(Credit: Dario Acosta)

Mannes Opera at The New School’s College of Performing Arts is set to present a duo of one-act operas by Mannes faculty members and prolific composers David T. Little and Kamala Sankaram.

The Opera in Concert Double Bill will feature the New York City premiere of David T. Little’s complete “Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera” with libretto by Royce Vavrek, and Kamala Sankaram’s “The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace” with libretto by Rob Handel, directed by New School Drama alumna Alison Pogorelc and conducted by Christopher Allen.

“Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera” was composed by David T. Little on a libretto by Royce Vavrek is a bitter-sweet comedy in one act, which explores obsession, desire, and the need to win, through the frame of an obscure Flemish folk sport, “finch-sitting.”

Meanwhile, “The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace” was composed by Kamala Sankaram with a libretto by Rob Handel and follows Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Lord Byron’s daughter, who has been asked to help Charles Babbage with his work on the Difference Engine. The work was commissioned by Opera Ithaca and is presented through special arrangements with UIA Talent Agency and Just a Theory Press.

The operas will be shown on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, 2024, at the John L. Tishman Auditorium and is open to the public and free with registration.