AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS
Bare Opera
PRESENT
one drop
One Drop is a new opera by composer Thomas Cabaniss, adapted from the 1931 Broadway play Brass Ankle by DuBose Heyward (Porgy and Bess, 1935).
The action takes place in Rivertown, a village which is in process of becoming a town, situated on the edge of a swamp in the deep south. Time: 1931.
Ruth & Larry Leamer await the birth of their second child. As a segregationist, Larry is part of a group of white men who seek to exclude those with even “one drop” of black blood from their local school. Unaware of the complexity of their own family histories, and much to the expectant parents’ surprise, Ruth and Larry’s second child, a son, is born and according to the doctor, he will not pass as white. Realizing that they are suddenly potential outcasts from white society, Ruth and Larry reel from the stunning reversal that the boy represents. Unable to fnd another solution that would preserve her six-year-old daughter’s status as a white person, Ruth falsely confesses to sleeping with a black man, knowing it will provoke a drunken Larry. In a blind rage, Larry murders his wife and son.
Workshop will be in THREE ACTS:
Act One
10 minute Intermission
Act Two
Act Three
Talk Back
Please send feedback to info@aopopera.org with the subject line “One Drop Workshop”.
Composer: Thomas Cabaniss
Thomas Cabaniss: The first volume of his string quartets, Four Elements, was released earlier this year; Volume 2 will be released on November 8th. His works for Carnegie Hall’s orchestra education program (LinkUp!), are performed every year by over 120 orchestras in the U.S. and around the world. Recent commissions include a new piece for the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra and an opera for children ages 0-2, both of which will premiere at Carnegie Hall in 2025. His operas include The Sandman and Denmark Vesey. He has written several works for The Young People’s Chorus of New York City, including “Heaven Is,” which is part of This Time Round, a film about choral singing during the pandemic. He teaches at The Juilliard School and serves as a consultant for the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, where he helped to create The Lullaby Project, collaborating with young parents in shelters, hospitals, and prisons.
Stage Director: David Herskovits
David Herskovits is the Founding Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater. He directs a broad range of work, classics and neglected older work, new opera and music-theater, and adaptations of history and literature, for TMT and theaters, festivals, and universities all over, including The Spoleto Festival USA, Theatre for A New Audience, AOP for the Lincoln Center Festival, The Bonn Biennale, The Kitchen, Mass MoCA. David does not know what a play is and seeks to answer that question.
Music Director: David Rosenmeyer
David Rosenmeyer in his eleventh season as music director of the Fairfield County Chorale. The FCC recent repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven 9th Symphony with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Rosenmeyer conducted major orchestras in Latin America, including the National Symphonic Orchestra of Argentina, Symphonic Orchestra of Concepción of Chile, and Bellas Artes of Mexico and well as concerts in the old city of Jaffa in Israel with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. He was music director for the Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, which toured the U.S.
performers
Inna Dukach (Soprano) — Ruth Leamer
Soprano Inna Dukach has been praised as “a fine actress” (Opera News), “stunning” (BBC Music Mag), “exceptionally sensitive” (Musicweb-International.com), with “a spell binding pianissimo (MusicOMH.com), “considerable power” (Opera News), “appealing emotional vulnerability” (NY Sun) and “warm corners to a voice that moved smoothly up and down the staff and was enlisted in the service of the acting” (NYTimes).
Dukach made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of Madama Butterfly, and she debuted with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Musetta in La bohème.
Internationally, Dukach has performed leading roles at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Israeli Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Opéra Lyra Ottawa, Opera de Oviedo, Theater Pforzheim, Opera Hong Kong, Croatian National Opera, and Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra. Regionally in the US, Ms. Dukach has appeared New York City Opera, San Diego, Opera, American Symphony Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, Opera Colorado, Florentine Opera, Kentucky Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Anchorage Opera, Opera Omaha, Orlando Opera, Portland Symphony, Hartford Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic and Sacramento Philharmonic. Frequently performed roles include Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Mimi in La bohème, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Violetta in La Traviata, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Antonia/Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffman, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Nedda in Pagliacci, Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Liù in Turandot, and Marguerite in Faust.
Ms. Dukach has recorded a DVD of La bohème with the Royal Opera House, “The Complete Songs of Alexander Tcherepnin” with Toccata Classics, and the opera “Steal a Pencil for Me” by Gerald Cohen, recorded with Opera Colorado and just released on Sono Luminus Records.
Daniel McGrew (Tenor) — Larry Leamer
Tenor Daniel McGrew is First Prize Winner in the 2021 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. He has appeared in song recitals with Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Festival of Song, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the University Musical Society, where he joined Martin Katz and others for recitals comprising the complete Mörike Songs of Hugo Wolf.
Daniel’s recital and chamber music appearances include Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Morgan Library & Museum, Merkin Hall, and others. He has appeared as soloist with the American Chamber Orchestra, Bach Collegium–Fort Wayne, and Parlando Chamber Orchestra.
Daniel appeared at Tanglewood in George Benjamin’s Lessonsin Love and Violence, Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, and in a performance of Kurtág’s “Three Ancient Inscriptions” The Boston Globe called, “viciously beautiful”.
In 24-25 Daniel will be soloist with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Worcester Chorus, and the Richmond Symphony. At Oberlin Conservatory of Music he will appear in performances of Rhiannon Giddens’ and Michael
Abels’ opera Omar. Daniel will be presented at Brown University, Howard Community College, Cincinnati Song Initiative, New York Festival of Song, and others.
Daniel has performed Bach with conductors including Matthew Halls, John Harbison, David Hill, and Masaaki Suzuki, and toured with Juilliard415 and Yale University’s Schola Cantorum. He has participated in concerts including the symphonic premier of James Lapine’s Sondheim on Sondheim with the Boston Pops Orchestra and David Loud’s Sondheim revue, A Good Thing Going.
Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, Yale University, and the University of Michigan.
David Freides (Tenor) — Lee Burton
David Freides, tenor, is a recent graduate of Manhattan School of Music where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Classical Voice. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, David began as a trumpet player at a young age until sustaining an injury and switching to singing during his college years. At Manhattan School of Music David performed the role of Ottavia in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, as well as Ferdinand in scenes from Thomas Ades’ The Tempest. Recently David performed the role of Tamino in a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar in Weimar, Germany and as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen with the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia.
A student of Arturo Spinetti, David is living in Brooklyn, New York pursuing a career in music.
Skylar Ng - June Leamer
Skylar is a young, talented pianist and singer with a passion for both classical and contemporary music. Born and raised in New York City, she discovered her love for music at an early age. Trained at Lucy Music School, Skylar has performed at school festivals and composer concerts, captivating audiences with her expressive piano playing. With dreams of a bright musical future, she continues to explore new genres and collaborate with fellow musicians.
Dura Jun - Pianist
Dura Jun recently finished a season with Des Moines Metro Opera as music director in 2023. She currently works at Manhattan School of Music, Fiorello LaGaurdia High School for Music and Art, Schiller Institute Choir in NYC and New York Manbaeksung Global Methodist Church. She has actively collaborated with City Lyric Opera 2020-2022 as well as with New Jersey Camerata 2021-2023. In 2019 she served at Sarasota Opera as assistant conductor as well as apprentice coach, and in 2018 she was a conjunctive assistant conductor as well as pianist at NYU for their opera production. Dura Jun has collaborated in master classes with renowned singers Thomas Hampson, Stephanie Blythe and Marilyn Horne. Holding Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Solo Performance from Seoul National University and Master’s Degree and Professional Studies Diploma in Vocal Accompanying from Manhattan School of Music, she is also interested in philosophy, philanthropy, humanity, social psychology, math and history.
Daniel Klein (Bass) — Pink Jones
Daniel Klein has been hailed by the New York Times for his “stentorian bassbaritone” with a “dark and steely voice.” Audiences and critics alike have found his performances imaginative, adventurous, and occasionally even downright terrifying. 2023 is proving to be a busy year for Daniel, with his debut at Seattle Opera in June singing the roles of Judge Moriarty and Stanley in Huang Ruo’s Bound; a role and company debut in the title role in Gianni Schicci with New Jersey Festival Orchestra in February, and returning to Opera on the James in March for another Schicchi, followed by the roles of Ted and Dewey in Rob Handel and Eric Moe’s Artwork of the Future with Fresh Squeezed Opera in New York City in April.
In the 2021/22 season, Daniel returned to Opera Company of Middlebury as Thibaut d'Arc in Tchiakovsky’s The Maid of Orleans (Orleanskaja djeva), and made his Opera on the James debut as Don Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a role he was to reprise later in the season at Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, as well as being a visiting teaching artist on Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Brevard Music Center. His season was also filled with premiers: his debut with Intermountain Opera Bozeman as Koko (Colton) in Soren Kissel’s newly conceived The Montana Mikado, stepped in last minute with the American Lyric Theater in the premier of I will follow you into the dark at American Sawdust, the Father in the new musical Match Girl with the Yaya Theater Group at the Riverside Church, NYC; and the Mayor Hague in Chilltown Boogie with Con Vivo Music.
In December 2019, Daniel gained critical acclaim as Kaspar in Heartbeat Opera’s production of Weber's Der Freischütz. Critics noted his “blazing, feral intensity”, and “edgy, angry acting turned the whole drama up a notch or two. He seemed genuinely on the edge of mania—which was true of most of the characters. But with Klein, you felt it.” His previous role with Heartbeat Opera, Don “Donnie” Pizarro, in their Black Lives Matter-themed Fidelio, received international acclaim for its powerful and timely message. Opera News remarked on Klein’s performance that it “communicated all the awful power of a little man who wants to play in the big leagues.”
Recent appearances include: Spencer Coyle in Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave and Hyde in Carlisle Floyd’s The Prince of Players in their New York Premiers with the Little Opera Theater of New York; Judge Moriarty in the New York premier of Huang Ruo's Bound with Fresh Squeezed Opera; the title role of Verdi's Falstaff with the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, Mexico; Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore and the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance with the Sharon Playhouse,CT; Marcello in La Boheme and Baron Gondremark in La vie Parisienne with Long Island Opera; Fra Melitone in La Forza del Destino with New Amsterdam Opera; the bass soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Handel's Messiah with Garden State Symphony. Daniel also created the title role Frank London’s new opera Hatuey: A Memory of Fire at the Sundance Theater Lab and appeared as the Recluse in London’s Klezmer-Rock Oratorio A Night in the Old Marketplace on tour in Brazil and the US.
Pedro Sequera (Tenor) — Reverend Latterby
Pedro Sequera is a Venezuelan lyric tenor. His most recent operatic engagements include the title role in Mascagni’s L’AMICO FRITZ and Diaz in Alberto Franchetti’s CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, both with Teatro Grattacielo. Previous roles include Don Basilio in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and the roles of Enzo and Tomassi in Christof Bergman’s PIAZZA NAVONA. In addition to opera, Pedro has performed in several oratorios including Ariel Ramirez’s MISA CRIOLLA, Bach’s JOHANNES PASSION, Beethoven’s MASS IN C, Mozart’s REQUIEM, MASS IN C MINOR and CORONATION MASS, Kodaly’s MISSA BREVIS and Golijov’s PASION SEGUN SAN MARCOS, as well as several lied recitals. Pedro has also participated in several projects in Venezuela under the direction of famous conductors such as: Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Helmut Rilling, John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, María Guinand, Krzysztof Penderecki, Giuseppe Sinopoli, among others. He also participated on the recordings of John Adam’s A Flowering Tree for Nonesuch Records and Golijov’s Pasion Segun San Marcos for Deutsche Grammophon. He was also selected to take Masterclasses with renowned soprano Mirella Freni. In addition to singing, Pedro holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and has worked at NASA and other important companies in the private sector as a Data Scientist and Analytics Manager.
David Adam Moore (Baritone) — Dr. Wainright
David Adam Moore maintains a prolific international career as a performer, director, and transmedia artist. As a leading baritone for companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, and the Salzburger Festspiele, his repertoire of over 60 principal roles includes acclaimed interpretations of Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Dead Man Walking, Billy Budd, Stanley Kowalski, Prior Walter, Winterreise, and Carmina Burana. A devotee of contemporary music, Moore has created roles for composers including Thomas Adès, Peter Eötvös, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and David T. Little. His work in digital media and performance art has been presented by institutions worldwide, including the Guggenheim, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Alongside his artistic partner, director/designer Vita Tzykun, Moore is the artistic director of the NYC-based transmedia collective GLMMR. He serves on the faculty of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Theater Institute and as Granada Artist-in-Residence and Visiting Professor at the University of California, Davis.
Thomas Meglioranza (Baritone) — Jake Darcy
Thomas Meglioranza was a winner of the Walter W. Naumburg, Concert Artists Guild, and Joy in Singing competitions. He has sung Copland's Old American Songs with the National Symphony, Eight Songs for a Mad King with the LA Philharmonic, Bach Cantatas with Les Violons du Roy, Harbison's Fifth Symphony with the Boston Symphony and Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte with Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet. His operatic roles include Fritz in Die tote Stadt, Chou En-Lai in Nixon in China and Prior Walter in Peter Eötvös' Angels in America. He has performed with the period ensembles American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, Ars Lyrica Houston, and Philharmonia Baroque, among others, and his discography includes songs of Virgil Thomson with BMOP, Bach cantatas with the Taverner Consort, and three Schubert albums with pianist Reiko Uchida. A graduate of Grinnell College and the Eastman School of Music, he has taught at Oberlin BPI, and the Longy School of Music. Born in NYC, his non-musical interests include birding and fungi.
Philip Stoddard (Baritone) — John Chaldon/Luke Jackson
Philip Themio Stoddard is an award-winning singing actor known for his versatile artistry on stage and screen. Seen in the Tony-nominated revival of Camelot at Lincoln Center Theater, Broadway World has praised his “well-trained lyric baritone, notable for its pleasing timbre and refined musicianship.” Recent engagements include The Gilded Age (HBO), The Weir (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Extinctionist (Heartbeat Opera), Don Giovanni (Chautauqua Opera), Sabina (Portland Stage), L’arbre enchanté (Hogfish), A Little Night Music (Arizona Opera), and P.Y.G. (New York Theatre Workshop). Equally at home on the concert stage, Stoddard has appeared with the New York Festival of Song, Cantori New York, Yellow Barn, Music for Montauk, Schubert & Co., Music on Norway Pond, and the Kaleidoscope Concert Series. He is a distinguished winner of the Lotte Lenya Vocal Competition and a graduate of both The Juilliard School’s Drama Division and Institute for Vocal Arts. More information at philiptstoddard.com.
Stage Manager: Sarah Herdrich
AOP Interim General Director: Charles Jarden
AOP General Manager: Joel Kalow
AOP Program Associate: Ziyan Yang
One Drop is co-produced with Bare Opera:
Bare Opera is alternative opera company in New York City reinventing the opera experience. Founded in 2014 by three women—Min Lew, Laetitia Ruccolo, and Kirsten Scott—the company has only evolved its mission and broadened its artistic base. With minimalist, modern aesthetics, our exceptional emerging and established artists bring you the bare essentials of opera—a candid, immersive theatrical experience with breathtakingly beautiful music at its core. Taking place in unconventional spaces like galleries and warehouses, we strive to strip opera of its clichés and create a visceral and intimate experience for audiences, experienced and new alike. Bare Opera is keeping opera alive in the 21st century, one fresh production at a time.
Special thanks to: Ramona Ponce, Malena Dayen
AOP’s programs are made possible in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., the Amphion Foundation, BMI and the contributions of many individuals.
