Michael Dellaira’s “Arctic Explorations: a Folk Opera in One Act” is set to premiere in 2024.

The opera, which was commissioned by, and will be presented in a collaboration between Nancy Manocherian’s The Cell Theater and the New Amsterdam Singers, features a libretto based on  19th century explorer Elisha Kent Kane’s “Arctic Explorations.” It tells the story of Kane and his romance with spiritualist and medium Maggie Fox.

“‘Arctic Explorations’ is, then, about the human desire to know what lies beyond the boundaries of our experience. Explorers, all of us, our success often comes at a cost, and nowhere can this cost be measured more than in the Arctic, one of the most beautiful – and endangered – places on earth,” Dellaira says in a statement on the New York Foundation for the Arts website.

Th work was previously workshopped in April 2023 with such artists as lexander Dobson as Elisha Kent Kane, Nicole Haslett as Maggie Fox, Nuka Alice as Siarnaq. Kira Simring directed the workshop performances.