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Matthew Aucoin
Matthew Aucoin (born April 4, 1990) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and writer best known for his operas. Aucoin has received commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the American Repertory Theater, the Peabody Essex Museum, Harvard University, and NPR's ''This American Life''. He was appointed as Los Angeles Opera's first-ever Artist-in-Residence in 2016. He is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. Biography Aucoin was born and raised in the Boston area. While attending Medfield High School, Aucoin was the keyboardist in an indie rock band, Elephantom. He attended Harvard College, where he studied poetry, graduating ''summa cum laude'' in 2012. His mentors at Harvard included Jorie Graham and Helen Vendler. While an undergraduate, Aucoin conducted productions of ''Die Fledermaus'' and ''Le Nozze di Figaro'' with the Dunster House Opera Society, now known as Harvard College Opera. Aucoin then received a graduate diploma from The Juilliard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC (; born Yannick Séguin;David Patrick Stearns, "Nezet-Seguin signs Philadelphia Orchestra contract". ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 19 June 2010. 6 March 1975) is a Canadian ( Québécois) conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was also principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018. Biography Early years Nézet-Séguin was born in Montreal on 6 March 1975 to two specialists in education, Serge P. Séguin, PhD, a university professor, and Claudine Nézet, M.A., a university lecturer and coordinator. He began to study piano at age five, with Jeanne-d'Arc Lebrun-Lussier, and decided to become an orchestra conductor at age ten. Nézet-Séguin studied successively at St-Isaac-Jogues Primary School, at Collège Mont-Saint-Louis Secondary School and at Bois-de-Boulogne College. In the meantime, he was adm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvard College Opera
Harvard College Opera (HCO), formally the Harvard College Opera Society, is a collegiate opera company composed of undergraduates at Harvard College and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1992 at Dunster House as the Dunster House Opera Society, the organization aims to expand undergraduate access to opera at Harvard. HCO presents a variety of performances, including annual staged operas at the Agassiz Theatre and recitals. Prior to the 2014 season, the company performed its annual operas in Dunster House. Membership Harvard College Opera is governed by a Board of Operators composed of approximately twenty students. The Board of Operators selects a shortlist of operas for the music and stage directors, also selected by the Board, to decide from for each production. In keeping with the company's mission of providing opportunities to undergraduates, the music and stage directors are always students at Harvard College. The annual operas produced by HCO involve around 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danielle De Niese
Danielle de Niese (born 11 April 1979) is an Australian-American lyric soprano. After success as a young child in singing competitions in Australia, she moved to the United States where she developed an operatic career. From 2005 she came to widespread public attention with her performances as Cleopatra in '' Giulio Cesare'' at Glyndebourne, England. Early life De Niese was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, after her parents, Chris and Beverly, had migrated from Sri Lanka to Australia as teenagers. She is a Sri Lankan Burgher with some Dutch and Scottish heritage. In 1988, at the age of nine, she became the youngest winner of the Australian TV talent competition, ''Young Talent Time''. In the competition, she was singing a Whitney Houston medley, for which the prize was A$ 5,000 and a Yamaha baby grand piano, which she still owns. In 1990, her family moved to Los Angeles, where she became a regular guest host of the TV programme ''L.A. Kids'' for which she won an Emmy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl (born January 24, 1974) is an American playwright, professor, and essayist. Among her most popular plays are ''Eurydice'' (2003), ''The Clean House'' (2004), and '' In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)'' (2009). She has been the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career. Two of her plays have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and she received a nomination for Tony Award for Best Play. In 2020, she adapted her play ''Eurydice'' into the libretto for Matthew Aucoin's opera of the same name. In 2015, she published a collection of essays, ''100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write''. Her most recent play, ''Becky Nurse of Salem'' (2019) premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She currently serves on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama. In 2018, ''Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship'', co-authored by Max Ritvo, was published by Milkweed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurydice (Aucoin)
''Eurydice'' is an opera composed by Matthew Aucoin with a libretto by Sarah Ruhl based on her 2003 play of the same name, a retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. It had its premiere at the Los Angeles Opera on February 1, 2020, with Aucoin conducting. It had its Metropolitan Opera premiere on November 23, 2021. Composition history The work was co-commissioned and co-produced by the Metropolitan Opera, and was mostly written while Aucoin was serving as the Los Angeles Opera's artist in residence. The ''Los Angeles Times'' noted that this production, "the world's newest major opera", is on the same subject as the world's oldest surviving opera, Jacopo Peri's ''Euridice,'' which premiered 420 years earlier in 1600. Roles Synopsis This opera retells the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice from Eurydice's point of view. Ruhl explained that "in the myth, we never hear from Eurydice – she is always a cipher. I'm interested in her voice, a voice that hasn't been heard befor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akhnaten (opera)
''Akhnaten'' is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), written by the American composer Philip Glass in 1983. The libretto is by Philip Glass in association with Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell, and Jerome Robbins. According to the composer, this work is the culmination of his two other biographical operas, '' Einstein on the Beach'' (about Albert Einstein) and ''Satyagraha'' (about Mahatma Gandhi). These three people were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived: Akhenaten in religion, Einstein in science, and Gandhi in politics. The text, taken from original sources, is sung in the original languages, linked together with the commentary of a narrator in a modern language, such as English or German. Egyptian texts of the period are taken from a poem of Akhenaten himself, from the ''Book of the Dead'', and from extracts of decrees and letters from the Amarn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. The work, Verdi's sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's daughter Gilda. The opera's original title, ''La maledizione'' (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by her father. Comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Appleby (tenor)
Paul Appleby (born June 29, 1983) is an American operatic tenor. In 2009 he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In November 2015 he made his debut at the San Francisco Opera as Tamino in Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''. In December 2015 he was the tenor soloist in Mozart's ''Coronation Mass'' with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and in January 2016 he performed Belmonte in Mozart's ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. He sang Belmonte again at the Metropolitan Opera in May 2016. Appleby is a graduate of St. Joseph High School (South Bend, Indiana), and the University of Notre Dame. Appleby graduated from the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and received the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing and Visual Arts. Awards *2012: Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Performing and Visual Arts". *2012: Gerda Lissner Foundation". Repertoire (selection) * Bénédict, ''Béatrice et Bé ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alabama Symphony Orchestra
The Alabama Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra based in Birmingham, Alabama. The orchestra's resident and principal conductor is Christopher Confessore. The Orchestra was first formed in April 1921 but had to close because of financial issues in 1993. It re-opened in 1997 after substantial fundraising. Programs Since its rebirth in 1997, The Alabama Symphony Orchestra has undertaken an ambitious effort to reach every corner of the city and the state with a varied and impressive program of music. The ASO now includes 6 subscription series and 11 special event concerts in its seasons annually. The ASO also offers a very successful series for school children–Young People's Concerts (YPC). Each season, thousands of students attend a total of six YPCs. Teachers receive study guides in advance to help prepare students for these concerts and to enhance the educational experience. On June 29, 2011, the ASO received the John S. Edwards Award for its strong commitment to new Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Concerto (Aucoin)
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a piano concerto written by the American composer Matthew Aucoin. The work was commissioned by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. Its world premiere was performed by the pianist Conor Hanick and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Carlos Izcaray at the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center on October 7, 2016. Composition The concerto has a duration of approximately 38 minutes in performance and is cast in three numbered movements. Instrumentation The work is scored for solo piano and an orchestra consisting of two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes (2nd doubling English horn), two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, trombone, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, three percussionists, and strings. Reception The piano concerto has been praised by music critics. Reviewing a performance by Hanick and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose, Zoë Madonna of ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) is an American chamber orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. LACO presents its Orchestral Series concerts at two venues, the Alex Theatre in Glendale and UCLA's Royce Hall. History James Arkatov, a cellist, established LACO in 1968 as an artistic outlet for musicians from local film and record studios to perform the classical music repertoire at a chamber orchestra-scale of about 40–45 musicians. David Mermelstein wrote in 2005 on Arkatov's guiding principle of LACO: : "The idea was to create a group that would play works written expressly for chamber orchestra, many of them from the baroque era—music that the os AngelesPhilharmonic either wasn't interested in or suited to. The ensemble was never meant to compete with the Philharmonic; there was even a time when LACO's supporters hoped to see it take up permanent residence at the Music Center." At the beginning of its history, LACO did not have a residency at a single conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crossing (2015 Opera)
''Crossing'' is a two-act opera composed by Matthew Aucoin. Based on Walt Whitman's ''Memoranda During the War'' (1875), it offers a fictionalized account of Whitman's time as a nurse during the American Civil War. Performance history ''Crossing'' premiered at the American Repertory Theater on May 29, 2015. Aucoin conducted the Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry, Diane Paulus directed. ''Crossing'' had its New York premiere on October 3, 2017, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival. It was subsequently performed in concert form by the Los Angeles Opera on May 25, 2018, as a part of their Off Grand Series. Roles Synopsis The opera opens with Whitman volunteering as a nurse at a Union hospital. John Wormley, a wounded soldier, appears at the hospital claiming to be a Union soldier and Whitman tends to his wounds. In the midst of Whitman's ministrations, the two become sexually intimate, and Whitman composes a letter on behalf of Wormley. Unbeknownst to Whit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
