''Sumeida's Song'' is an
opera
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 libre ...
in three scenes 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 ...
adapted from the play ''Song of Death'' by
Egyptian playwright
Tawfiq al-Hakim. It is Fairouz's first opera, completed in 2008 when he was 22 years old.
Performance history
The first staged production of the opera opened the 2013
Prototype: Opera/Theater/Now festival in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
[Kozinn, Allan (November 29th, 2012]
The New York Times
/ref> and was billed as "the first Arab-American opera to be fully produced on an American stage." The opera was co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects and Here Arts Center
HERE Arts Center is a New York City off-off-Broadway presenting house, founded in 1993. Their location includes two stages specializing in hybrid performance, dance, theater, multi-media and puppetry in addition to art exhibition space and a cafe ...
.
Roles
Synopsis
The three scenes of ''Sumeida's Song'' are set in a peasant house in a peasant village in Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend wikt:downriver, upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. ...
.
Recording
A recording of ''Sumeida's Song'' was released on