On Sept. 17, 2023, Composer Joseph C. Phillips Jr. and his 21-person chamber ensemble, Numinous, will present excerpts from the first of the composer’s eight-opera cycle, “1619.” The performance will be held at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY, and feature sopranos Rebecca L. Hargrove and Ariadne Greif presenting music from “So Far Behind Now Because of Then.” The opera, inspired by {…}
On May 6, 2021, Cal Performances at Home will launch the video premiere of “Steel Hammer,” a new film that features the oratorio by Bang on a Can’s co-founder and Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe. Wolfe’s “Steel Hammer” explores the over 200 versions of the John Henry ballad, weaving and fragmenting all the variations that have risen since the 1800s into {…}
***Editorial Note: This article has been modified from its original version. (Credit: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera) “Porgy and Bess” is arguably America’s most celebrated and beloved opera. Following its premiere in 1935, the opera by George Gershwin about an African-American community in Charleston, South Carolina has become a mainstay of opera houses across the world, receiving major productions at {…}