2013 Lincoln Center Festival to Feature AOP Premiere
New York, NY, March 27, 2013 — Nigel Redden, Director of Lincoln Center Festival, today announced the 2013 Festival’s line-up, which includes the latest AOP Premiere - The Blind, an a capella opera by the prolific Russian-born, New York-based composer, Lera Auerbach, featuring a new staging by John La Bouchardière (The Full Monteverdi, Lincoln Center Festival 2007). The opera is based on an early surrealist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about a group of sightless people who have been abandoned on a desolate island. There will be six performances in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse from July 9-14, 2013. The one-hour production will be conducted by Julian Wachner. The Lincoln Center Festival press release describes the co-production:
Following the sell-out success of his project The Full Monteverdi performed by I Fagiolini during Lincoln Center Festival 2007, British director John La Bouchardière returns to the Festival to direct a new and radical re-imagining of Lera Auerbach’s 2001 a cappella opera The Blind, freely-adapted from the controversial Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck.
Scored for 12 unaccompanied voices, The Blind chronicles a group of sightless people abandoned on a desolate island as they await the return of the religious leader who led them from their home so they could feel the last rays of sunlight before winter. The audience will be immersed into complete darkness to experience the sensory world of the story. The cast includes: Dominic Armstrong, Sarah Brailey, Yulia Van Doren, Branch Fields, John McVeigh, Nicole Mitchell, Liam Moran, Kyle Pfortmiller, Barbara Rearick, David Schmidt, Faith Sherman, and Rosalie Sullivan. It is performed in English.
The Blind will be AOP's fourth premiere at The Lincoln Center Festival following Hildegurls Electric Ordo Virtutum (1998), Patience & Sarah (1998), and Tone Test (2004). The Festival runs from July 6 through 28, 2013. Single tickets go on sale on April 8 for the festival, which will unfold in six venues on and off the Lincoln Center campus. There will be a total of 62 performances by artists and ensembles from ten countries.