We’ve relaunched the Indie Opera Podcast, with a new theme song composed by Ross Crean, (with vocals by Sarah Thompson Johansen)and with the help of Associate Producer, Chuck Sachs. Listen to our 29th episode on our website, iTunes, or other streaming service like Stitcher.
We’re joined by two amazing guests: Donnacha Dennehy, composer of The Hunger, which will be performed September 30 through October 1 at BAM; and Paul Fowler, composer of Behold The Man.
SHOW NOTES
- Enemies, A Love Story – composer Ben Moore
- Two One Act operas by drummer/composers
- Stewart Copeland, (yes, from The Police), The Cask of Amontillado
- Robert Pattinson/Mark Campbell, The Whole Truth
- Sweets by Kate by composer Griffin Candey
- New York OperaFest
- The Millay Sisters
- Opera on Tap production of La Cenerentola in NY Operafest
- David Gordon – Teaching Artist, Ramiro
- Augusta Casa – Cenerentola
- Glenn Heroy – Narrator
- Nadine Sierra, soprano performed Gilda in Rigoletto at The Metropolitan Opera
- Dolly Parton in concert at Tanglewood and the new recording by Parton & Pentatonix of ‘Jolene”
- Heartbeat Opera Double Bill of Dido and Aeneas & Lucia di Lammermoor
- Rhymes With Opera Heartbreak Express by composer, George Lam and librettist, John Clum
- The Masses are Asses at the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, by Pedro Pietri
- Robert Bradshaw‘s “Deus Ex Machina” a steampunk opera
- George Antheil – “mechanical music”
- Colin Nancarrow
- Tales of Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach
- Mata Hari by composer Matt Marks and librettist Paul Peers part of the Prototype Festival
- Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda
-
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, by Dave Malloy with Josh Groban
SECOND CALL-IN GUEST
Donnacha Dennehy– composer
The Hunger, a docu-opera about the Potato Famine, mid 1800’s Ireland Great Famine of 1845-52, rooted in Asenath Nicholson’s harrowing first-person account in Annals of the Famine in Ireland
BAM Opera House on 9/30 & 10/1
production directed by Tom Creed
w/ Alarm Will Sound conducted by Alan Pierson
The Hunger imagines soprano Katherine Manley as Nicholson and Irish Folk singer, Iarla Ó Lionáird as the voice of the voiceless, with instrumentalists integrated into the staging. Old recordings of traditional sean-nós songs dovetail seamlessly with Dennehy’s score, while video clips of interviews with Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, Franco Milanovich and others underscore the political roots of this tragedy that brought a nation to its knees.
The Last Hotel produced at Prototype Festival 2016, by Donnacha Dennehy libretto and direction by Enda Walsh
Iarla O’Lionaird on many earlier vocal compositions, Gra agus Bas
FIRST CALL-IN GUEST
Paul Fowler – composer
Behold the Man, opera with a libretto by Andrew Flack
produced in Campo de Borja, Spain in an outdoor concert at Santuario de Misericordia
Main characters in opera are Martinas, Arturo & Celia
Paul is a professor at Naropa University in Boulder, CO.
Overtone/throat singing
The n NYC 2011, a world premiere work created by Paul Haas, Paul Fowler and Bora Yoon.
The Festival begins with the world premiere of ARCO, performed by New York based contemporary ensemble SymphoNYC, vocal quartet New York Polyphony, and bass Charles Perry Sprawls. ARCO was commissioned by the Armory to respond to its storied history and dramatic space and is co-composed, or “sculpted,” by Sympho conductor Paul Haas, Paul Fowler and Bora Yoon. Performed in four sections, ARCO is a mix of old and new. Beginning with a performance of Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, the piece works its way through music by composers from Perotin and Monteverdi to Beethoven and Byrd, from both Western and Eastern Classical traditions.
Lloyd Arriola, pianist, conductor. Our great friend, you will be missed!
Credits
Co-hosts: Brooke Larimer, Noah Lethbridge, Walker Lewis, Peter Szep
Peter Szep, Producer; C. Colby Sachs, Associate Producer
Edited by Ross Crean
Theme Song by Ross Crean; Sarah Thompson Johansen, Vocals
Benjamin Young and John Lynd Recording Engineers
Recorded at The National Opera Center