Composer Marco Catella will present the world premiere of his new opera “Prince Cnut” on Feb. 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Theater at St. Jean in New York City.

“Prince Cnut” is an original opera with a libretto inspired loosely by historical elements from the story of King Cnut, an 11th-century Danish king who ruled England from 1016, Denmark from 1018, and Norway from 1028, creating a North Sea Empire that united the three kingdoms under his authority until his death in 1035. The work incorporates traditional operatic tropes including prophecy, intersecting narratives between low-born and high-born characters, an execution, and a final suicide. The opera runs approximately two hours and has been in development since late 2022.

The cast includes Benjamin Howard, Erin Reppenhagen, Shane Brown, Elizabeth Pope, David Gordon, Julia Johnstone, Ha-Young Synn, Jonathan Z. Harris, Parker Odom, and Owen Bloomfield.

The score is written in a chromatic style and is orchestrated for a chamber ensemble featuring a single player for each traditional orchestral instrument, drawing comparison to the chamber operas of Benjamin Britten. The work emphasizes direct emotional storytelling and a continuous dramatic structure.

“My goal with this work, even within a fairly intense chromatic style, is to highlight what I consider the basic essence of opera that new works all too often miss: simple, emotionally intense stories, with music that accurately characterizes them, in a coherent, flowing form. It’s scored for an orchestra of a single of each of the traditional orchestral instruments, in the vein of Britten’s chamber operas,” Catella told OperaWire.

Catella, a 23-year-old composer from Argentina based in New York, is producing the opera through Ex Corde, a nonprofit organization he co-founded. The performances will take place at the Theater at St. Jean, located at East 76th Street and Lexington Avenue.

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