the american opera project AND
the NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program &
DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN FOR STAGE & FILM
present
NYU/tisch ADVANCED OPERA LAB SPRING 2021
UNDISCOVERED COUNTRIES
“Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?”
– from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act III, Scene i)
After five years of developing and producing short operas for live performance, this year the NYU/Tisch Opera Lab moves into the realm of film. In collaboration with a team of designers, the pieces are being envisioned specifically for the filmed medium. The transition to film opens up a wealth of possibilities, and the creative teams are taking full advantage of that, writing heightened moments that can only exist in operatic film – being attacked by spiders, staring down the shape of your guilt, or falling under the spell of a preacher with the head of a horse.
The three 30-minute operas are being written in response to the chaotic, momentous year 2020. The librettists and composers are creating pieces that tackle the tumultuous events of the past year in ways direct and sidelong, with tones that encompass fury, resignation, hope, and delight. They take place on the International Space Station, inside a medieval church at the height of the Plague, and in the aftermath of the pardoning of the Blackwater Four.
Opera has always struggled with responding to immediate events, within an infrastructure where pieces usually take many years to come to fruition. With this year’s Tisch Opera Lab, these three operas are moving from conception to completed film in just six months. We are thrilled to explore — through the lens of operatic film — Undiscovered Countries, a set of vital artistic responses to a world inexorably changed by the events of 2020.
— Randall Eng, Associate Arts Professor of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
SHADOW ON THE WALL
Music by Zonia tsang
Libretto by alex higgin-houser
Design by NEW PHASE COLLECTIVE
Boy— Melissa Harvey
Sister— Nicole Mitchell
Brother— Timothy Stoddard
Jinn— Gideon Dabi
In this shadow puppet opera, a Blackwater mercenary returns to Sparta, TN to live with his sister, having received a presidential pardon for the murders he committed in Iraq. When he moves in, his sister's loyalty is tested when a shadowy presence demands justice.
THE DRAGON TRANSFER
Music by gavin kNittle
Libretto by briana harris
Design by lauren carmen, nina pan, and christopher wong
Svetlana— Kathryn Krasovec
Celeste— Nicole Mitchell
Uri— Gideon Dabi
Jin— Paul An
The Dragon Transfer chronicles the experiences of four astronauts on the International Space Station during the Covid-19 pandemic. A newly arrived American astronaut sends a device to her college age daughter in quarantine, while an escaped spider aboard the ISS causes mayhem among the crew.
ETERNAL REST
Music by willem oosthuysen
Libretto by tristen moseley
Design by karen boyeR and ant ma
Direction by I-chen wang
Mortem— Melissa Harvey
Vainglory— Kathryn Krasovec
Fortuno— Timothy Stoddard
Fauvel— Paul An
Drawing on text and music from the Middle Ages, this show sees a horse-headed priest lead a Catholic Requiem, while those in the pews must reconcile a world situated between continual crisis and the cusp of renaissance.
PERFORMERS / MUSIC DIRECTOR
PAUL AN - BASS
Critically acclaimed bass singer Paul An is described by The Examiner: "Mr. An internalized the poems (Hugo Wolf's Michelangelo Lieder) beautifully and sincerely, and expressed them eloquently and with conviction. His deep, warm sound was perfectly sustained in even the quietest utterances, while the full force of his voice was revealed in the impassioned outbursts that punctuate a cycle that dwells on mortality, the passage of time, and loss."
Mr. An has performed for audiences totaling over 500,000 all across the United States. He has also performed solos with the London Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, the Naples Philharmonic, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra working with such notable conductors as Alan Gilbert, Sir Simon Rattle, Julius Rudel, Ricardo Muti, James Conlon, Eric Kunzel, and Marvin Hamlisch.
NICOLE JOY MITCHELL - CONTRALTO
Nicole Joy Mitchell, is an Opera Singer (contralto) and a proud native of Brooklyn, New York and has performed around the country and abroad. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut, during their 2019/2020 season, as part of the ensemble in the highly acclaimed James Robinson production of the Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess. She has performed with American Opera Projects (now The American Opera Project) singing the works of new composers. In October, Nicole debuted with Santa Fe Opera in the role of Fannie Lou Hamer in Is This America?, adapted from This Little Light of Mine, the story of Fannie Lou Hamer by Diana Solomon-Glover (libretto) and Chandler Carter (music).
GIDEON DABI - BARITONE
Baritone Gideon Dabi continues to receive great acclaim delivering “powerfully felt, beautifully performed and articulated” performances across a wide array of genres and styles. His “earnest interpretations” have thrilled audiences from his home State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ, through the Music Festival of the Hamptons working with Norman Dello Joio, to Israel, Italy, and back again. He was recently invited to perform on American Lyric Theater’s Alumni Celebration Concert, in which he was heard singing the music of Gerald Cohen and Clint Borzoni. In the 2018-19 Season, he returned to The Dallas Opera as Schaunard in La bohème, following his debut with the company in Carmen as Morales the previous season. He has spent multiple seasons with Sarasota Opera where he has been heard in his role debut as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale and as Schaunard. He made his Tulsa Opera debut in 2019-20 in Carmen as Morales. During the 2020-21 season, Gideon was a featured singer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Additionally, he can be heard every week on the video podcast and talk show, "Dabi and Costello" with co-host, tenor, Stephen Costello.
TIMOTHY STODDARD - TENOR
Idaho-born Timothy Stoddard has been hailed by Opera News as having a “clear-voiced tenor.” He has sung the roles of Izzy Wright in Sankaram’s MIRANDA with Tri Cities Opera, Liberto/Lucano in Monteverdi’s POPPEA with Bare Opera, Milord Fideling in the American premiere of Salieri’s La cifra with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Tamino/1st Armored Man/Second Priest in The Magic Flute with both Opera in Williamsburg and the Muses Creative Artistry Project, and Song Seller/Gherardo in Puccini’s Il trittico with Utah Festival of Opera. He’s premiered roles with Experiments in Opera, Rhymes with Opera, Gramercy Opera, and SoBe Arts. As concertist, he appeared with Chatham Baroque in Purcell’s Welcome to all the pleasures + Odes to Saint Cecilia, the Utah Festival of Opera in Bach’s B Minor Mass, the Choral Society of Grace Church in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and the Lucerne Festival Academy in Berio’s Coro. In 2018, he made his WQXR debut on the Young Artists Showcase. He has been featured in community engagement projects with The Metropolitan Opera, The Metropolitan Opera Guild, and Opera Idaho. He is currently in residence with the American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice fellowship. Award highlights include those of the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust, the American Scandinavian Society, and the Arleen Auger Foundation.
MELISSA HARVEY- SOPRANO
Soprano Melissa Harvey has performed with several opera companies including New York City Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Columbus and The Florentine Opera. Upcoming performances include the US Premiere of Nadia Boulanger’s opera La Ville Morte with Catapult Opera. Ms. Harvey has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions, the Baur/Powell Vocal Competition, and the Mercer scholarship to study German in Freiburg, Germany. Melissa received her BM and MM in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
MIRIAM CHARNEY - MUSIC DIRECTOR
Miriam Charney has been assistant conductor/pianist at many of the major festivals and regional opera companies in the US, including Glimmerglass, Chautauqua, the Banff Festival (Canada), Opera Philadelphia, Florida Grand, and New Orleans. Other credits include assistant conductor to Gerard Schwarz and Leopold Hager for the Mostly Mozart Festival and recital performances with Lauren Flanigan, Elizabeth Bishop, and Paul Groves, among others. A life-long champion of contemporary opera, she has prepared premieres by such diverse composers as Lee Hoiby, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Tobias Picker, as well as music-directing many new works for American Opera Projects. She has toured India with the Wooster Group, developed music-theater pieces with Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte, and music-directed for Elizabeth Swados and NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing. Ms. Charney received a NOI grant and has served on the faculties of Juilliard and the Hartt School. Currently on faculty at Vassar and at Manhattan School of Music, she teaches classes in Opera, Vocal Arts, and Piano, and directs the MSM Contemporary Opera Ensemble.
KATHRYN KRASOVEC - MEZZO-SOPRANO
Mezzo Soprano Kathryn Krasovec has performed on such prominent stages as The Metropolitan Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Carnegie Hall, National Theater of Prague and Theater Bremen in Germany. Recent highlights include a performance of The Echo Drift, a thrilling one-woman opera by Mikael Karlsson as Walker Loats at the 2018 Prototype Festival. She returned to The Princeton Festival as Mrs. Sedley in Peter Grimes and was the Mezzo Soloist in the Emmy winning world premiere of Peacemakers by James Aikman with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Krasovec made her Carnegie Hall debut in Mohammed Fairouz's Audenesque as soloist with the Mimesis Ensemble. After five years performing various roles in Germany and the Czech Republic, Ms. Krasovec debuted at Spoleto USA in the US premiere of Philip Glass's Kepler. Future engagements include debuts of three new operas with the Virginia Arts Festival and the John Duffy Institute for New Opera. www.kathrynkrasovec.com
COMPOSERS / LIBRETTISTS
BRIANA HARRIS - LIBRETTIST
Briana Harris (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based librettist, lyricist, and composer. She is a member of the BMI Librettists Workshop, the Theatre Now Musical Theatre Writers’ Lab, and a graduate of the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Since March of 2020, her short musical Corona Island (lyrics, libretto by Rachel Kunstadt, music by Terea Lotz) debuted online, produced by the Astoria Performing Arts Center, and the “Wear A Mask” PSA she wrote and produced with Andi Lee Carter was selected as a winner for NYU’s Art for Health Initiative. Her short musical Rejected! (book/lyrics, co-lyrics/music by Andi Lee Carter) premiered online at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and selections were included in the 2020 Sound of Arts Festival. The Dragon Transfer is her most recent project, developed with the NYU Advanced Opera Lab and American Opera Project (music by Gavin Knittle).
WILLEM OOSTHUYSEN - COMPOSER
Willem Oosthuysen is a New York based composer and music educator. His musicals include #MARS (NYFA; Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab), Prodigy (CCU; NYU), Two Bugs Are Better Than One (New York City’s Children’s Theater), Cinderella (Spotlight Youth Theater), To Have And To Hold (Prospect Theater Company; Barrington Stage), and short operas, The Watering Hole (NYU) and Fairy Tale Suite: A Visit to Baba Yaga & Tin Heart, Tinsel Rose (DSU). Works performed at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Indiana University, Two Rivers Theatre Company, and Lincoln Center. Willem holds an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and is a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop, Dramatist Guild, and ASCAP (Plus Award winner for Musical Theater, 2018).
ALEX HIGGIN-HOUSER - LIBRETTIST
Alex Higgin-Houser is a playwright, librettist, and theatre-maker living in Chicago. Alex is thrilled for his one-act opera Shadow on the Wall to receive its digital premiere with Tisch's Advanced Opera Lab, produced in association with the American Opera Project and New Phase Collective. His latest musical, Beast Mode Champion, recently completed a developmental workshop at Elon University. Haymarket, his most recent world premiere, received the 2019 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical following an extended commercial run in Chicago. Adventurers!, an immersive D&D musical, recently had its first workshop production at the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival. His work has been published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide and performed across the country. Alex is a recent graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he completed his MFA in musical theatre writing.
TSANG LOK SZE ZONIA - COMPOSER
Zonia, Tsang Lok Sze (she/her) is thrilled to be part of AOP/NYU’s 2021 Opera Lab. She is a composer and playwright from Hong Kong and her work has been presented at the Apollo Theater, Two River Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, the Cherry Lane Theatre, La MaMa, the Duplex, 52nd Street Project, and also in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Previous work include: Eye of the Beholder, The Cantonese Opera Play, The Blue-and-White Porcelain and Our Stories. She is the founder of Drifting Ghost Theatre in Hong Kong.
GAVIN KNITTLE - COMPOSER
Gavin James Knittle is a musical theatre composer/lyricist based in New York City. He holds an MFA as a composer at NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (2019) and a B.A. from Pacific University in Theatre and Music. Most recently, HAMMER, his musical co written with Richard Lindenfelzer received a developmental production at NYU’s New Studio on Broadway.
TRISTEN MOSELEY - LIBRETTIST
Tristen Moseley is a playwright & librettist who hates reality & loves empathy.
DESIGNERS / DIRECTORS
KAREN BOYER - DESIGNER
Karen Boyer is a costume designer based in New York City. She holds a BFA in Fiber and Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and is currently a second-year costume design MFA candidate at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Past and recent collaborators include choreographer Catherine Galasso, harunalee, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Object Collection, MetaPhysEd, Target Margin Theater, Little Lord, Ballez, and filmmakers Ben Finer and Aaron Schimberg.
She also drapes and builds costumes, recently for designer Oana Botez (LCT3's In the Green, Big Dance Theatre's 17c), Carlos Soto (Lucinda Childs: A Portrait), Andrew Ondrejcak (Bozar Brussel's Figure Studies, Elijah Greene), Kate Fry (Angel's Bone), for performance artist Narcissister, and for film and TV (HBO's Search Party, Brittany Runs a Marathon.) karenrboyer.com
YIZHU (NINA) PAN - SET DESIGNER
Originally from Hangzhou, China, and now based in New York City, Yizhu is a Set and Film designer who recently graduated from NYU Tisch. She has designed and made productions for both stage and film productions. Yizhu is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in fine art, textile design, and museum conservation. Working among theater, film, event, and exhibition, she is always excited to work with collaborators to tell stories through space and visuals, creating a world for compelling souls to live in.
LAUREN CARMEN - DESIGNER
Originally from Iowa City, IA, Lauren Carmen graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Oklahoma with her degree in Ballet Pedagogy, with added concentrations in French and Costume Design. Upon graduation, she worked for the late Travis Halsey in Chicago, helping construct Houston Ballet’s 2016 Nutcracker. After, she worked around the Midwest as a professional ballet dancer, dance/pilates instructor, and costume designer, using her off-seasons to focus on larger design projects. Lauren moved to NYC to further her skills as a costume designer at NYU Tisch’s Design for Stage and Film MFA program, and strives to use her knowledge of the performer’s experience, bodies, and movement to help storytellers impact audiences in beautiful and meaningful ways.
I-CHEN WANG - DIRECTOR
I-Chen Wang is a Taiwanese director who is interested in exploring identity politics in her time. She used to work as a stage manager at Taiwan Traditional Theatre Center (TTTC) and continues to work as a freelanced sound/video operator, set/lighting technician, and stage manager. She holds a BA at the National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA) and is pursuing her theater directing MFA degree at the New School of Drama.
YI-HSUAN (ANT) MA - SET DESIGNER
Ant (nickname) originally from Taiwan, Hualien, where is a county on the east coast of Taiwan. She received a BFA in set design from Taiwan National University, then an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is excited to construct a space which reinterprets the script in such a way as simultaneously to engage the audience and make connections between the fictional scene and reality. By observing the surroundings of theater and being involved in many different types of performances, she is confident to handle the scenic tools, materials, texture and painting.
Ant currently lives and works in New York. Recently she is working at Lenfest Center Theater in Columbia University, designing New World Radio directed by Kelly O'Donnell.
CHRISTOPHER WONG - LIGHTING DESIGNER
Christopher Wong is a freelance lighting designer, based in New York City and a native New Yorker. He has designed for the Long Island Dance Consortium, Variations Dance studio, and Downstage Dance company and is the resident lighting designer for Long Island High School for the Arts. He has also worked at Lightswitch NY on live event and architectural projects across the nation. He is currently pursuing an MFA in lighting design at NYU/Tisch. Graduate of the University of Maryland/College Park. Visit his website to see more of his work at www.christopherwongld.com..
NEW PHASE COLLECTIVE - DESIGNERS
New Phase Collective is an ongoing collaboration between artists questioning theatrical forms, collaborative structures, and producorial models. With an eye toward the near future, the exploration exists inside a redefined landscape of collective vision, communal health and shared performance. Our inaugural collaboration, Phase One: The Underbrush, premiered in August 2020. Member artists include Kindall Almond, Jacob Basri, Zach Blumner, Ebony Burton, Henry Nettleton, Lexx Onigbanjo, Leia Squillace, Tyler Thomas, Anton Volovsek, and Christopher Wong. @newphasecollective and www.newphasecollective.com.
FACULTY
Randall Eng founded and leads the NYU/Tisch Opera Lab with Sam Helfrich. Under their guidance, students from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program have created more than 30 short operas. As a composer, Randall's music lies at the intersection of opera, music-theatre, and jazz. His operas Florida, Before the Night Sky, and Henry's Wife have been performed at UrbanArias, Lyric Opera Cleveland, New York City Opera's VOX Festival, American Opera Projects, Town Hall, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Center for Contemporary Opera, and Manhattan School of Music. His choral work Remain (a setting of an immigration rights pamphlet) premiered in 2018 by the MasterVoices Chorus. Other dramatic works include The Dangers of Electric Lighting (Luna Stage), Usher, Falling (Opera Vindaloo Festival), and the video opera The Woman in the Green Coat (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); non-theatrical works include commissions for Albany Symphony Orchestra's Dogs of Desire, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and Composer's Voice. Randall is a graduate of Harvard University, Cambridge University, and NYU/Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where he is now an Associate Arts Professor.
Sam Helfrich is an opera and theater director based in New York. He has directed opera productions at New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto Festival/USA, Virginia Opera, Opera Boston, Pittsburgh Opera, and Wolf Trap, among others. Recent opera highlights include the world premiere of Permadeath, a CGI- based opera about video gaming with White Snake Productions in Boston, and the world premiere of Jeffrey Smith's Why is Eartha Kitt Trying to Kill Me at Urban Arias in Washington DC, Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Indianapolis Symphony, a staging of Haydn’s Creation with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New York premiere of Angels in America at New York City Opera, the world premiere of Dan Sonenberg's The Summer King at Pittsburgh Opera (and, recently, at Michigan Opera Theater), Bach's St. John Passion with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Mark Anthony Turnage's Greek at Boston Lyric Opera, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at Virginia Opera, the world premiere of Enemies: A Love Story, by Ben Moore, at Palm Beach Opera, Embedded, by composer Patrick Soluri, at Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at Virginia Opera, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at Eugene Opera, Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Virginia Opera, the American premiere of Philip Glass' Kepler at Spoleto Festival/USA, Adams' Nixon in China at Eugene Opera, a fully staged Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the world premiere of Michael Dellaira's The Secret Agent at Center for Contemporary Opera in New York, the Armel Opera Festival in Hungary, and Opera Avignon, The Turn of the Screw at Boston Lyric Opera, Philip Glass' Orphée at Pittsburgh Opera, Virginia Opera, Portland Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, and Anthony Davis’ Amistad at Spoleto Festival/USA. Recent theater credits include Arthur Miller’s After The Fall at NYU/Tisch Grad Acting, off-Broadway productions of Owned, a world premier play by Julian Sheppard, and Tape, by Stephen Belber, both of which played to wide audience- and critical acclaim, and a double bill of plays by Shaw and De Musset at the Franklin Stage Company. Upcoming projects, all postponed due to the pandemic, include a revival of his acclaimed production of Péter Eötvös’ Angels in America at the Salzburg Landestheater, and a production of Elizabeth Cree with West Edge Opera in Oakland, CA. BA (Russian Literature), M.F.A. (Theatre Arts) Columbia University.
WORLD PREMIERE
DECEMBER 2, 2021 | 7pm EDT
YouTube Live Video Feed
Performances by
Paul An, Gideon Dabi, Melissa Harvey, Kathryn Krasovec, Nicole Mitchell, Timothy Stoddard
Music Direction
Miriam Charney
Designers
Ant Ma, Karen Boyer, Lauren Carmen, New Phase Collective, Nina Pan, Christopher Wong
Directors
I-Chen Wang
Composers
Gavin Knittle, Willem Oosthuysen, Zonia Tsang
Librettists
Briana Harris, Alex Higgin-Houser, Tristen Moseley
Audio Engineer
Enzo Veiga
Advanced Opera Lab led by
Randall Eng, Associate Arts Professor of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
Sam Helfrich, Associate Arts Professor of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Design for Stage & Film
Written by students from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
Designed by students from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Design for Stage & Film
A collaborative project of NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, Department of Design for Stage and Film, and The American Opera Project.
The NYU/Tisch Advanced Opera Lab is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
