Guerilla Opera Welcomes Susan Larson to Board of Directors
By: Christina Mancuso Dec. 29, 2015
Guerilla Opera enthusiastically welcomes Susan Larson to their Board of Directors. In her retirement, Larson worked as music writer for The Boston Globe and is now a published author, but many know her best from Peter Sellars' innovative productions of the late 1980s. She is one of the groundbreaking artists of her generation that changed the opera director's and opera audience's perception of what an opera singer is capable of. Subsequent generations of opera singers evolved because of dynamic singing actors like her.
Why did I join Guerilla's Board of Directors? Because they knock my socks off, that's why. You can always find opera companies that put up yet another nice "Barber of Seville" or "La Bohème," but you will never find an opera company that does what this group is doing-they present terrific brand-new pieces, realized with great direction and design, and performed by a small band of fearless musicians who have both the passion and the chops to pull it all off. I walk out of Guerilla Opera's shows with new ears, new eyes, and a buzzing brain. I realize that opera is not a dead art form. It's alive, kicking, wild, funny, profound and subversive. I want Guerilla Opera to flourish, prosper, take over the world - and I want to help them do it.
Guerilla Opera is currently in their ninth season, which features two world premiere operas: Beowulf by with music and libretto by Hannah Lash, which will premiere this coming May 2016, and Troubled Water, with music by Mischa Salkind Pearl and libretto by Frederick Choi, which premiered last September to rave reviews. The Boston Globe wrote that Troubled Water "honors that impulse to view the world from a vantage-and distance-of artistic possibility," and Boston Classical Review wrote that, "It is a mesmerizing work."
Susan joins us at a crucial time in the life of this company. I'm told that ten years is often the cut-off for small groups in Boston, but we haven't lost it-our love for what we do, nor for performing and creating theater together. We've become quite a team, and we push each other. We really are a troupe. Susan brings fresh eyes, new ideas and enthusiasm to our group that is revitalizing to all of us. Her experience as a dynamic and well-traveled performer, as a music critic and long-time member of the Boston classical music scene are invaluable to us. Now we're ready to really challenge our artistry and kick it up a notch in Season 10!
###
ABOUT GUERILLA OPERA
Guerilla Opera is a performing ensemble and experimental opera company whose mission is to commission new chamber operas written specifically for their ensemble of artists, and to perform in intimate theatrical settings without the use of a conductor or formal music director.
Susan Larson began singing professionally in Boston in 1967, and anchored her musical life at Emmanuel Church with friend and mentor Craig Smith. In 1980 Smith and Larson met director Peter Sellars, whose collaborations lead the soprano to sing roles in Handel's Saul and Orlando, as well as originating the roles of: Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, which she repeated at the Theater der Welt festival in Stuttgart; Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in Barcelona; and Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare at the PepsiCo Festival in New York as well as in Paris, Brussels and Berlin. The Sellars-Smith productions were filmed for London Records and are available to view on Netflix. She also sang at the Bolshoi in Moscow in Sarah Caldwell's production of Robert Di Domenica's The Balcony, received a Boston Critic's Award for her performances in The Boys from Syracuse at the American Repertory Theater, as well as premiering several works by composer John Harbison, among other significant musical achievements. In retirement, Larson worked as music writer for The Boston Globe from 1995 to 2000, as well as a singing teacher and lecturer. She is a published author, her book "Sam (a Pastoral)," is available for online purchase, and she is now finishing a new book, an operatic murder mystery.
Comments
Videos