The Spoleto Festival USA has announced its 2024 season. The company will present the world premiere of Spoleto’s full-length original chamber opera, “Ruinous Gods.” Composed by Layale Chaker with a libretto by Lisa Schlesinger, the new work will examine the traumatic impact of displacement on refugees. The performances will take place at the College of Charleston’s Sottile Theatre. Performance Dates: {…}
The Spoleto Festival has announced its commission of Layale Chaker and Lisa Schlesinger’s new opera “Ruinous Gods” which will make its world premiere at the 2024 festival. The new full-length chamber opera explores forced migration and “how mass displacement triggers profound psychological trauma amongst its youngest sufferers.” Included are real testimonies from survivors and families of those afflicted by uppgivenhetssyndrom {…}
The Spoleto Festival has announced full details for the upcoming 2022 season. Operas As previously announced “Omar” will make its world premiere. The new opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels will be directed by Kaneza Schaal and conducted by John Kennedy. The production will star Jamez McCorkle in the title role, Laquita Mitchell, Malcom MacKenzie, Cheryse McLeod Lewis, Catherine Anne {…}
The Spoleto Festival USA has announced its 2022 season featuring three New Operas. The company will world premiere “Omar” by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. Kaneza Schaal will direct the opera with John Kennedy conducting. The cast will include Jamez McCorkle in the title role, Cheryse McLeod Lewis as Omar’s mother, and Laquita Mitchell as Julie. Opening in Senegal, the opera’s {…}
The Spoleto Festival is set to present “Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration.” The concert will be showcased on June 11 at the College of Charleston Cistern Yard and will feature a range of artistic guests including the Grammy-nominated chamber music ensemble Imani Winds, writer and director Julie Dash, and rising star vocalist Sharón Clark alongside pianist {…}
Spoleto Festival has released a behind-the-scenes video on their upcoming work “Omar.” Originally slated for its world premiere at this year’s festival, the work is based on the 1831 autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim scholar who was taken from West Africa to be a slave in the Carolinas. “Omar” is created by Grammy Award-winner Rhiannon Giddens, and co-composed {…}
(Credit: Courtesy of Spoleto Festival) General Director Nigel Redden has announced the details of the 44th season of Spoleto Festival USA. The festival will feature a wide array of music, performances, screenings, talks and opera. For this article we have only concentrated on the vocal performances. Opera The festival will show the world premiere of “Omar” based on the life {…}
The Spoleto Festival USA has announced that its 2018 edition was the second-highest in ticket sales in its history. Per a press release, the ticket sales topped $3.3 million with over 65,000 ticket holders attending 158 performances and events. The Festival’s 2016 edition, its 40th in history, still ranks first in overall ticket sales. “Often at the end of each {…}
The Spoleto Festival has announced its 2018 festival, which will include three operas including two U.S. premieres. Donizetti’s “Pia de’ Tolomei” will make its premiere on May 27, 2018, in a collaboration with Teatro di Pisa, Teatro del Giglio di Lucca, and Teatro Goldoni di Livorno with Andrea Cigni directing the opera. Lidiya Yankovskaya, music director of the Chicago Opera Theater {…}