Opera Maine is set to present Philip Glass’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” on June 29 and July 1, 2022.

The cast includes Marcel Sokalski as William, Joseph Tancredi as Roderick Usher, Gabrielle Clutter as Madeline Usher, Miguel Pedroza as Servant, and Joseph Sacchi as Physician. The opera will be conducted by Jackson McKinnon and directed by Richard Gammon. The opera will be presented in English with full orchestration.

The design team will feature lighting designer SeifAllah Salotto- Cristobal.

The Glass opera, with a libretto by Arthur Yorinks based on Poe’s story, premiered in 1988.

“Poe’s famous horror story has fascinated poets, dramatists, and composers for over a century. Poe hints at much, but states hardly anything at all. Is the story real, or is it a hallucination? What is the relationship between the narrator (William), his friend Roderick Usher, and Roderick’s dying sister, Madeline. Has she been buried alive, or is it a demon from hell who takes such a spectacular revenge at the end? And is the vast house in which they live a living malignant entity? Incest, homosexuality, murder, and the supernatural hang in the air, but then again, such things may exist only in the imagination of the audience,” Glass famously said about his adaptation of the famed tale.