''The Stonewall Operas'', are a series of four mini-

operas Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

inspired by the 50th anniversary of the 1969

Stonewall Riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

, the spark of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, which had their world premiere in May 2019 at New York University's Shubert Theatre and the

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the s ...

, as part of the June, 2019

Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was a series of LGBTQ events and celebrations in June 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. It was also the first time WorldPride was held in the United States. Held primarily in the ...

celebrations, and the 2019 New York Opera Fest, a two-month celebration of the art form. The operas capped NYU's "Stonewall at 50", a series of events commemorating the riots and legacy. They are the fourth collaboration between

American Opera Projects The American Opera Project (AOP) is a professional opera company based in Brooklyn, New York City, and is a member of Opera America, the Fort Greene Association, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A. ...

(AOP), and the Advanced Opera Lab at

NYU Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

' Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program where emerging opera writers create projects on historical New York City locations. Previous projects were produced about Brooklyn's

Fort Greene Park Fort Greene Park is a city-owned and -operated park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City. The park was originally named after the fort formerly located there, Fort Putnam, which itself was named for Rufus Putnam, George Washington's Chief ...

Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...

's feminist piece ''

The Dinner Party ''The Dinner Party'' is an installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago. Widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork, it functions as a symbolic history of women in civilization. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangul ...

'', on permanent display at

The Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, and New York City's International House. The operas were performed by professional

opera singers Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

from AOP, directed by students from The New School's College of Performing Arts,

choreographed Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

by students from the Dance Department, and designed by students from Tisch's Design Department. The four operas were: * ''Outside'', music by Bryan Blaskie,

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Seth Christenfeld, directed by Francisco Rivera Rodriguez * ''The Pomada Inn'', music by Brian Cavanagh-Strong, libretto by Ben Bonnema, directed by Sam Helfrich * ''The Community'', music by Kevin Cummines, libretto by Shoshana Greenberg, directed by I-Chen Wang * ''Nightlife'', music by TJ Rubin, libretto by Deepali Gupta, directed by Nina Fry ''Outside'' and ''Nightlife'' are based on the Stonewall Riots themselves, while ''Pomada Inn'' follows two stories in present-day

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

and New York City, and ''The Community'' takes place 400 years in the future, in a "

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

2418".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stonewall Operas, The LGBT-related operas 2019 operas Operas set in the 20th century Operas set in the United States Operas