Catapult Opera is set to present “Nothing Follows” at Columbia University’s Italian Academy this November. The showcase, set for three performances on Nov. 21 – 23, 2025, features Monteverdi’s “Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” and Muhly’s “The Glitch,” which is a one-act, true-crime opera based on the infamous 2015 Dannemora prison break. Baritone Efrain Solis and mezzo-soprano Devony Smith make {…}
(Photo: Bayou Elom) Following the invention of opera in Florence around the year 1600, its popularity spread throughout Italy. The early works of Peri, Caccini and Monteverdi offered a rebirth of Greek Drama with an attempt to find a way to understand the text through recitative and aria. These innovations made it possible to stage works whose texts could be {…}
Catapult Opera will present the American stage premiere of Stradella’s “San Giovanni Battista,” in co-production with Washington D.C.’s In Series. The showcase, set for June 11 – 13, 2025 at The Space at Irondale in Brooklyn, NY, will be conducted by Neal Goren and directed by Timothy Nelson. The wok explores the story of Salome and John the Baptist, which {…}
“Telekinetik,” a genre-bending short musical film from composer-performer Khary Laurent and commissioned by Catapult Opera, was released on YouTube on March 7, 2024. The “hip-hopera” is a surreal, moody 10-minute tale of an aspiring vigilante being tormented by a shaman. To tell the story of civilian justice and the violence it leaves in its wake, classically trained Khary Laurent switches {…}
(Photo credit: ©Sophie von Hellermann) Catapult Opera is set to give the American premiere of Nadia Boulanger’s opera “La Ville Morte.” With a libretto by Gabriele d’Annunzio from his play of the same name, “La Ville Morte” is a tale of “suppressed lust and taboo turned lethal, the prisons of other people’s objectifying desires, and the liberatory potential of creativity.” {…}
Catapult Opera has announced a newly commissioned opera and short film from multidisciplinary artist Celisse. Titled, “When All I Knew Changed,” this work is the first of several that Catapult will produce and distribute for free. It explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic through the eyes of three women, who, despite very different experiences, highlight the theme of interconnectedness. {…}
Catapult Opera has announced the streaming of “The Glitch,” the first of a series of micro video-opera commissions. “The Glitch” is a new work by composer Nico Muhly and librettist Greg Pierce that stars Krysty Swann, Lester Lynch, and Adam Tendler. The video-opera is directed by Marcus Shields. “I am extremely proud of The Glitch. It proves that one does {…}
Catapult Opera has announced the winners of its Accelerate Competiton. The Competition was a team-based event intended to inspire innovation and creativity in the realm of socially distanced operatic performance. Teams were given four selection to choose from and had three weeks to put together a video that met categories of music excellence, dramatic integrity, and creativity. The first prize {…}
Catapult Opera has announced several initiatives to alter the face of opera in the United States. In a press release unveiling its mission, the organization offered up four new programs that it intends to implement to re-imagine opera. “We believe that the American opera industry, as we have known it, is no longer sustainable,” say the opening lines of Catapult {…}
