New Camerata Opera Presents FLESH & STONE This November

This November, New Camerata Opera will present Flesh & Stone, a triple-bill of staged song cycles. 

The pieces are Matthew Recio's Statues in London, Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, and Benjamin Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo. The production will be directed by John de los Santos, whose previous productions of Cav + Pag and last fall's French double-bill with NCO were met with critical acclaim.

Pianist and conductor Jason Wirth will provide music direction and join the ensemble for the Britten cycle. Performances will take place at the Blue Gallery in Midtown East on November 16th, 17th, and 18th at 7:30pm with a 4pm matinee performance on November 19th. 

The three song cycles that comprise Flesh & Stone are united by the theme of sculpture. Statues in London, composed by Matthew Recio with poetry by Jenna Lanzaro, is scored for soprano, violin, cello, and English horn. The first two poems are from the perspectives of the Greek gods Persephone and Poseidon, respectively. The third is the speaker's musings about the British Museum's confiscation of the statues of those gods from the Acropolis in Greece. As Music Director Jason Wirth puts it, “Matthew Recio's Statues in London looks at sculptures from the point of view of their mythological subjects while tackling the pressing ethical problems of appropriation in the art world today.” The second song cycle, Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, is scored for tenor and piano with libretto provided by Michelangelo's own poetry. The sonnets explore the relationship between artistry, love, and humanity through thought-provoking self-reflection. The foci of the sonnets range from bombastic proclamations to imaginative musings, to tender lovers' murmurings. The end result is a three-dimensional, intimate sketch of what it is to be a human in love. The third song cycle is Heggie and Scheer's Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, scored for mezzo soprano and string quartet. Camille Claudel (1864-1943) was a French sculptor whose primary media were marble and bronze. Although extraordinarily talented in her own right, her name is often connected with that of Rodin as his student and lover. She was gifted in portraying the human form with exceptional accuracy, so, as a woman living at that time, much of her work was censored for being too sensual. It is theorized that this criticism may have contributed to her fragile mental state and committal to an asylum where she ultimately died. The cycle consists of six songs, each of which reveals shades of Claudel's wandering mind on the day she is to be taken to the asylum.  

The formation of the concept for this unique production came about both organically and collaboratively. Director John de los Santos explains: “The genesis of Flesh & Stone stemmed from my love of song cycles and figurative sculpture. It was over a decade ago when I first discovered Benjamin Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, using the Renaissance master's own poems. I knew one day I had to create a physical realization of the work. Not long after, I found Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Into the Fire, told from the perspective of the underrepresented sculptress, Camille Claudel. I'd been an admirer of her work and story even before I began working in opera, so it seemed an obvious pairing with Britten's cycle to detail the heartache of two tortured geniuses. When I proposed the double-bill to New Camerata Opera, they had the brilliant idea of including a third piece, Statues in London, composed in 2017 by Matthew Recio to Jenna Lanzaro's libretto. While this newly formed triple-bill combines three unique compositional perspectives, each piece details loss and deep longing with a direct tie to the powerful endurance of sculpture.” Music Director Jason Wirth is eager to begin the creative process in rehearsals later this month: “Sculpting in marble is a subtractive art — the sculptor doesn't create the figure, she releases it from the cold stone. Putting together a new show is not so terribly different. You start with an infinite mass of possibilities and gradually whittle it away until what remains (hopefully) is true and alive. I'm very grateful to be joining the wonderful cast and team of NCO, as we look to the inspiration of great artists of the past to bring this new creation to life….”

The cast of Flesh & Stone features sopranos Barbara Porto and Kristin Renee Young in the Recio, tenors Chris Carr and Victor Khodadad singing the Britten, and mezzo sopranos Emily Hughes and Anna Tonna performing the Heggie. Pasqualino Beltempo will interact with the singers in all three song cycles as a live art model. De los Santos intends for Beltempo “to embody the object of each character's lust, rage, and uncertainties.” Following each of the four performances, audience members will be provided with souvenir sketchbooks and have the opportunity to draw as Beltempo models in order to, as de los Santos puts it, “make artistic discoveries of their own.”

New Camerata Opera is a New York City-based, cooperative company in its eighth season. Their mission is to engage, excite, and educate through immersive performances that break down barriers and inspire the opera fans of the future. In addition to mainstage productions, NCO offers educational, developmentally-appropriate operas for children in schools, libraries, parks, and other public spaces throughout the tri-state area.  With accessibility as a priority for the company, they also produce operatic films that are available for streaming on their YouTube and Vimeo channels. 

Tickets for Flesh & Stone are available here. For more information or for interview opportunities about the upcoming production of Flesh & Stone and New Camerata Opera, please contact info@newcamerataopera.org.

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