Presented May 1-2 at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the 10th season of the VOX series will be performed by New York City Opera soloists and accompanied by the City Opera orchestra. George Manahan will serve as music director, with members of the New York City Opera chorus also partaking.
"It is my pleasure to be a part of the growing success of New York City Opera's VOX: Showcasing American Opera. The role the festival has taken nationally in creating a platform for discovering new American opera has been incomparable. The 10th Anniversary brings a festival with amazing works that show the tremendous potential and diversity of our composers and point to a bright future for new opera," said NYCO general manager and artistic director George Steel in a statement.
The May 1 line-up begins at 5 PM with a roundtable discussion composed of the eleven composers whose work is represented in VOX. Following will be Ted Hearne's Katrina Ballads and Chandler Carter's No Easy Walk to Freedom (7-8:10 PM); Yoav Gal's Mosheh, as well as Gordon Beeferman and Charlotte Jackson's The Rat Land (8:30-9:30 PM).
From 9:50-10:30 PM VOX will showcase Academy Award winner Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon, based on the novel by Mark McShane and subsequent screenplay by Bryan Forbes. The opera, which is aiming for a world premiere bow at Opera Santa Barbara in fall 2009, centers on a psychic and her husband who kidnap a young girl in order to ultimately "find" her and gain notoriety using psychic powers.
Programming for May 2 includes the 1 PM panel discussion "American Opera: Past, Present, Future" moderated by George Steel; Christopher Cerrone's Invisible Cities, as well as Jonathan Dawe and Heather Raffo's Armide (2-3:10 PM); Car Crash Opera, penned by Michaela Eremiásová, Jairo Duarte-López and Skip Battaglia, and Anne LeBaron and Douglas Kearney's Crescent City (3:30-4:30 PM). The final work, which marks VOX's 100th presentation, will be David Bruce and Alasdair Middleton's A Bird in Your Ear (4:50-5:30 PM).
Tickets to the VOX: Showcasing American Opera series are free. Reservations can be made beginning April 3 by visiting vox-nyco.com.
The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South.
