Casting Confirmed for New Opera CROSSING at A.R.T., Directed by Diane Paulus

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Artistic Director Diane Paulus, announces the casting of the world premiere of Crossing, an opera by Matthew Aucoin, directed by Diane Paulus, featuring the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, produced in association with Music-Theatre Group.

Inspired by the diary Walt Whitman kept as a nurse during the Civil War, this world premiere opera by the prolific young composer Matthew Aucoin explores how the individual experiences of soldiers are remembered and told. As Whitman listens to wounded veterans share their memories and messages, he forges a bond with a soldier who forces him to examine his own role as writer and poet. Staged by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus, this production will feature renowned baritone Rod Gilfry in the role of Walt Whitman, and the Boston-based orchestra A Far Cry, an ensemble at the forefront of a dynamic new generation in classical music.

The cast includes Rod Gilfry (May 29, 31, June 2, 4, 6) and Edward Parks (June 5) as Walt Whitman, Alexander Lewis as John Wormley, Davone Tines as Freddie Stower, and Jennifer Zetlan as the Messenger; as well as William Goforth, Frank Kelley, Michael Kelly, David Kravitz, Matthew Patrick Morris, Myles Mykkanen, Danel Neer, James Onstad, Jorell Williams, and Greg Zavracky. The creative team includes Set Designer Tom Pye (Witness Uganda), Costume Designer David Zinn (Highway Ulysses, Orpheus X, Olly's Prison), Lighting Designer Jennifer Tipton (The King Stag, Endgame, School for Scandal), and Projections by Finn Ross (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night).

Rod Gilfry, two-time Grammy nominee, singer and actor, has performed in all the world's music capitals. His most recent Grammy nomination was for his 2008 performance in the title role of Messiaen's monumental opera Saint François d'Assise in Amsterdam. Best-known as an opera singer, he is also an acclaimed recitalist and concert artist, and appears frequently in musical theater classics. His discography of 28 audio and video recordings includes the DVD and CD of his one-man show My Heart is So Full of You. With a 74-role repertoire, Mr. Gilfry sings music from the Baroque to that composed expressly for him. He was brought to worldwide attention when he created the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1998 premiere of André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at the San Francisco Opera with Renée Fleming. Other world premieres: Nicholas, Deborah Drattel's Nicholas and Alexandra (Los Angeles, opposite Placido Domingo); Nathan, Nicholas Maw's Sophie's Choice (London, Washington D.C.); Jack London, Libby Larsen's Every Man Jack (Sonoma, CA); Edward Gaines, Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner (Detroit, Cincinnati, Philadelphia). He created his sixth world premiere in Zürich in October 2010 in the title role of Gesualdo, by Marc-André Dalbavie. Recent credits include Howard K. Stern in the American premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole with the New York City Opera, the title role in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and with Opera Theater of St Louis, Frank Butler to Deborah Voigt's Annie in Annie Get Your Gun with Glimmerglass Opera, the 2013 Aix en Provence Festival as Don Giovanni, and concerts with Oregon Bach Festival and San Francisco Choral Society. He traveled to Japan for Cosi fan tutte at the Hyogo Arts Center and to London for the Royal Opera Covent Garden's production of Anna Nicole. In 2015 he returns to the MET singing Danilo to Susan Graham's Hanna in a new production of The Merry Widow; will also sing the role of Master Chen in the world premiere of Christian Josts' The Red Lantern at Zurich Opera; Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with the Milwaukee Symphony and at the Aix en Province Festival, and Hajj in Kismet with the Vienna Folksoper. In addition to his full-time performance schedule, Mr. Gilfry holds the Steven Crocker Chair in Music at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he is an Associate Professor of Vocal Arts.

Baritone Edward Parks is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2009-2010 season as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He since appeared at the MET as Schaunard in La bohème, Larkens in La fancuilla del West and returned this season for La Bohème, Don Carlo, and Die Zauberflöte. He sang Valentin in Faust at the Atlanta Opera; the Count in Le nozze di Figaro at Central City Opera, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles at the Michigan Opera Theater, Marcello in La bohème and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at PORT Opera, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Laurent in the Chicago Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera's co-production of Tobias Picker's Thérèse Raquin, and Ford in Falstaff and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Concert credits include a recital with Susan Graham for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Schubert's Winterreise at both the Schubert Club in St. Paul and in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and Orff's Carmina Burana with the Prague Proms International Music Festival and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Future seasons will see his debut with Virginia Opera and a return to the Metropolitan Opera.

Australian tenor Alexander Lewis recently completed his training as a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Recent engagements included the title role in William Kentrdige's production of The Nose, Borsa in Rigoletto, and Raoul de St. Brioche in The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera, Flask in Moby Dick at Washington National Opera, Tamino in The Magic Flute for West Australian Opera Company in Perth, and Gerhard in HK Gruber's Gloria: A Pig Tale for New York Philharmonic. Musical theatre appearances include: critically acclaimed performances of the title role in Sunday in the Park with George at the Victorian Opera Company in Melbourne, Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd with Opera Australia, Frederick Barret in Titanic with Seabiscuit Productions, and Raoul and The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera with The Really Useful Group. In concert, he recently performed Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings at the Bangalow Music Festival, New South Wales, Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle with Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Poisson in Adriana Lecouvreur with The Opera Orchestra of New York in Carnegie Hall. He also performed a series of recitals and concerts throughout Australia. In coming seasons, Mr. Lewis makes a début in the title role of Les contes d'Hoffmann and performs a début at the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden.

Bass baritone Davone Tines is building an international career commanding a broad spectrum of opera and concert performance from early music: recently performing programs of Bach and Rameau in Alice Tully Hall to adventurous contemporary music including the U.S. premiere of Menachem Zur's Cartoons at Lincoln Center and performances with the New York Festival of Song. Past seasons he performed in La Bohème at the Royal Opera House Muscat, Oman, in La Fanciulla del' West in Spain, and as Lodovico in Otello, all under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel. Recent engagements include performances with the New York Shakespeare Society, an appearance with Alec Baldwin for Virginia's Castelton Festival, a two-month long concert tour of Australia and a special concert for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court. Upcoming engagements include concerts with the Boston Pops, performances with the Tanglewood Music Festival, two one-man shows American Gothic and The Black Clown, and the premier of two chamber operas by Kaija Saariajo, directed by Peter Sellars at the Dutch National Opera and Ojai Music Festival. He is a 2009 graduate of Harvard College and received a Masters degree in voice from The Juilliard School in 2013.

Jennifer Zetlan sang the role of Rebecca in the U.S. premiere of Nico Muhly's Two Boys, Xenia in Boris Godunov, as well as in L'elisir d'amore and Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera; Gilda in Rigoletto, Musetta in La bohème, Woglinde in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung and as The Forest Bird in Siegfried at Seattle Opera; Zina in the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters with Gotham Chamber Opera, The Music-Theatre Group, and Opera Company of Philadelphia. On the concert stage, she performed Mozart's Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York, Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Osvaldo Golijov's 3 Songs for Soprano and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Lexington Philharmonic, Ligeti's Requiem with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Chichester Psalms and Carmina Burana with the Oratorio Society of New York; Mozart's Mass in c minor in New York and Vail with Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic.

A Far Cry stands at the forefront of an exciting new generation in classical music. According to the New York Times, the self-conducted orchestra "brims with personality or, better, personalities, many and varied." A Far Cry was founded in 2007 by a tightly-knit collective of 17 young professional musicians - the Criers - and since the beginning has fostered those personalities, developing an innovative structure of rotating leadership both on stage and behind the scenes. By expanding the boundaries of orchestral repertoire and experimenting with the ways music is prepared, performed, and experienced, A Far Cry has been embraced throughout the world with more than three hundred performances coast to coast and across the globe, five albums, and a powerful presence on the internet. The Criers are proud to call Boston home, and maintain strong roots in the city, rehearsing at their storefront music center in Jamaica Plain and fulfilling the role of Chamber Orchestra in Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Collaborating with local students through an educational partnership with the New England Conservatory, A Far Cry aims to pass on the spirit of collaboratively-empowered music to the next generation.

Matthew Aucoin is a 25-year old composer, conductor, poet, and pianist. A 2012 graduate of Harvard College (summa cum laude), Aucoin is currently the Solti Conducting Apprentice of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he made his conducting debut in February of 2014; he has also served as an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. His next project, Second Nature, an opera for young people commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, premieres in Chicago in August 2015. He also holds a commission by the new works program of the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater. Recent and upcoming performances of Aucoin's orchestral and chamber works include performances by the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, pianist Benjamin Hochman, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the SOLI Chamber Ensemble, the Gramercy Trio, violinist Keir GoGwilt, and pianist George Fu. Aucoin studied composition with Robert Beaser at Juilliard, where he received a graduate diploma. He is Composer-in-Residence at the Peabody Essex Museum. In the 2013-14 Season, in addition to his CSO debut, Aucoin made conducting debuts with Juilliard Opera (Eugene Onegin), the Rome Opera Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (in a public rehearsal featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma), while also serving as a cover conductor at the Metropolitan Opera (The Nose) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Così fan Tutte). An accomplished poet, critic, and essayist, Aucoin's poems and essays have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Yale Review, The Harvard Advocate, The Colorado Review, and Plain China. He has served as guest lecturer on music and literature at the New York Shakespeare Society and New York University's Casa Italiana, and has hosted classical music radio programs for New York's WQXR.

Diane Paulus is the Artistic Director of the A.R.T. Her directing credits at the A.R.T. include Finding Neverland (now playing on Broadway), Witness Uganda, created by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthew, recipient of the 2012 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater; Pippin, by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson (2013 Tony Award-winner for Best Revival of a Musical, currently on a national tour); The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, adapted by Suzan Lori-Parks and Deidre Murray (2012 Tony Award-winner for Best Revival of a Musical); Prometheus Bound, a new musical inspired by Aeschylus's tragedy, written by Tony Award-winner Steven Sater (Spring Awakening) with music composed by Grammy Award-winner Serj Tankian; Tod Machover's Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera, finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music; The Donkey Show, a disco adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream; Best of Both Worlds, a re-envisioning of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale with book and lyrics by Randy Weiner and music by Diedre Murray; Johnny Baseball, a musical about the Red Sox created by Robert Reale, Willie Reale, and Richard Dresser. Her other recent work includes Amaluna, Cirque du Soleil's newest creation which had its world premiere in Montreal in April 2012 and is currently on tour in the US; The Public Theater's Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR on Broadway and London's West End. As an opera director, her credits include The Magic Flute, Il mondo della luna, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, and the Monteverdi trilogy L'incoronazione di Poppea, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and Orfeo. Diane is a Professor of the Practice in Theater in Harvard University's English Department. She was named one of Boston Magazine's "50 Most Powerful Bostonians" in 2012 and was awarded the 2012 Founders Award for Excellence in Directing from the Drama League. Recently, Diane was selected as one of Variety's "Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014" and Boston Magazine's "50 Thought Leaders of 2014" and was named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in New York" by the New York Daily News, as well as TIME Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Music-Theatre Group (Diane Wondisford, Producing Director) is dedicated to helping artists turn creative inspiration into dramatically compelling works of art. For 43 years, MTG has gathered a creative, collaborative community of composers, poets, playwrights, directors, choreographers, designers, and performers working with them right from the beginning and throughout the life of their projects to develop and produce fresh, thought-provoking works of music-theatre. MTG and its artists have garnered a reputation for generating seminal works that blur the boundaries between music, theatre and opera. Some examples are: Dark Sisters by Nico Muhly (music) and Stephen Karam (libretto), directed by Rebecca Taichman; Arjuna's Dilemma by Douglas Cuomo; Running Man by Diedre Murray (music), Cornelius Eady (libretto) and Diane Paulus (director), finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Drama; Marco Polo by Tan Dun (music), Paul Griffiths (libretto) and Martha Clarke (director), Grawemeyer Award; Juan Darien by Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal among 25 awards (over 10 years) were 5 Tony Nominations, including one for Best New Musical; and Martha Clarke's Garden of Earthly Delights with music by Richard Peaslee and Dr. Selavy's Magic Theatre by Stanley Silverman and Richard Foreman. Upcoming projects include The Very Enterprising Burke and Hare by Julian Grant (music) and Mark Campbell (libretto), and Patient Zero by Diedre Murray (music) and Cornelius Eady (libretto).

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work in Cambridge and beyond. The A.R.T. was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, who served as Artistic Director until 2002, when Robert Woodruff succeeded him. Diane Paulus began her tenure as Artistic Director in 2008. Under her leadership, the A.R.T. seeks to expand the boundaries of theater by programming events that immerse audiences in transformative theatrical experiences.

Throughout its history, the A.R.T. has been honored with many distinguished awards, including the Tony Award for Best New Play for All the Way (2014); consecutive Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical for Pippin (2013) and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (2012), both of which Paulus directed; a Pulitzer Prize for Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother; a Jujamcyn Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent; the Tony Award for Best Regional Theater; and numerous Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards.

As the professional theater on the campus of Harvard University, the A.R.T. catalyzes discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange among a wide range of academic departments, institutions, students, and faculty members, acting as a conduit between its community of artists and the university. A.R.T. artists also teach undergraduate courses in directing, dramatic literature, acting, voice, design, and dramaturgy. The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training, which is run in partnership with the Moscow Art Theater School, offers graduate-level training in acting, dramaturgy, and voice.

Dedicated to making great theater accessible, the A.R.T. actively engages more than 5,000 community members and local students annually in project-based partnerships, workshops, conversations with artists, and other enrichment activities both at the theater and across the Greater Boston area. The A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, has become an incubator for local and emerging artists and has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models.

The A.R.T. stages the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's opera, Crossing, together with Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) - recent winner of the 2015 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired byAmerican History) - as centerpieces of its Civil War Project, a multi-year initiative to investigate and commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. It is part of The National Civil War Project, a multi-year, multi-city collaboration among four universities and five performing arts organizations. Inspired by choreographer Liz Lerman, this collaboration led to the commissioning of original theatrical works as well as creation of new arts-integrated academic programs. The National Civil War partnerships include: Alliance Theatre and Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts at Emory University in Atlanta, GA; the American Repertory Theater and Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; Arena Stage and the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; and CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore, MD and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.

Through all of these initiatives, the A.R.T. is dedicated to producing world-class performances in which the audience is central to the theatrical experience.

For further information, visit AmericanRepertoryTheater.org

Photo by Walter McBride

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