Douglas J. Cuomo, John Patrick Shanley to Adapt DOUBT Opera for Minnesota Opera

Minnesota Opera has announced its next commission, Doubt, which will have its world premiere in 2013 as part of the company's 50th anniversary season. Composed by Douglas J. Cuomo, the opera will have a libretto by John Patrick Shanley, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play and its subsequent Academy Award-nominated screenplay.

"Just weeks away from the world premiere of Silent Night, it's a thrill to announce the company's next major commission," said President and General Director Allan Naplan. "Minnesota Opera's long, successful commitment to new work is part of what drew me to this company, and I can think of no better tribute to its legacy than to celebrate our 50th anniversary with a world premiere."

The commission is part of Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative, a landmark program designed to invigorate the operatic repertoire with an infusion of contemporary works. This commission, as well as a commission and revival yet to be announced for future seasons, are made possible in part by the generous support of a recent $750,000 award from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grant is the second from the Mellon Foundation; the first, for $500,000 in 2008, helped the company set a trajectory for success for the $7 million, multi-year campaign. Since fundraising began in March 2008, Minnesota Opera has raised over $5.9 million to support the Initiative, of which the Mellon Foundation's generous grants comprise a significant part.

"The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's gift to Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative will have a transformative impact on the company's continuing commitment to developing and producing new works," said Naplan. "We are tremendously grateful to the Mellon Foundation for their extraordinary support of our efforts."

The opera will receive its first workshop in Cincinnati from November 3 to 13, 2011, as part of Opera Fusion: New Works, a groundbreaking new collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. With generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Opera Fusion: New Works was created to offer composer/librettist teams the opportunity to workshop new American operas during a ten-day residency; Doubt is the first opera to be awarded a workshop through the program.

Workshops are a key component of the commissioning process of Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative, and the company is planning additional workshops for Doubt in March, June and November 2012. "We're excited that Doubt's earliest drafts will receive the valuable feedback that Cincinnati's Opera Fusion: New Works workshop will provide," said Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson. "The workshop process illuminates what works well dramatically and musically, and what aspects of the piece will require more attention. Most of the premieres recently staged in this country have not had that advantage, but at Minnesota Opera we feel it's critically important to allow the composer and librettist to test their ideas before the work reaches the stage."

For more information, visit http://www.mnopera.org/.

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