OPERA America Awards Deborah Brevoort The Annual Campbell Opera Librettist Prize

OPERA America has announced the 2023 Campbell Opera Librettist Prize recipient, Deborah Brevoort. Conceived and funded by acclaimed librettist and lyricist Mark Campbell, the Prize is the first award in the history of American opera created specifically to honor the work of opera librettists. The annual winner receives an award of $7,000 to support creative development and career advancement.

“Deborah Brevoort is an ideal choice for this year's prize,” said Campbell. “She has a history of writing librettos that connect directly with audiences and a profound understanding of the craft that goes into this very specialized art form. She has also shown strong support for the writing community, and I couldn't be more pleased that she will be succeeding me as co-chair of the Dramatists Guild Opera Committee.”

Deborah Brevoort,  an alum of American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program, has written the librettos for nine operas. They include The Knock, a co-commission of The Glimmerglass Festival and Cincinnati Opera, which Brevoort wrote with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov. The opera was made into a live-action film available on YouTube and was staged in Cincinnati in 2023. Brevoort's other operas are Quamino's Map, with Errollyn Wallen (Chicago Opera Theater); Murasaki's Moon, with Michi Wiancko (On Site Opera, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ALT); Embedded, with Patrick Soluri (ALT, Fort Worth Opera, Fargo Moorhead Opera); Steal a Pencil for Me, with Gerald Cohen (Opera Colorado); Dinner 4 3 with Michael Ching (Decameron Opera Coalition); and new adaptations of Mozart's The Impresario and Strauss' Die Fledermaus (Anchorage Opera). Albert Nobbs, with Patrick Soluri, was a finalist for the 2018 Dominic Pellicciotti J. Prize. Three of her operas were chosen for Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers program.

Brevoort's work includes the internationally produced play The Women of Lockerbie and numerous comedies and dramas produced at regional theaters across the U.S. Brevoort is a two-time winner of the Frederick Loewe Award for Musical Theater for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, with Scott Davenport Richards, and King Island Christmas, based on the Alaskan children's book, with David Friedman. She teaches in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University and the M.F.A. playwriting program at Columbia University. She also serves as a mentor to the NBO Musical Theatre Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, and as the librettist mentor for Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative at the Kennedy Center.

“I'm simply over the moon at being selected for this honor,” reflected Brevoort. “Mark Campbell is a mensch. To lift up other opera librettists through this award is such a generous, gracious thing to do. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, OPERA America.”

Brevoort was selected from an applicant pool of over 30 librettists by a panel of industry leaders including Blythe Gaissert, mezzo-soprano; Michael Korie, librettist; Jesse Sanchez, composer-lyricist, playwright, and music director; Sokunthary Svay, librettist; Richard Wesley, playwright; and Robert Wood, founder and general director, UrbanArias.

“The Campbell Opera Librettist Prize allows us to shine a light on the art of libretto-writing, an under-appreciated element of our complex art form,” stated Marc A. Scorca, president and CEO of OPERA America. “Thanks to Mark Campbell and his generous support, we are delighted to correct this historic oversight.”

The Campbell Opera Librettist Prize was established by Mark Campbell to raise the profile of the opera librettist. Campbell is one of the art form's most prolific creators, with 40 librettos, four oratorios, and seven song cycles to his credit, including Silent Night (Kevin Puts/2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music) and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Mason Bates/2019 Grammy Award). Other successful works include The Shining (Paul Moravec), Sanctuary Road (Paul Moravec), Stonewall (Iain Bell), Songs from an Unmade Bed, As One (Laura Kaminsky, Kimberly Reed), Later the Same Evening (John Musto), and Elizabeth Cree (Kevin Puts).

The Campbell Opera Librettist Prize is one of several OPERA America grants and prizes that support individual artists.

• IDEA Opera Grants (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access), supported by the Charles and Cerise Jacobs Charitable Foundation, advance the careers of composers and librettists of color.
• Discovery Grants from the Opera Grants for Women Composers program, funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, empower women composers to create work.
• The Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize, supported by the Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, recognizes promising stage directors and designers for their creative visions.

To learn more about the Prize and all of OPERA America's grants, go to operaamerica.org/Grants.

ABOUT OPERA AMERICA

OPERA America (operaamerica.org) leads and serves the entire opera community, supporting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera. The organization is committed to:

• Promoting collaboration and effectiveness among opera companies, universities, and allied businesses.
• Delivering professional development to artists, administrators, and trustees.
• Increasing appreciation of opera through educational and audience development resources.
• Offering support and services that foster the creation and presentation of new works.
• Fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion across all aspects of the opera industry.
• Undertaking national research and representing the field to policymakers and the media.
• Managing the National Opera Center, a custom-built facility that provides a centralized space for collaboration, rehearsal, and performance.

Founded in 1970, OPERA America fulfills its mission through public programs, an annual conference, regional workshops, consultations, granting programs, publications, and online resources. It is the only organization serving all constituents of opera: artists, administrators, trustees, educators, and audience members. Membership includes 200 professional opera companies; 500 associate, business, and education members; and 3,500 individuals. OPERA America extends its reach to 80,000 annual visitors to its National Opera Center and over 83,000 subscribers and followers on digital and social media. Representing over 90 percent of eligible professional companies, OPERA America is empowered to lead field-wide change.

Over the past five decades, OPERA America has awarded over $23 million to opera companies and artists across North America. This strategic philanthropy, made possible through OPERA America's Opera Fund endowment and in partnership with committed foundations, supports new work development, audience building, civic practice, co-productions, and field-wide innovation at its member opera companies. Awards to individuals advance the careers of women and people of the global majority in creative roles, highlight emerging artists, and recognize the leadership of exceptional trustees.

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