Center For Contemporary Opera Presents Scott Wheeler's THE SORROWS OF FREDERICK

Scott Wheeler's opera, The Sorrows of Frederick, will be seen at Brooklyn's Irondale Center on Friday, May 18, 2018, at 8pm. Act 1 of this two-act opera is being presented as part of Center for Contemporary Opera's Development Series. The libretto is by Romulus Linney. Mark Shapiro conducts and Beth Greenberg is the stage director with Keith Phares singing the title role of Frederick.

Scott Wheeler writes that "The Sorrows of Frederick uses modern language to create a darkly comic opera (in the sense that Don Giovanni is a "comic drama" dealing with evil and death) based on the life of King Frederick the Great of Prussia. The libretto has the richness of a Shakespearean history play. Act 1 is a tragic gay love story putting his romantic and artistic ideals against the repressive and authoritarian regime of Frederick's father. Act 2 explores the tragic consequences of Frederick's attempts to combine the ideals of the Enlightenment with military conquest."

In Act 1, the young Prince Frederick composes music, plays the flute, writes poetry and corresponds with the great writer Voltaire, who sees in Frederick "the philosopher prince of whom Plato dreamed." Frederick also falls in love with Lieutenant Hans Katte. Frederick's father, King Frederick William, arranges Frederick's marriage to the proper young Elizabeth Christine, in whom Frederick has no interest. In front of the entire court, Frederick William taunts his artistic son as a "French fop." Frederick attempts to flee with Katte, but they are discovered, and the King forces Frederick to watch as Katte is beheaded.

In Act 2, Frederick William has died and Frederick has become King. To the surprise of the Prussian Councillors, who expect an "artistic" and weak king, Frederick introduces freedom of the press, freedom of religion, builds opera houses, and otherwise tries to live up to the Enlightenment ideals of his idol Voltaire, whom he brings to live with him in his palace Sans Souci. Even more surprisingly, Frederick builds a stronger army that that of his father, and begins a series of aggressive and successful military campaigns. Voltaire cannot condone Frederick's thirst for war; Frederick responds by calling Voltaire a "French fop," causing a break with his intellectual and spiritual father. Frederick continues to make ever more destructive wars, but his artistic and human side is neglected, and he dies alone, with only his beloved dogs for solace, while the country hails him as "the greatest king in the history of Prussia."

The music of The Sorrows of Frederick draws freely on the music of Frederick himself, including the theme he gave to J.S. Bach, which is the basis of Bach's Musical Offering.

A piano-vocal score of The Sorrows of Frederick was commissioned and workshopped (May 2013) by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theatre, under a program funded by the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trust. Scott Wheeler was one of the initial composers in the program. In 2015, excerpts were presented in workshop at the Frontiers Festival at Fort Worth Opera, and CCO presented a development reading of Act I. The Sorrows of Frederick is published by Peermusic Classical.

Scott Wheeler was one of four composers recently honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for outstanding achievement in composition. His most recent opera is Naga, on a libretto of Cerise Jacobs co-commissioned by Friends of Madame White Snake and Boston Lyric Opera. His previous operas have been commissioned and performed by the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Washington National Opera and the Guggenheim Foundation. Other current and recent commissions include 200 Dreams from Captivity for baritone and orchestra on texts of Chinese political prisoner Wang Dan, Ben Gunn on texts of Paul Muldoon, and Nightingale, a new narrative ballet with choreographer Melissa Barak. In recent seasons, Wheeler's works have been performed in Boston, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, Austria, Italy, Panama, Winnipeg, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Scott's most recent CDs include Portraits and Tributes, featuring pianist Donald Berman, on Bridge; Songs to Fill the Void on Albany; and Crazy Weather, with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose. Wasting the Night - songs for voice and piano, and the opera The Construction of Boston, both available on Naxos; Shadow Bands features Scott's chamber music for strings and piano with the Gramercy Trio, recorded on Newport Classic. Scott Wheeler is Senior Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston.

Romulus Linney (1930-2011) authored three novels, four opera librettos, twenty short stories, and 85 plays which have been staged throughout the United States from South Coast Repertory in CA to the Virginia Museum Theater (VMT) in Richmond, and in Europe and Asia. His plays include The Sorrows of Frederick, Holy Ghosts, Childe Byron, Heathen Valley, and an adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines's novel, A Lesson Before Dying.

Many of his plays were set in Appalachia, while others focused on historical subjects. His adaptations for the American stage of several foreign classics - plays and tales from Tolstoy, Chekhov, Ibsen and others - have been performed from New York to Minneapolis, and his melding of two novels by Henry Adams into the comedy Democracy was premiered by artistic director Keith Fowler at VMT. Composer Scott Wheeler developed that play into the opera Democracy: An American Comedy, commissioned and premiered by Washington National Opera under the direction of Placido Domingo.

Baritone Keith Phares has been hailed by Opera News "as an authentic contemporary American-opera divo" with "an impressive gallery of finely-drawn character portraits." Engagements this season include Ned Spofford in the premiere of Eric Sawyer's The Scarlett Professor, Roderick Usher and Hirm Otis in Gordon Getty's "Scare Pair" presented by the CCO and Los Angeles Opera; Ford in Falstaff with Opera Omaha; and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Maine.

He made his Houston Grand Opera debut (2007-08) in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Last Acts (Three Decembers) and his Metropolitan Opera debut under the baton of James Levine in the French triple-bill Parade. Concert highlights include Béatrice et Bénédict with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Sit Colin Davis, Candide with the San Francisco Symphony and Gerald Barry's The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit with Thomas Adès and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition, he has been honored to be affiliated for many seasons with the Marilyn Horne Foundation, under whose auspices he has appeared in numerous recitals and master classes. A graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center, he was a national winner of the 1998 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in the 1999 Eleanor McCollum Competition of the Houston Grand Opera.

Tickets: $20, general admission ($21.69 w/service fee)

Seating is not reserved. First come, first served for best seats.

Visit www.centerforcontemporaryopera.org.

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