FIZZ & GINGER to Play New York Comedy Club This Month

The Curiosity Cabinet in partnership with Fresh Squeezed Opera will premiere a jazz opera Fizz & Ginger. This production reunites composer/conductor Whitney George and librettist/stage director Bea Goodwin after their critically acclaimed opera Princess Maleine and radio drama tryptic In the Throes of Death. Their newest work features members and friends of The Curiosity Cabinet including research and dramaturgy provided by Jay Saint Flono.

Designer Attilio Rigotti with Glitch Productions will create an underground installation in the cellar of The New York Comedy Club in New York's Lower East Side where audiences are free to drink, dance and immerse themselves in the speakeasy scene.

Fizz & Ginger traces the steps of the 1920s New Yorker nightlife reviewer, Lipstick (Sarah Goldrainer/Caroline Miller), as she enters a party in pursuit of a story. Hot on the heels of her rum running boyfriend Benny (Shane Brown), she finds him at The Crossroads mixed with company she's never seen before. Old Tom Bullock (Kyle Oliver) is in town slinging drinks fresh out of his cocktail book while Marjorie (Allison Gish/Francesca Federico) croons the tunes of a lover lost to the Great War. Nellie, (MaKayla McDonald) a writer for Harlem's The Messenger magazine, is there to support her Bohemian best friend Bruce (Francisco Corredor) who is necking with a man he shouldn't be necking with.

Rounding out the ensemble are covers Vanessa Aldrich, Sebastian Armendariz, Angky Budiardjono, and Alonso Jordan Lopez. This ensemble of singers supported by a live jazz combo, pays homage to Lipstick's reviews from the New Yorker archives.

Fizz & Ginger is supported by Fresh Squeezed Opera and generous grants from NYSCA and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

WHITNEY GEORGE COMPOSER | CONDUCTOR

Whitney George's music traverses the affective terrain between tragedy and ecstasy, fragility and strength, bringing together romantically delicate intimacy and the spectacular darkness of the macabre. Haunted by ghosts and/of love, George's operas, staged multimedia works, and chamber music coloristically explore the mysteries of irrationality, nightmare, and memory, sonically seeking lost objects and hidden subjects. Given George's theatrical inclinations and preoccupation with the tragic, she has turned again and again to opera as both a composer and conductor. Recently, George has been awarded a number of operatic commissions, premieres, and recognition: in 2017; the Elebash Award for her orchestration of Miriam Gideon's opera Fortunato, which premiered under George's baton in May 2019. In the same year; the commission of the two-act opera Princess Maleine by dell'Arte Opera and the video opera Julie by New Camerata Opera which was publicly released in 2020. George is the artistic director and conductor of The Curiosity Cabinet, a chamber orchestra formed in 2009. She holds an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts (2008), a master's degree from Brooklyn College (2010), and DMA from the CUNY Graduate Center (2021). In addition to her composing and conducting, George teaches privately and is on the faculty for Luna Lab.

BEA GOODWIN LIBRETTIST | STAGE DIRECTOR

Bea Goodwin is a librettist and stage director creating feminist adaptations, ghost stories and lost historical fictions. Her work has been hailed as "relentlessly clever" and "masterfully spellbinding" with premieres in traditional theatrical spaces such as BAM, La Mama Experimental Theatre, National Sawdust, as well as site specific immersive experiences at the International Museum of Surgical Science, the Mark Hotel penthouse suite and the historic Montauk Club. She has received commissions from Catalyst New Music, ChamberQueer, Transient Canvas, dell'Arte Opera, Gramercy Opera and performing artists. Bea is represented by Spotlight Artist Management.

MORE ABOUT THE COMPANIES

THE CURIOSITY CABINET

The Curiosity Cabinet is an interdisciplinary chamber ensemble that focuses on the intersections of music with the theatrical and visual arts, has been committed to performing American music in creative settings since its founding in 2009. The group-with many of the performing members also being active creators in their field-premieres newly composed works as well as presenting staples and outliers from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As a performing ensemble dedicated to programming multidisciplinary works, we have had the pleasure of collaborating with Fresh Squeezed Opera, City Lyric Opera, New Camerata Opera, Dell'arte Opera, and Concrete Timbre. An entirely female led organization, our mission is to commission, program and give voice to female and gender nonconforming artists in the intersection of music and theatrical artforms and dismantle patriarchal impulses within new music. Our seasons highlight opportunities for women, both employed within the ensemble as artists and in the narratives of the programs we present to the public. We aim to shatter the classism associated with the art form by providing free listening opportunities like our radio drama series and pop-up concerts in public spaces where it's fitting to the narrative of what we're presenting. We craft our seasons by prioritizing works penned by historically underrepresented communities in hopes of diversifying the twenty-first century cannon through the presentation of music theatricality. We believe music, when presented alongside other artistic mediums, speaks volumes to our audience goers and resonates deeply with our attendees. The Curiosity Cabinet is committed to serving all audiences regardless of economic barriers in our New York community by offering fresh, immersive presentations of classical music while mirroring our city's diversity and stories.

FRESH SQUEEZED OPERA

Fresh Squeezed Opera is a small ensemble-based opera company focused on presenting only new music with intimate and impactful productions. Eric Simpson of New York Classical Review states, "New York is rich in tiny upstart companies working to find ways to make opera engaging for new audiences. Fresh-Squeezed Opera stands out among these for its impressive commitment to championing new works." Its mission is to present genre-pushing new works of the highest caliber that explore the depths of operatic music.

JUNE 19 | 25 | 26

7pm VIP 7:30pm GENERAL ADMISSION

LIPSTICK - Sarah Goldrainer/Caroline Miller
NELLIE - MaKayla McDonald
MARJORIE - Allison Gish/Francesca Federico
BENNY - Shane Brown
BRUCE - Francisco Corredor
OLD TOM - Kyle Oliver and

ENSEMBLE: Vanessa Aldrich, Sebastian Armendariz, Angky Budiardjono, and Alonso Jordan Lopez

with *The Curiosity Cabinet* Dan Pearson, Tenor Sax; Hugh Ash, Trumpet; Colin Babcock, Trombone; Edward Forstman, Piano; Tamika Gorski, Drumset; Evan Runyon, Double Bass; Whitney George, Conductor; Bea Goodwin, Stage Director

Tickets available NOW.

 

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