(Credit: Fay Fox) Few works of American literature have had quite the impact of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Published in 1939, the seminal Pulitzer Prize-winning novel focuses on a poor family of tenant farmers, the Joads, as they are driven from their homes and forces to face the difficult world of the Great Depression. The film received an {…}
Composer Ricky Ian Gordon is set to release his memoir “Seeing Through: A Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera” on July 23. In “Seeing Through,” Gordon writes with humor, insight, and candor about his life and work. He describes his tumultuous youth on Long Island, his artistic collaborations and obsessions, and the creation of “The Grapes of Wrath,” “27,” “Orpheus {…}
PBS has announced that it will start broadcasting Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Intimate Apparel” as part of its Great Performances series. The showcase, which premiered on Sept. 23, 2022 on PBS will also be viewable on the PBS Video App and the company’s official website. The opera, which is set in Manhattan in 1905, follows the story of an African American {…}
Photo: Alan Chin Authoritarian governments don’t pop up overnight, they grow day by day, sometimes imperceptibly. Little things snowball, and soon, certain “undesirable” communities become targets of opprobrium, violence, and extermination. Hatred is equal opportunity, sparing neither the rich, the poor. It is on this canvas that composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korie paint their adaptation of Giorgio {…}
Photographer credit: Dario Acosta Mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann is currently performing the role of Mayme in “Intimate Apparel” at Lincoln Center Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. The opera is one of Ricky Ian Gordon’s latest works and features a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage that is based on her play. The production officially opens on January 31st, after a two-year pause {…}
(Credit: Fay Fox) On Jan. 6, 2022, the Jacob Burns Film Center is set to present a screening of the 1970 film “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” as well as a unique Q & A with composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korie. The screening of the Vittoria de Sica classic is aimed at spreading the word on the {…}
If you’re looking for some classic operas, this week has quite a few of them in store. If new operas are more your thing, then get ready for a couple of world premieres. But if all you want is some concerts featuring operatic superstars, then you can be content with some of the offerings this week as well. So without {…}
Last month Bright Shiny Things released the world premiere recording of Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart’s new opera “Ellen West.” The recording was captured from the Prototype Festival in New York in January 2020, with soprano Jennifer Zetlan and baritone Nathan Gunn, the Aeolus Quartet, double bassist Evan Premo, pianist Djordje Nesic, and conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya. The new opera offers a portrait of {…}
(Credit: Opéra de Montréal official website / American Lyric Theater official website) The New York City Opera has announced a spring 2021 season featuring works by the two prominent American composers. The NYCO will first stage the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” which is a co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Famed {…}
Bright Shiny Things has announced that it will be releasing the premiere recording of Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart’s “Ellen West” this fall. The album, which will be released on Sept. 25, 2020, stars Jennifer Zetlan, Nathan Gunn, the Aeolus Quartet, Evan Premo, Djordje Nesic, and conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya. The recording was captured this past January at the Prototype {…}
Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” began previews last week in the lead up to its opening at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on Monday, March 23rd. In anticipation of this work’s arrival, the Guggenheim Works and Process presented highlights of Gordon and Nottage’s individual processes while creating this work, and also brought attention to the importance of collaboration {…}