The Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO) is proud to pay tribute to composer Hans Werner Henze, who died in 2012 at the age of 86, with performances of his El Cimarron (The Runaway Slave), featuring baritone Eric McKeever in the title role. Not performed in New York since 1986, El Cimarron has music direction by Sara Jobin, and stage direction by Eugenia Arsenis, singled out as stage director by Miguel Barnet, author of the book upon which the opera is based. Performances are January 16 & 17, 7:30 PM, at Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Theater, Broadway & 95th Street, NYC (entrance on 95th Street, West of Broadway)
El Cimarron was created by German composer Hans Werner Henze while he lived in Cuba in 1969-70. Subtitled Biographie des geflohenen Sklaven Esteban Montejo (Biography of the runaway slave Esteban Montejo), the opera is based around the autobiographical passages recounted by Montejo, then 103 years old, to Cuban writer Miguel Barnet in 1963. Barnet had become fascinated by an article he read about Montejo, a Cuban man of African descent who had lived as a slave in captivity, was subsequently a fugitive slave in the Las Villas wilderness, and a soldier in the Cuban War for Independence. A series of interviews with Montejo took place at the Veteran's Home, and his story, Biografia de un cimarron, was published in 1966.
The work will be fully staged with scenic design by Julia Nourlin-Mera and lighting design by Carl Wiemann. El Cimarron received its world premiere at the 1970 Berlin Festival and, as far as is known, CCO's production represents only the second time the work has been performed in New York City.
Baritone Eric McKeever has been lauded for his "voice of power and brilliance" (Chicago Tribune), and recently for his debut as Ferrando in Bronx Opera's La Gazza Ladra. Opera News wrote: "Eric McKeever offered a good bass timbre, considerable flexibility and a communicative presence enhanced by expressive, crystalline diction." Mr. McKeever will appear this year in Fidelio with Skylight Music Theater, as Valentin in Faust with Winter Opera St. Louis, Figaro with Opera Naples, and Porgy and Bess with the Lebanon Symphony Orchestra.
Eugenia Arsenis, Stage Director, has collaborated with numerous cultural institutions including Royal Albert Hall, San Francisco Opera, Greek National Opera, and CCO. The native of Greece was Coordinator and Dramaturg of the Greek National Opera from 2004-11, and Coordinator of the Opera Departments at Athens Conservatory and National Conservatory. Arsenis holds a Doctorate in philosophical aesthetics, opera and Greek tragedy from the U. of London, and has received numerous scholarships, including a Fulbright.
Grammy-nominated conductor Sara Jobin has a passion for new and American opera. Her conducting credits include the world premieres by San Francisco Opera of Nolan Gasser's The Secret Garden, and Philip Glass' Appomattox; and she has led the company in their productions of Tosca, Der fliegende Hollander, Norma, and Rachel Portman's The Little Prince. She conducted the world premieres of Michael Dellaira's The Secret Agent and William Mayer's A Death in the Family for CCO, and looks forward to a busy season that includes Opera Santa Barbara, Pittsburgh Opera, and Opera Idaho.
Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) was a composer of prodigious output whose music was extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. He left his native Germany in 1953 in reaction against homophobia and the country's general political climate, and moved to Italy, where he remained for most of his life. Henze was regarded as Europe's leading contemporary opera composer, having created over two dozen in total. These performances by CCO pay tribute to the great composer.
Miguel Barnet, born in 1940 in Havana, underwent his early education in the U.S. while maintaining a high degree of interest in Cuban culture. He was a regular contributor of poetry and other writings to Cuban publications and studied anthropology and sociology at the U. of Havana, which contributed to his interest in Esteban Montejo, a Cuban of African descent who lived as a slave in captivity. Barnet interviewed a then 103-year-old Montejo in 1963, and recorded his eyewitness accounts of Cuba's former slave class. In 1994, Barnet was awarded Cuba's national Prize for Literature, the most important award of its type in Cuba.
Founded in 1982, The Center for Contemporary Opera is a leading proponent of new opera in the United States. Based in New York City, the company focuses on producing and developing new opera and music theater works and reviving rarely seen American operas written after the second World War. CCO has staged the premieres over over seventy works and released five commercial recordings. In addition to its productions, an important part of its work is the development of new operas. Works are presented at all stages from libretto readings, ateliers, and concert versions, to full productions. In line with its mission to promote an interest in new music, opera, and music-theater, CCO publishes the magazine "New Music Connoisseur," which is one of the very few periodicals in the world devoted to contemporary classical music. CCO has toured in Austria, Hungary, France and Latvia. Two of its productions were broadcast live across Europe, and the Company's production of William Mayer's "A Death in the Family" was named both Best Production and Audience Favorite at the 2012 Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Hungary. Earlier this year, CCO presented the World Premiere of "Oration" by Danish composer Line Tjornhoj, along with atelier performances of works-in-progress by Jiri Kaderabek, Todd Goodman, and Louis Karchin.
For more information, visit
www.centerforcontemporaryopera.org.
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