Opera Profile: Julia Perry’s ‘The Symplegades’ – The Opera That Took 10 Years to Write

Photo: David Lees/Getty Images Among the many criminally unrecognized names in the American classical music canon, African-American female composer Julia Perry (1924-1979) represents the hidden aspect of the Black African-American compositional experience. Alongside other composers like Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Nora Holt, and male composers like William Grant Still, Vicente Lusitano, and “Black Mozart” Joseph Bologne, Perry’s contribution to America’s {…}

Mar 23, 2023

Opera Profile: Charles Wakerfield Cadman’s ‘Shanewis’

“Shanewis” is a one-act/two-scene opera by the American composer Charles Wakerfield Cadman (1881-1946) which debuted on March 23rd, 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Cadman calling his work an “American opera.” Featuring an English libretto by the librettist Nelle Richmond Eberhart (1871-1944), the opera was the first opera about Native Americans featured at the Met. The plot {…}

Mar 19, 2023

Opera Profile: Marc Blitzstein’s ‘Reuben, Reuben’

Reuben, Reuben is a two-act “urban folk opera” or “musical play” written by American composer Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) in 1955. He is most noted for his off-Broadway adaptation of Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. Despite Blitzstein’s many works, his name is relatively unknown today nor his opera remembered. The opera’s central story is based on the Faust legend {…}

Mar 5, 2023

Opera Profile: Franz Schrekers’ ‘Der Ferne Klang’

Der Ferne Klang, or The Elusive Sound (1912), is a three-act opera composed by Austrian composer Franz Schreker (1878-1934) with an original libretto. The work is dedicated to well-known German conductor Bruno Walter and tells the tale of the fated love between amateur composer Fritz and his lover Grete. Although not well-known today, at the time he was regarded as {…}

Feb 11, 2023

Opera Profile: Franz von Suppè’s ‘Boccaccio’

“Boccaccio, oder Der Prinz von Palermo“ (Boccaccio, or the Prince of Palermo) was one of the most influential operettas written by Austrian composer Franz von Suppè (1819-1895). Although rarely mentioned in the history of opera, von Suppè’s light operas (or operettas) were performed around the world and could be said to be the influence that Gilbert and Sullivan pulled from {…}

Jan 25, 2023

Opera Profile: Scott Joplin’s ‘A Guest of Honor’

“A Guest of Honor“ was ragtime composer Scott Joplin’s first of two opera, whose plot was based on the historical events surrounding President Theodore Roosevelt and his invitation of advisor Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House with his wife in October of 1901. Joplin’s “grand opera” has a short but complex history, with much of what is {…}

Dec 13, 2022

Opera Profile: Lorin Maazel’s ‘1984’

“1984“ is an English-language opera written by Ukrainian-Jewish, American composer Lorin Maazel (1930-2014) based on George Orwell’s dystopian novel. The libretto was written by American writers J. D. McClatchy and Thomas Meehan, the latter having written the literary works for various well-known musicals such as Annie and Hairspray. The opera received its premiere at the Royal Opera House on May {…}

Dec 3, 2022

Opera Profile: Alice in Wonderland

“Alice in Wonderland” is a eight-scene, contemporary opera by Korean composer Unsuk Chin (1961-) with the libretto co-written by Chin and eminent Chinese-American writer David Henry Hwang, the librettist for other composers such as Huang Ro, Osvaldo Golijov, and Phillip Glass. The opera was composed between 2004 and 2007 and based upon the novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and {…}

Dec 3, 2022

Opera Profile: Kafka’s Trial

“Kafka’s Trial” (Proces Kafka) was a co-commissioned, one-act opera and prelude written by Danish composer Poul Ruders and British actor and librettist Paul Bentley to celebrate Copenhagen Opera House’s new operatic season. Poul Ruders is best known for his topical and fantastic operatic themes such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1990), which made a resurgence thanks to The English National Opera’s {…}

Nov 11, 2022

Opera Profile: The Incompentence Opera

“The Incompetence Opera” was a short, three-act mini-opera performed as part of the 27th Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in 2017, an annual parody event founded by freelance writer and Harvard University graduate Marc Abrahams in 1991 as a farcical homage to the Nobel Peace Prize award. The event honors unnecessary research into themes that are obviously insipid in character. {…}

Oct 17, 2022

Opera Profile: Aqua Net and Funyuns

“Aqua Net & Funyuns” was a 2020 project by New York City-based opera company Experiments in Opera taking the form of a podcast where in each 25-minute episode, three one-act “operas” are performed, each with their own plot and cast of characters. However, all three are connected by “easter eggs” (hidden elements) that tie each of the operas together, and {…}

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