OPERA America — The National Service Organization for Opera

2003 Awardees

The US opera companies were granted awards within the Partnership and Development categories. The full array of Awards were available to Canadian opera companies.

Partnerships
Opera Omaha
The Santa Fe Opera
Soundstreams Canada
Tapestry New Opera Works
Vancouver Opera

Development
The Banff Centre
Chants Libres
Encompass New Opera Theatre
Glimmerglass Opera
Music-Theatre Group
Musical Traditions
The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company
San Francisco Opera
Utah Symphony & Opera

Production
Modern Baroque Opera
Opéra de Montréal
Soundstreams Canada
Tapestry New Opera Works

Documentation
The Banff Centre
Modern Baroque Opera
Tapestry New Opera Works

Artist Development Awards
Dean Burry
Andréa Hiestand
Timothy Sullivan
Neil Weisensel

Opera Omaha
THE TRIAL OF STANDING BEAR
Amount of Award: $15,000

Opera Omaha will use their award to initiate a collaboration among composer Anthony Davis, librettist Yusef Komunyakaa, dramaturg Rhoda Levine, and Opera Omaha's artistic and executive directors for the purpose of developing a new opera based on actual events that occurred between 1877 and 1879 in Nebraska. The story line follows the U.S. Government's dislocation of the Ponca tribe from its native land to "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma); the death of Chief Standing Bear's 16-year-old son on the arduous journey; Standing Bear's illegal return to Nebraska with 30 others to bury his son; the imprisonment of the Ponca tribesmen; and the subsequent legal trial generated by the U.S. Army general who, despite making the arrest, endured a personal trial of conscience because of his actions.

The Santa Fe Opera
FRANKENSTEIN
Amount of Award: $10,000

Based on the novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein will feature music by Theodore Shapiro and a libretto by David Auburn. The story begins with the explorer Walton, whose mission to the North Pole is interrupted when he rescues Dr. Frankenstein. The scientist has been pursuing his horrific creation from Europe to the Arctic. Frankenstein relates how he developed the monster, how it learned language and understood European society, and how it eventually began to attack and kill Frankenstein's family and friends. The Santa Fe Opera will use the grant to establish the creative team and find potential consortium members.

Soundstreams Canada
AIRLINE ICARUS
Amount of Award: $6,000

This award will be used to explore a collaboration between Soundstreams Canada and Opera Breve to co-produce Airline Icarus in two major Canadian centers: Vancouver and Toronto. Airline Icarus is a chamber opera in one act about the intersecting thoughts of passengers aboard a commercial airplane. It explores such themes as hubris mixed with technology, forced intimacy among strangers, and flying too close to the sun.

Tapestry New Opera Works
ANTIGONE
Amount of Award: $10,000

This award will permit Tapestry New Opera Works and Music-Theatre Group to work together in the early development stages with composer Christos Hatzis on a new opera based on the Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles. The proposed opera-music theater work, a new spin on this old story, is about current events and characters that have affected and continue to affect present-day North America and the Western world in general.

Vancouver Opera
COMPOSER PARTNERSHIP WORKSHOP
Amount of Award: $9,000

Vancouver Opera, in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre, will use this award to invite up to four composers to workshop scenes from newly composed works in July 2003, with the intention of forming the artistic team to create an opera for young audiences on the topic of Japanese internment camps in Canada during WWII.

The Banff Centre
FILUMENA
Amount of Award: $40,000

Filumena, a full-length opera by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell, is the first co-commission and co-production by The Banff Centre and Calgary Opera. It received its premiere on February 1, 2003 as part of Calgary Opera's mainstage season, and will receive a subsequent production, with a different cast of young Canadian professionals, as the centerpiece of the 2003 Banff Arts Festival. This award will support the further refinement of the libretto and the orchestration.

Chants Libres
ALTERNATE VISIONS
Amount of Award: $25,000

Alternate Visions, by composer John Oliver and librettist Genni Gunn, will explore elements that make up the situation of complex perception (real takes, computer-generated virtual images, and light projections) and how a video server facilitates the establishment of a correlation between this situation of perception and the real contributions of the singers and musicians.

Encompass New Opera Theatre
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Amount of Award: $10,000

Encompass New Opera Theatre will commission composer Lior Navok and librettist Nancy Rhodes to create a new opera, The Theory of Everything, from an original idea inspired by the physics superstring theory, which postulates the simultaneous existence of ten dimensions. They will use their award toward the commissioning fee and toward a reading, which will allow the team to assess the progress of the work. The reading will also allow other opera companies to observe the project and consider partnership in the completion and stage presentation of the work.

Glimmerglass Opera
THE REFUGEES
Amount of Award: $10,000

Glimmerglass Opera will schedule readings of at least portions of The Refugees with the composer, Stephen Hartke, and librettist, Philip Littell, in attendance. Readings will be held in New York City (and perhaps other locations) in fall 2003. The Refugees is based on the short story "Boule de Suif" by Guy de Maupassant.

Music-Theatre Group
THE VOICE
Amount of Award: $40,000

Composer Tod Machover and librettist Robert Pinsky are teaming up to create The Voice, an entirely new kind of opera, blending images, words, sounds, and a multitude of autonomous robotic creatures. They will create a free-flowing fantasia, a drama that will explore what it means to be human in an age of sophisticated machines, and how one chooses—how one must choose—what to bring from the past into the future. Music-Theatre Group, in collaboration with the M.I.T. Media Lab, will use the award to create a working scenario and libretto, and to mount a reading/ workshop.

Musical Traditions, Inc
SUB PONTIO PILATO
Amount of Award: $12,500

Musical Traditions will use the award to stage the first workshop production of Sub Pontio Pilato, by composer Erling Wold and librettist James Bisso. The work is a historical fantasy that takes elements from the legend and history surrounding Pontius Pilate.

The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company
THE MIDNIGHT COURT
Amount of Award: $17,591.08

This award will support the first development workshop of The Midnight Court, by Ana Sokolovic, composer, and Paul Bentley, librettist. The work is based on the Frank O'Connor translation of the Irish epic poem written by Brian Merrimaw in 1780.

San Francisco Opera
EARTHRISE
Amount of Award: $12,500

San Francisco Opera will produce a workshop performance of the one-act opera Earthrise in order to evaluate the work as a music-drama. Composed by Lewis Spratlan, with a libretto by Constance Congdon, Earthrise was commissioned as part of the company's "Faust Project" and explores the controversial issues of cloning and biogenetic engineering.

Utah Symphony & Opera
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
Amount of Award: $40,000

Utah Symphony & Opera and The Minnesota Opera will produce a new opera by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korie, based on Steinbeck's American masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. The award will be used to support the workshop process.

Modern Baroque Opera
MAX & MORITZ
Amount of Award: $15,000

Max & Moritz is an electronic opera for children by composer Jeff Corness and librettist Michael Turner, based on the 19th century book of the same title by Wilhelm Busch. It will premiere at the 2003 Vancouver International Children's Festival.

Opéra de Montréal
L'ARCHE DE NOÉ
Amount of Award: $80,000

L'arche De Noé (Noah's Ark) is a 55-minute work destined for a student audience, by composer Isabelle Panneton and librettist Anne Hébert. The opera is a collaboration among three organizations, each bringing a particular expertise to the project: Les Coups de Théâtre specializes in work for young audiences; Opéra de Montréal is an opera production company; and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne specializes in new work. The opera will be presented at the Festival Coups de Théâtre in November 2004.

Soundstreams Canada
DEATH OF ENKIDU
Amount of Award: $47,000

Death of Enkidu, by the late composer Harry Somers and librettist Martin Kinch, will have a revival production as a co-production with Dancetheatre David Earle. The work will be part of Soundstreams' subscription season in 2003- 2004.

Tapestry New Opera Works
FACING SOUTH
Amount of Award: $65,000

Composed by Linda C. Smith, with a libretto by Don Hannah, Facing South addresses many contemporary issues that have their origin in 19th and early 20th century colonization of indigenous peoples: cultural appropriation/ expropriation, especially of language and religious practices; exploitation of human and natural resources; destruction of habitat and diet; and, most poignantly, the separation and subsequent disintegration of families. This award will support the work's world premiere production as part of the 2003 World Stage Festival in Toronto.

The Banff Centre
FILUMENA
Amount of Award: $13,500

This award will support the video and audio documentation of the new Canadian opera Filumena, by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell, during performances at the 2003 Banff Arts Festival. The material recorded will be used for archival purposes, and to produce a high-quality promotional video and CD.

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Modern Baroque Opera
MAX & MORITZ
Amount of Award: $6,500

This award will be used to create an archival and promotional DVD recording of Max & Moritz in August 2003 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. The work is by composer Jeff Corness and librettist Michael Turner.

Tapestry New Opera Works
IRON ROAD
Amount of Award: $15,000

This award will support the production of a 30-minute promotional and educational video and DVD that will document, from the point of view of the creative and performing artists, the Iron Road production, as well as critical and audience response to the work. The end product, which will include documentation of the successful Iron Road education program, will enable Tapestry to more effectively market Iron Road to potential presenters and will provide insight into how the opera was created, developed, produced, and promoted.

Dean Burry
OPERA ORCHESTRA FELLOWSHIP
Amount of Award: $25,000
Project Start Date: August 1, 2003
Project End Date: January 30, 2004

Newfoundland-born composer Dean Burry has been an active composer and performer in Toronto and throughout the Atlantic provinces. His professional stage productions include Under the Night (Live Bait Theatre), Emily of New Moon, and Rainbow Valley (Stage Door Theatre). Mr. Burry's opera The Brothers Grimm, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company and Music Canada 2000, was seen by over 20,000 Ontario school children in May of 2001 and 2002, and has been added to the COC's regular touring repertoire. His current projects include a hockey musical, Home and Away, which will be seen in the fall of 2003 in New Brunswick, and an opera based on The Hobbit, which will be premiered by the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus in 2004. Santosha Production's Lindy and the Caterpillar was Mr. Burry's first score for film and was followed by a new film opera entitled Grace for Bravo TV.

Mr. Burry will use his award to gain a greater understanding of the role of the orchestra in an operatic context. This will be accomplished through intensive score study, rehearsal attendance, and workshop readings of original orchestra operatic excerpts. He will be collaborating with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry New Opera Works, Canadian Children's Opera Chorus, and The Glenn Gould School.

Andréa Hiestand
DESIGN APPRENTICESHIP
Amount of Award: $8,250
Project Start Date: March 1, 2003
Project End Date: June 1, 2003

Andréa Hiestand graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Art and Culture Studies, with a focus on fashion and costume history. She has a diploma from Blanche Macdonald Centre for Applied Design, where she learned industry pattern making and construction. Upon graduating, she worked in film as a costume designer, with credits ranging from various student films to the 2000 Toronto Film Festival hit Last Wedding. She then began working with professional theater companies, including Western Theatre Conspiracy, Riverstone Entertainment, and Electric Company, where she was an assistant costume designer to Christine Reimer on The Score. Ms. Hiestand is currently working on the designs for Carousel Theatre's upcoming production of Paul Ledoux's Merlin.

Ms. Hiestand will use this award to support an apprenticeship project associated with the premiere production of Max & Moritz at the 2003 Vancouver International Children's Festival. She will be working with Thomas Hassmann, resident designer of Modern Baroque Opera.

Timothy Sullivan
OPERAMEDIA
Amount of Award: $15,000
Project Start Date: September 15, 2003
Project End Date: December 15, 2003

Timothy Sullivan received his Doctor of Music degree in composition at the University of Toronto. He has written several operas, including Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the first Canadian opera to premiere in New York City; Dream Play, premiered in Toronto; and Florence: The Lady With the Lamp, premiered at the Elora Festival. He has written works for dance and ballet for William Douglas Danse, Ballet British Columbia, Menaka Thakkar and Company, and many more. He has also composed many concert works and film scores. An accomplished educator, he began his teaching career at the Royal Conservatory of Music in theory and composition, where he was soon appointed head of the Composition Division. Once deciding to become a freelance composer, he continued his interest in education through artist residencies in schools. Mr. Sullivan has established the Sullivan Works studio, with the capacity to handle all forms of digital and analog sound creation, editing, and mastering, with Pro Tools, Logic Audio, and a full range essential audio hardware.

Mr. Sullivan will use this award to study the development and application of new media and interactive multimedia technology to live opera performance. This will include a software/hardware study and experiment; selection of software/hardware applied to opera scenes rehearsed and performed live; and observation of a live production company which integrates multimedia. He will be interacting with The Banff Centre and participating in a residency with a new music company (to be determined with the assistance of his field advisor).

Neil Weisensel
THE MASTER'S STROKE
Amount of Award: $24,055.68
Project Start Date: June 2003
Project End Date: November 15, 2003

Neil Weisensel earned his Bachelor of Music (piano performance) from the University of Manitoba and a Master of Music (composition) from the University of British Columbia. He studied opera conducting with Christian Segarici at the Opera de Toulon and attended the Orchestral Conducting Program at the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique. He has composed several chamber music and orchestral pieces as well as opera. His opera The Master's Stroke is a recipient of the Canada Council/ Vancouver Opera Guild Commission. A prolific conductor, his engagements have included the Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Tapestry New Opera Works, Manitoba Opera, and Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Weisensel will use this award to support a multi-stage training program that will combine in-depth analyses of contemporary opera scores (from the viewpoint of orchestration techniques) with intensive training on music software. This software includes advanced and avant-garde music notation, as well as sequencers that combine live performers with prerecorded material. He will work with Keith Hamel, composition/ orchestration professor, and Richard Dolwat, music software expert.