U.S. Grants
Partnership Grants
American Opera Projects
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY
Amount of Grant: $4,000
Based on the novel by Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey will feature music and libretto by Paula M. Kimper. Wilder's novel is an investigation into the intertwining lives of five people who were killed in 1714 after a bridge suddenly collapsed into a deep gorge in the Peruvian Andes. American Opera Projects will use their grant to meet with potential partners to determine if they are interested in becoming members of the consortium that will produce and present this work. American Opera Projects, based in New York City, works to develop, nurture, and produce new American operas and innovative opera projects.
Florida Grand Opera
Anna Karenina
Amount of Grant: $5,600
Florida Grand Opera commissioned composer David Carlson to create Anna Karenina , a new opera based on Tolstoy's famed novel, to commemorate the opening of the Dolores and Sanford Ziff Ballet Opera House in the Performing Arts Center of Greater Miami in 2004. Colin Graham, artistic director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, has written the libretto and will serve as stage director for the production. The funds received will allow Florida Grand Opera to bring together members of the creative team for the commission, along with interested and potential partners, who will be given the opportunity to become familiar with the work and decide whether or not to join the consortium to present the finished opera.
Glimmerglass Opera
The Refugees
Amount of Grant: $10,000
Composer Stephen Hartke and librettist Philip Littell are teaming up to create The Refugees , a full-length opera based on Guy de Maupassant's short story, "Boule de Suif." Glimmerglass Opera is currently assembling other members of the creative team for this work, and is actively seeking other opera companies to co-produce the opera; their grant will be used to fund travel costs for these initiatives.
Houston Grand Opera
The End of the Affair
Amount of Grant: $15,000
The End of the Affair is a newly-commissioned work from Jake Heggie, the young American composer whose first full-length opera, Dead Man Walking , received critical acclaim when it premiered in the fall of 2000 at San Francisco Opera. Playwright Heather McDonald has been selected as the librettist for this work, which will premiere in February 2004. Based on Graham Greene's 1951 novel, The End of the Affair , the story revolves around a doomed love affair in which an illicit romance becomes a far greater gamble than either lover could have imagined. Houston Grand Opera will use its Opera Fund grant to bring together various members of the creative team for a series of meetings to begin the creative process.
Lyric Opera of Kansas City
John Brown
Amount of Grant: $2,350
Lyric Opera of Kansas City's interest in producing John Brown , written by composer Kirke Mechem, came from the inspiring story of the historic title figure who played an important role in the fight over slavery in the Midwest. The funds received will allow Lyric Opera of Kansas City to bring Kirke Mechem to Kansas City to meet with potential consortium members to discuss the premiere of his work. Lyric Opera of Kansas City is working to identify potential consortium members, one of which may be the University of Kansas Opera Program. Their participation will allow the university students to become involved in the workshop of the piece and to explore how a new opera is created.
New York City Opera
The House of Mirth
Amount of Grant: $13,000
New York City Opera will use its grant to develop a consortium of two to four regional opera companies to support the world premiere production of the commissioned work, The House of Mirth , by composer Michael Torke and playwright A.R. Gurney. The opera, which is scheduled to premiere during the 2003-04 season, will be based on Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth . Wharton's novel is a cautionary tale about Lily Bart, a dazzling but impoverished socialite who discovers the precariousness of her social standing when her beauty and charm attract unwelcome interest and jealousy. The project reunites Torke and Gurney, who created Strawberry Fields , the second part of the Central Park trilogy that played to sell-out crowds at City Opera in the fall of 1999.
Canadian Opera Creation Program Grants
Partnership Grant
Pacific Opera Victoria
Untitled
Amount of Grant: $15,000
The grant received will assist Pacific Opera Victoria and Tapestry New Opera Works in developing a full-length mainstage work by composer Jeffrey Ryan and librettist Michael MacLennan, and will help to establish a working partnership between the two producing companies. Activities to be undertaken by the partners and creative artists include initial discussion with all participants, and the development and selection of a story idea that includes character sketches and one fully orchestrated scene, which will be workshopped in Victoria. If the partnership phase of the project is deemed a success, the two producing companies will seek to co-commission and co-produce a new work by the artists to be presented in both Victoria and Toronto.
Development Grants
Autumn Leaf Performance
How It Storms
Amount of Grant: $40,000
This new work, an opera for gamelan ensemble, is the result of a partnership between Autumn Leaf Performance and the Evergreen Club Gamelan. With music by Allen Cole and libretto by Maristella Roca, How It Storms is based on a short story entitled The Ring and the Well from the Hindu text, The Mahabaratha . In much the same way as the Evergreen Club performs contemporary Canadian music using traditional Indonesian orchestration, the intention of the creative team in adapting the piece as a gamelan opera is to take a piece of mythology well-known in Indonesia and place it in a modern Canadian context, using a magic realism narrative style. The grant received will cover expenses associated with concert-style workshop performances in Toronto and Montreal.
Opera Ontario, Inc.
Screen Test
Amount of Grant: $30,000
Opera Ontario and NUMUS will take this work by composer Tim Brady and librettist John Sobol to completion, including preliminary design, video, and choreography. The work evolved from a single song commission in 1993 into a two-act chamber opera/electro-acoustic jazz voice new music experiment. A two-week workshop is planned where technical and stage elements will be added to the completed work and evaluations will be conducted of all the multidisciplinary elements. A selected audience will then attend a workshop production and be invited to offer feedback. This expert panel will provide input, and decisions will then be made regarding the future of the project.
Production Grants
Calgary Opera
Filumena
Amount of Grant: $70,000
Filumena is a co-commission by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell by the Calgary Opera and Banff Centre, Theater Arts. Based on historical events, Filumena tells the story of a young emigrant girl's journey from Italy to Western Canada in the early 1900s and the challenges she faces in her new homeland. The grant received will be used to add additional staging and orchestra rehearsal time to the schedule currently in place for the work. The opera will be presented as part of Calgary Opera's 2002-03 subscription season and will then be presented at the Banff Arts Festival in the summer of 2003.
Chants Libres
Pacamambo
Amount of Grant: $40,000
Chants Libres will partner with Les coups de Theater to present a new children's opera, Pacamambo , based on the book of the same name by Wajdi Mouawad. Mr. Mouawad will adapt his writings to create the libretto, and composer Zack Settel will provide the musical accompaniment for the piece. The work will feature electro-acoustic music, flute, percussion, and four singing interpreters. The opera will be presented during the festival of Les coups de Theater in November 2002, with the possibility of other performances occurring in different venues during 2003.
Modern Baroque Opera
120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade
Amount of Grant: $20,000
120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade is a new Canadian opera by Vancouver-based composer Peter Hannan and Montreal-based librettist Peter Hinton, based on the life and writings of the Marquis de Sade. The production involves twelve singers from various vocal genres, an orchestra of twelve, comprised of period string players from Vancouver's Pacific Baroque Orchestra; and electric guitar and keyboard players. Modern Baroque Opera and their project partner, Vancouver New Music, will present the work at the Vancouver East Cultural Center in March 2002.
The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company
Charlotte
Amount of Grant: $70,000
Charlotte , a new opera by composer James Rolfe and librettist Jeremy Podeswa, is based on a series of autobiographical paintings by German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, who was sent to her death in the concentration camps at Auschwitz. The paintings are presented in the form of a theatrical presentation, with the characters of Charlotte's life transformed into cleverly re-imagined operatic counterparts with fanciful names and oversized personalities. The project is the result of a consortium initiative between The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre and the University of Western Ontario Opera Department. The opera will receive its premiere in Toronto in June 2003.
Soundstreams Canada
A Midwinter Night's Dream
Amount of Grant: $70,000
A Midwinter Night's Dream by composer Harry Somers and librettist Tim Wynne-Jones will be the flagship Canadian work in Northern Encounters 2003 , a festival that celebrates the arts and culture of the eight circumpolar nations. The youth opera was originally commissioned by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus, and features two companies of young artists and three adult leads. The company hopes to use the opera as an audience development tool for use with students in exploring the theme of discovering one's cultural roots.
Documentation Grants
Chants Libres
DVD Recording of L'enfant des Glaces and Pacamambo
Amount of Grant: $10,000
Chants Libres seeks to make a DVD recording of two children's operas they have created and presented as a promotional, educational, and audience development tool. Chants Libres plans to use the DVD to encourage other organizations to present these operas as part of education programs and to feature excerpts on the company's web site for public viewing. |
