Premiere Recording of ANNA CHRISTIE Set for 8/16 Release

Broadway Records, Thomas Z. Shepard, Encompass New Opera Theatre and Trinity Church Wall Street today announce the release of ANNA CHRISTIE (WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING). This music drama from composer Edward Thomas is the last known work of the Tony-winning librettist Joseph Masteroff, who passed during final rehearsals of the stage production. The double-disc recording will be released digitally and in stores on Friday, August 16. The recording is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and BroadwayRecords.com.

ANNA CHRISTIE explores the lost relationship of a woman and her father, and the sailor she falls in love with. Anna suffered a life of hardship and carries a dark secret from her past. An emotionally charged reunion with her father, a captain of a coal barge, intensifies when a merchant sailor is pulled from the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic on a foggy night. When the fog clears, Anna, the sailor and her father are caught in a riveting struggle between love and the sea, changing their lives forever. The sea is a powerful symbol in the play and serves to heal Anna. O'Neill, having lived by the docks in New York City's waterfront, was well acquainted with the sailors, saloons and night life that he wrote about with such passion and authenticity. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1922 having made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre. The play was later adapted into a 1930 Hollywood film starring Greta Garbo in her first talking picture.

ANNA CHRISTIE is a story of survival that explores family, forgiveness and fierce feminism long before its time. This new and vibrant musical interpretation is evocative of old New York, while straddling both the dramatic leitmotifs of opera and the immediacy and forward momentum of musical theatre writing.

Following the successful world premiere stage production by Encompass New Opera Theatre, directed by Nancy Rhodes, music director Julian Wachner, NOVUS NY and the original cast gathered for two days at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn with legendary producer Thomas Z. Shepard (Sondheim, Bernstein) to record this dynamic score.

The creative team for Anna Christie includes Edward Thomas (Composer, GRAMMY Nominee), Joseph Masteroff (Librettist, TONY Winner), Julian Wachner (Conductor, GRAMMY Nominee), NOVUS NY (Orchestra), Thomas Z. Shepard (Producer, 12-time GRAMMY Winner), Nancy Rhodes (Artistic Director, Encompass New Opera Theatre) and features Melanie Long (Prototype Festival, Oslo Opera) as Anna Christie, Frank Basile (Metropolitan Opera) as Chris Christopherson, Jonathan Estabrooks (Carnegie Hall, Seattle Symphony) as Mat Burke, Joy Hermalyn (Fiddler on the Roof, Sound of Music Live!) as Marthy Owens and Mike Pirozzi (All About Walken, The Boychick Affair!) as Larry the Bartender.

For more information, please visit: www.AnnaChristieOpera.com