The American Opera Project (AOP) is a professional opera company based in Brooklyn, New York City, and is a member of

Opera America __NOTOC__ Opera America, styled OPERA America, is a New York-based service organization promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera in the United States. Almost all professional opera companies and some semi-professional companies i ...

, 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 (Opera News, Dec 2008). AOP was founded in 1988 by

Grethe Barrett Holby Grethe Barrett Holby (born April 26, 1948) 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 ...

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. AOP's year-long writing fellowship, "Composers & the Voice" was created in 2002 to bring emerging operatic composers and librettists together with singers, directors, and other artists to create a series of pieces exploring the potential of theatre and the voice. Past and present mentors for the program include Mark Adamo, Mark Campbell,

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

, Tan Dun, Daron Hagen,

Jake Heggie Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) 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. B ...

, Libby Larsen, John Musto, Tobias Picker, Kaija Saariaho, and

Stephen Schwartz Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...

. Past participants include Clint Borzoni, David Claman,

Conrad Cummings Conrad Cummings (born February 10, 1948) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His compositions include works for orchestra, as well as operatic and chamber works. Many of his works are composed in a minimalist style reminisc ...

, Randall Eng, Renée Favand,

Vivian Fung Vivian Fung (born 1975) is a Canadian-born composer who writes music for orchestras, operas, quartets, and piano. Her compositions have been performed internationally. Early life and education Fung was born in Edmonton, Alberta. She began composit ...

Kristin Kuster Kristin P. Kuster (born 1973) is an American composer of symphonic, vocal and chamber music. Biography Kuster was born Kristin Peterson in Raleigh, North Carolina and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree ...

Hannah Lash Han Lash (born 1981) is an American composer of concert music who has taught at Yale School of Music, Mannes School of Music, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Biography Han Lash was born in Alfred, New York, USA on Novembe ...

, Gilda Lyons, Robert Paterson, Jack Perla, Zach Redler & Sara Cooper, and Daniel Sonenberg. Amongst the venues and festivals where AOP productions have appeared are the

Lincoln Center Festival Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

, BAM's Next Wave Festival, the Guggenheim Museum,

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

, Irondale Center, Philadelphia's Annenberg Center, Pittsburgh Opera, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, London's Royal Opera House, Berlin's Stükke Theater, Aleksander Fredro Teatr in Poland, the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in Norway, and the in Vienna. It has also given many out-of-doors performances sponsored by the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation. AOP won a 2005 Encore award from the Arts & Business Council of New York for its innovative work.

Operas and other works developed with AOP

World premieres

''As One'' by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, and Kimberly Reed (BAM Fisher Center, Sept 4, 2014)
''Beauty Intolerable'' by

Sheila Silver Sheila Jane Silver (born October 3, 1946) is an American composer. Early life and studies Sheila Silver was born in Seattle, Washington in 1946, the youngest daughter of Robert and Fannie Silver. She started piano studies at the age of five. Af ...

with texts by

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of he ...

(Symphony Space, June 8, 2013)
''Before Night Falls'' by

Jorge Martin Jorge is a Spanish and Portuguese given name. It is derived from the Greek name Γεώργιος (''Georgios'') via Latin ''Georgius''; the former is derived from (''georgos''), meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker". The Latin form ''Georgius'' ...

and

Dolores M. Koch Dolores Mercedes Koch (née Gonzalez, 1928 - 11 June 2009) was a Cuban American literary critic and translator who was a pioneer in the area of microfiction. Biography Koch was born in Havana, Cuba in 1928. Koch completed her higher education at t ...

(Fort Worth Opera, May 29, 1010)
''Brooklyn Bones'' by Alvin Singleton and

Patricia Hampl Patricia Hampl (born March 12, 1946) is an American memoirist, writer, lecturer, and educator. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and is one of the founding members of the Loft Literary Center. Life Patric ...

(Nov 15, 2008)
''Brooklyn Cinderella'' by Nkeiru Okoye (Dweck Auditorium, June 21, 2011)
''Darkling'' by Stefan Weisman and

Anna Rabinowitz Anna Rabinowitz is an American poet, librettist and editor. She has published five volumes of poetry: ''Words on the Street''Tupelo Press winner of the Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize 2017; ''Present Tense''Omindawn selected by The Huffington Pos ...

(East 13th Street Theater, Feb 26, 2006)
''Fade'' by Stefan Weisman and David Cote (NYC PREMIERE at Galapagos Art Space, July 17, 2009)
''Fireworks'' by

Kitty Brazelton Kitty Brazelton (born 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) 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 ...

and

Billy Aronson Billy Aronson is an American playwright and writer, who originated the concept of the rock opera ''Rent'', which was based on Puccini's opera ''La bohème''.Jones, Kenneth (2011)Rent, With Andy Mientus, Fabio Monteiro, Halle Morse, Begins at Pion ...

(July 2, 2002)
''Flurry Tale'' by

Rusty Magee Benjamin Rush "Rusty" Magee (August 6, 1955 – February 16, 2003) was an accomplished comedian, actor and composer/lyricist for theatre, television, film and commercials. Biography Early life Magee was born in Washington, D.C., the son ...

and Billy Aronson, with commissioned orchestrations by John Rinehimer (Clark Studio Theater, Dec 18, 1999)
''Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom'' by Nkeiru Okoye (Irondale Center, Feb 21, 2014)
''

Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...

'' by

Tarik O'Regan Tarik Hamilton O'Regan (; born 1 January 1978) is a British and American composer. His compositions number over 100 and are partially represented on 43 recordings which have been recognised with two Grammy nominations. He is also the recipien ...

and Tom Phillips (Covent Garden, Nov 1, 2011)
''Judgment of Midas'' by Kamran Ince and Miriam Seidel (

Milwaukee Opera Theatre Milwaukee Opera Theatre, known colloquially as MOT, is a professional opera and musical theatre company that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely pop ...

, Feb 12, 2013)
''L'abbe Agathon'' by

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

and Tarik O'Regan (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jan 11, 2009)
''Love/Hate'' by Jack Perla and Rob Bailis (San Francisco Opera Center, April 2012)
''Marina: A Captive Spirit'' by

Deborah Drattell Deborah Drattell (born 1954) is an American composer. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and started her career in music as a violinist. Her compositions have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Tanglewood a ...

and Annie Finch (May 1, 2003)
''Model Love'' by J. David Jackson based on poems by

Henry Normal Henry Normal (real name Peter James Carroll, born 15 August 1956) is a writer, poet, TV and film producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Manchester Literature Festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival. In Ju ...

(Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Oct 2, 2011)
''Nora, in the Great Outdoors'' by Daniel Felsenfeld and

Will Eno Will Eno (born 1965) is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, '' Thom Pain (based on nothing)'' was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. His play ''The Realistic Joneses'' appeared on Broadway in 2014, wher ...

(Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Oct 2, 2011)
''Out Cold'' by Phil Kline (BAM Fisher, Oct 25, 2012)
''

Patience and Sarah ''Patience and Sarah'' is a 1969 historical fiction novel with strong lesbian themes by Alma Routsong, using the pen name Isabel Miller. It was originally self-published under the title ''A Place for Us'' and eventually found a publisher as ...

'' by Paula M. Kimper and Wende Persons (John Jay College Theater, July 8, 1998)
''Paul's Case'' by

Gregory Spears Gregory Spears is an American composer of instrumental and operatic works that blend aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. Among his best known works are the operas ''Fellow Travelers'' and ''Paul's Case'', as well as his Requiem. ...

and Kathryn Walat (Artisphere, Apr 20, 2013)
''Romulus'' by Louis Karchin (Guggenheim Museum, May 20, 2007)
''Séance on a Wet Afternoon'' by

(NYC PREMIERE at New York City Opera, Apr 19, 2011)
''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' by

Richard Peaslee Richard Peaslee (June 13, 1930, New York NY – August 20, 2016) was a composer who worked in a variety of idioms, including chorus, orchestra, dance, and soundtracks for film and television, but he was most active as a composer for the theatre. Ed ...

and Kenneth Cavander (Oct 18, 2001)
''The Blind'' by Lera Auerbach (Lincoln Center. July 9, 2013)
''The Scarlet Ibis'' by Stefan Weisman and David Cote (HERE Arts Center, Jan 15, 2015)
''This is the Rill Speaking'' by Lee Hoiby and Lanford Wilson (Purchase College Opera, Apr 26, 2008)
''Tone Test'' by

Nick Brooke Nick Brooke (born December 26, 1968) is an American composer, musician, arranger, thereminist, instrument builder, and researcher of early musical automata. He was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. Brooke mixes musical sampling, lipsynching, a ...

(Lincoln Center, July 22, 2004)
''Windows'' by Zach Redler and Sara Cooper (NYU, March 23, 2013)

Works developed/in development

''1000 Splendid Suns'' by Sheila Silver and Stephen Kitsakas
''African Tales'' by Nkeiru Okoye and Carman Moore
''Alice in the Time of the Jabberwock'' by Daniel Felsenfeld and Robert Coover
''Companionship'' by Rachel Peters
''Decoration'' by Mikael Karlsson and David Floden
''Eichmann in Jerusalem'' by

Mohammed Fairouz Mohammed Fairouz (born November 1, 1985) is an American composer. He is one of the most frequently performed composers of his generation and has been described by Daniel J. Wakin of ''The New York Times'' as an "important new artistic voice". Fa ...

and David Shapiro
''Heinrich Heine: Doppelganger'' by Jacob Engel, Paula Kimper, and Nino Sandow
''Henry's Wife'' by Randall Eng and Alexis Bernier
''Independence Eve'' by Sidney Marquez Boquiren and Daniel Neer
''Lost Childhood'' by Janice Hamer and Mary Azrael (STAGED WORKSHOP PREMIERE at Tel Aviv-Yafo Music Center, July 29, 2007)
''Marymere'' by Matt Schickele
''Memoirs of Uliana Rooney'' by

Vivian Fine Vivian Fine (28 September 1913 – 20 March 2000) was an American composer. Life Vivian Fine was born in Chicago to David and Rose Fine. A piano prodigy, she became at age five the youngest student ever to be awarded a scholarship at the Chic ...

and

Sonya Friedman Sonia is a feminine given name in many areas of the world including Western world, the West, Russia, Iran, and South Asia. Sonia and its variant spellings Sonja and Sonya are derived from the Russian hypocorism, hypocoristic ''Sonya'', an abbreviat ...

''Mila'' by Andrea Clearfield, Jean Claude Vanitaille, and Lois Walden
''Numinous City'' by

Pete M. Wyer Pete M. Wyer (born 24 March 1964) is a British composer. Early life Wyer was born in Cheltenham, England. Career He began his career as a guitarist with pop and jazz bands in the 1980s. He became a music teacher in the 1990s, while devel ...

and Melissa Salmons
''Our Basic Nature'' by John Glover and Kelley Rourke
''Prairie Dogs'' by Rachel Peters and Royce Vavrek
''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' by Herschel Garfein
''Semmelweis'' by Raymond J. Lustig and Matt Gray
''Sharon's Grave'' by Richard Wargo, based on the play be

John B. Keane John Brendan Keane (21 July 1928 – 30 May 2002) was an Irish playwright, novelist and essayist from Listowel, County Kerry. Biography A son of a national school teacher, William B. Keane, and his wife Hannah (née Purtill), Keane was ...

''Tesla in New York'' by Phil Kline and

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), '' Down by Law'' ( ...

''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' by Paula M. Kimper
''The Companion'' by Robert Paterson and David Cote
''The Family Room'' by Thomas Pasatieri and Daphne Malfitano
''The Golden Gate'' by

, based on novel by

Vikram Seth Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crosswor ...

''The Leopard'' by Michael Dellaira and

J.D. McClatchy J. D. "Sandy" McClatchy (August 12, 1945 – April 10, 2018) was an American poet, opera librettist and literary critic. He was editor of the ''Yale Review'' and president of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Life McClatchy was born J ...

'' The Summer King'' by Daniel Sonenberg
''The Walled-Up Wife'' by Gilda Lyons
''The Wanton Sublime'', formerly ''The Woven Child'', by Tarik O'Regan and Anna Rabinowitz (NYC PREMIERE at Roulette, Apr 22, 2014)
''The Weeping Camel'' by

Huang Ruo Huang Ruo (黃若, born 1976) is a Chinese-born composer, pianist and vocalist who now lives in the United States. Biography Born on Hainan Island off the southern coast of China in 1976, Huang was taught piano and composition from the age o ...

and Candace Chong
''Three Way'' by Robert Paterson and David Cote
''Ugetsu'' by Michael Rose and Emily Howard
''Unruly Horses'' based on the life and songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, conceived by Mina Yakim and Moni Yakim, with additional book by

Peter Kellogg Peter R. Kellogg (born September 5, 1942), is an American businessman with a net worth estimated by Forbes at around $3.4 billion, primarily derived from his leadership of Wall Street firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg. Personal Peter attended the Rec ...

''Wolf-in-Skins'', formerly ''The Lost Lais of Albion'', by

, choreographed by Christopher Williams

References

Sources

* Kozinn, Allan (December 9, 1990)
"New Work by American Opera Projects"
'' The New York Times'' *Kozinn, Allan (May 6, 2003)
"An Operatic Treatment Of a Russian Poet's Despair"
''The New York Times'' * Ross, Alex (April 24, 1993)
"American Operas in Progress"
''The New York Times'' *Singer, Barry (December 2008)
"Risky Business "
''

Opera News ''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...

'', Vol. 73, No. 6

External links

* {{authority control New York City opera companies Musical groups established in 1988 1988 establishments in New York City