric Theater's programs to mentor emerging operatic writers are made possible with generous leadership support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from The Howard Gilman Foundation, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, OPERA America, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, The Amphion Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University and the generosity of many individual donors.