WNO Announces First Season of the American Opera Initiative

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced initial plans for the first season of its American Opera Initiative, a comprehensive new commissioning program first announced in January.

Three young teams of composers and librettists—Douglas Pew and Dara Weinberg, Liam Wade and John Grimmett, and Scott Perkins and Nat Cassidy—will premiere new 20-minute operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a concert performance on November 19, 2012 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. In June 2013, a new hour-long opera by D.J. Sparr and Davis Miller will premiere in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

The composer/librettist teams will collaborate on their work with distinguished mentors who have each enjoyed professional success with new American opera: composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick), librettist Mark Campbell (winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Silent Night), and conductor Anne Manson (Manitoba Chamber Orchestra). Conductor RoBert Wood (UrbanArias) will serve as an advisor to the program and its artists. The composers and librettists will work with these mentors and advisors throughout the creative process and during workshops held at the Kennedy Center in October 2012.