Roulette has announced its programming for fall 2025. Only opera events are included in this article. Robert Ashley’s opera “Celestial Excursions” takes the stage. It is coproduced by Roulette Intermedium and Performing Artservices. Performance Dates: September 12 – 14, 2025 Aruán Ortiz’s “A Transatlantic Journey to Afro-diasporic Contemporary Music” features scenes from Ortiz’s opera, “Je renais de mes cendres.” Performance {…}
(Photo by Liz Kaye, Indiana University) Brooklyn’s Roulette will present “Lexia, an AI Opera in One Act. Taking place in AD 2225, the opera follows Lexia, who is in search of her son in a hostile United States where The Committee rules via an AI device called The Lung that builds data banks to write history’s collective memory. During her {…}
(Photo credit: Tayla Nebesky) Roulette has released the details of its 46th fall season. For the purposes of this article, only classical vocal works are included. Soprano Charlotte Mundy and the TAK Ensemble perform in a concert featuring new works by Seth Cluett. Performance Date: Sept. 22, 2024 Soprano Sussan Deyhim presents “Whispers From the Underworld (In Memory of Richard {…}
Roulette founder Jim Staley has announced he will be stepping down from his 45-year post as Artistic Director. At the end of the current season, Staley will be relieved of his duties and welcome incoming Artistic Director Matt Mehlan, who will join Executive Director Jamie Burns in co-leading the organization. Staley is known for shaping and forever changing the experimental {…}
Brooklyn-based Roulette is set to present Robert Ashley’s “Foreign Experiences” starting on May 9. The three-performance run, which comes to a close on May 11, will be the first full performance of the opera since 1995. The work is part of Ashley’s operatic tetralogy “Now Eleanor,” which dates from the early 1990s. The work follows Don who leaves the Midwest {…}
Roulette, a space for promotion and presentation of contemporary experimental performing arts in Brooklyn has announced its 45th spring season. For the purposes of this article only classical vocal events are included. Lila Meretzky’s “Songs at Night” large-scale new song cycle of the poems of Yiddish-language poet Anna Margolin makes its world premiere. Shelley Washington’s “A Kind of Lung” and {…}
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 {…}
Roulette has unveiled its fall 2023 season. Here is a breakdown of the vocal performances on offer. First up is a performance featuring Numimous, an ensemble by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. Audiences will get a chance to hear excerpts from Phillips Jr.’s opera “So Far Behind Now Because Then” as well as four world premiere compositions by Brandon, Branker, Goldberg, {…}
For 45 years, artist-run Roulette has supported the avant-garde artistic community by offering awards, commissions, residencies, and fellowships. This year, they awarded $135,000 to 11 experimental creators. The organization commissions works by artists in all stages of their careers. Roulette’s 2023-24 cohort of awarded artists comprises seven Commissioned Artists, five Resident Artists, and a Fellow. Roulette Resident, composer/performer Lucie Vítková, {…}
Stephanie Lamprea is set to present “Quaking Aspen” at Roulette in Brooklyn on Sept. 6, 2022. The showcase features “ wordless avant-garde soundscapes to spurts of operatic flourishes and electronic poetic loops.” She will be accompanied by Alex Van Gils on electronics. Lamprea is a Colombian-American soprano based in New York and Glasgow. In addition to previous appearances with Roulette, Lamprea {…}