Both workshops culminate in free, public performances of excerpts on December 17 (Two Corners) and January 24 (Bulrusher).
CINCINNATI (November 13, 2023)—Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) have announced the next two operas to be workshopped through their joint program, Opera Fusion: New Works.
Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is co-directed by Robin Guarino, professor of opera at CCM, and Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera, and provides composers and librettists the opportunity to collaborate with singers and creative personnel to refine their operas-in-progress.
In December 2023, OF:NW will host a workshop for Two Corners, with music by B.E. Boykin and libretto by Jarrod Lee. Commissioned by Finger Lakes Opera and slated for a 2024 world premiere, Two Corners explores the evolving friendship of a Black woman, Florine, and a white woman, Sarah, during the unrest of the Civil Rights movement. Told through a series of flashbacks, Florine and Sarah reflect on their different perspectives of race, friendship, and the status quo.
A public performance of excerpts from Two Corners will take place on December 17, 2023, at 4 p.m. (ET) at Cincinnati Music Hall’s Wilks Studio (1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202).
In January 2024, OF:NW will mount a second stage workshop for the new opera, Bulrusher, featuring music by Nathaniel Stookey and a libretto by Stookey and Eisa Davis, based on Davis’s play of the same name, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. The work was commissioned by West Edge Opera and received an initial OF:NW workshop in 2021. The opera is a coming-of-age story about an African American girl growing up in Northern California’s remote Anderson Valley in 1955. Found in a basket by the river, she is raised by the local schoolteacher and has never seen anyone who looks like her until a young Black woman from Alabama comes to town. Meeting someone like herself provokes her political, sexual, and identity awakening.
A public performance of excerpts from Bulrusher will take place on January 24, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. (ET) at Cincinnati Music Hall’s Wilks Studio (1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202).
Admission to the public performances is free, though seating is limited and reservations are required. Reservations are available beginning Monday, November 13, 2023, at 12 noon (ET) by calling 513-241-2742 or visiting cincinnatiopera.org.
Opera Fusion: New Works is generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.
Media Contact:
Katie Syroney
Director of Communications
ksyroney@cincinnatiopera.org / 513-768-5526