Deborah Drattell (born 1954) is an American composer. She was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, 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 and Caramoor Music Festivals, and many other groups and venues. She rewrote the role of the villain in ''Nicholas and Alexandra'', Rasputin, from baritone to tenor when

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...

expressed interest in singing the role.The Urban Man
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Selected operas

*''Festival of Regrets'' (1999) *''Marina Tsvetaeva'' (2000) *'' Lilith'' (2001) *''

Nicholas and Alexandra ''Nicholas and Alexandra'' is a 1971 British epic historical drama film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, from a screenplay written by James Goldman and Edward Bond, based on Robert K. Massie's 1967 book of the same name, which is a partial ...

'' (2003,

Los Angeles Opera The Los Angeles Opera is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center. Leader ...

), with

as Rasputin,

Nancy Gustafson Nancy Gustafson (born June 27, 1956, in Evanston, Illinois) is an American opera singer. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1978 and her M.Mus. from Northwestern University. She has appeared in numerous productions at venues bo ...

as Alexandra, and

Rod Gilfry Rodney Gilfry is a leading American operatic baritone. After launching his career at Frankfurt Opera in 1987, Gilfry quickly established a reputation for stylish singing and acting. A renowned Mozart specialist, he has given acclaimed performan ...

as Nicholas. *''Best Friends'' (2005) libretto by Wendy Wasserstein and Christopher Durang

Selected orchestral works

*Clarinet Concerto: ''Fire Dances'' (1986) *''The Fire Within'' (1989) *''Sorrow is not Melancholy'' (1993)

References

1956 births Living people Tulane University faculty 20th-century classical composers American women classical composers American classical composers American opera composers Musicians from Brooklyn Women opera composers 21st-century classical composers 21st-century American composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers American women academics {{US-composer-20thC-stub