Opera Philadelphia to Showcase 2 Premieres at Inaugural 017 Festival

By David Salazar

Opera Philadelphia will continue to look for ways to expand the opera world as it will join in premiering two new operas this fall as part of its first-ever O17 season-opening festival.

The 12-day festival will feature those two premieres at historic venues.

First up is the world premiere of “The Wake World,” which is described as a hallucinatory new one-act opera inspired by Aleister Crowley’s fairy tale of that name. It is written by the company’s current Composer in Residence David Hertzberg and will be featured at Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation between Sept. 18–25, 2017.

“At the Barnes, we seek to create new points of entry into the collection, and to highlight it as the limitless fount of inspiration that it is,” noted Thom Collins, Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation. “017 is an incredibly innovative, creative operatic program that will engage and celebrate Philadelphia’s many diverse communities and beyond. We are thrilled to participate in the inaugural festival.”

Then will come the Philly premiere of “War Stories,” which will appear at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The work pairs  Monteverdi’s “Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” with “I Have No Stories to Tell You,” an opera written by Composer in Residence alum Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch in response to the Monteverdi opera. “War Stories” gets performances between Sept. 16 and 23, 2017.

“The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a rich and evocative setting for the performance of several works in Opera Philadelphia’s 2017-18 season,” said Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art about showcasing opera at the famed venue. “The Museum is a place that, uniquely, brings the art of the past into conversation with the art of the present.  Therefore, it is especially fitting that we host this exciting double bill – the pairing of a classic work by Monteverdi with a contemporary work that responds to it.”

 

 

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