American Lyric Theater to Present THE LIVING LIBRETTO, 4/29

 American Lyric Theater (ALT) presents The Living Libretto, the final event in its 2011-2012 Freshly Brewed Artist Brunch Series at OPERA America. Connected to the season's final concert, Opera in Eden, together the two performances provide an intimate, insider's view of the process of creating opera.  

The Living Libretto takes place on Sunday, April 29, 2012, at 1:00 p.m. (Doors open for brunch at 12:30 p.m.) The event begins with readings of librettos of four new one-act operas, currently being written by ALT resident artists and performed by guest actors from Broadway and off-Broadway under the direction of Dmitry Troyanovsky. Following the performance, there will be a discussion moderated by Lawrence Edelson, ALT Founder and Producing Artistic Director, of the challenges of setting text to music in an operatic context, timing of action in opera versus spoken drama, and the role the orchestra can play in opera beyond mere accompaniment. The musical side of composers' collaboration with librettists will also be explored. A light brunch with the artists featured on the program is offered as part of the event. Guest actors include: Glenn Seven Allen, Joan Barber, Anna O'Donoghue, Jessi Blue Gormezano, and Scott Sowers.

FEATURED WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

The Price of Silence

- Libretto by Magda Bogin; Music to be written by Jeffrey Dennis Smith

A retired salesman in Argentina has lived for 30 years with a dark secret. Called to testify about his role in the Dirty Wars, he is torn between his conscience and his desire to protect his grown daughter, the apple of his eye. When she learns about his past, she faces an even starker choice: to protect her father, or to uphold the truth.

Title TBA

- Libretto by Kate Light; Music to be written by Theo Popov

Can we hold on to loved ones forever - or should we learn to let them go? Can we fight the inevitable - and if we do, at what cost? Hoping to keep his dying mother alive, a soldier captures death. The soldier's resident "house spirit" thinks he knows better, but is his mother the one who really knows the right path to choose?

The Wedding Gift of Pirate Granny

- Libretto by David Johnston; Music to be written by Alla Borzova

On a Caribbean island in the 17th Century, Elizabeth Prince is about to marry Jack Hope, and live happily ever after as a respectable, church-going wife and schoolteacher.  But her buccaneering grandmother's riotous, cigar-chomping ghost refuses to let her settle for such a boring domestic life.

The Whiles

- Libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann; Music to be written by Jeremy Howard Beck

World War II, Oxfordshire, England. The insular world shared by Imogen, a scientist, and her sister, Cressida, is in danger of becoming a thing of the past when their late father's time machine turns up, tempting fate. A story of the bond between sisters, the wonders of the everyday, and the ethical questions raised by technology.

Continued…

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