The Florentine Opera's Fifth Original Recording Will Be Released April 24

Carlisle Floyd's Prince of Players, the latest world-premiere recording by the Florentine Opera, will be released on the Reference Recordings label for worldwide distribution on April 24, 2020. This compelling, masterful new work of American opera will be released in a 2 CD set and all forms of digital download and streaming.

Carlisle Floyd is one of the foremost living opera composers in the world today. Considered the "Father of American Opera," Floyd's operas are regularly performed in the US and Europe. During his long career, Floyd has composed 13 operas. His most recent, Prince of Players, which premiered in March 2016 at the Houston Grand Opera as a chamber opera, is based on the true story of actor Edward Kynaston (1640-1706). Remarks about Kynaston in the personal diary of Samuel Pepys inspired a play by Jeffrey Hatcher, which was later made into a movie, Stage Beauty. The plot centers on the crisis faced by Kynaston when, by royal decree, he is prohibited from plying the craft that made him famous-playing female roles. With this expanded, fully-orchestrated mainstage Milwaukee production, the Florentine Opera gives Prince of Players its world-premiere live recording.

This recording was made possible with support from an OPERA America-Innovation Grant with support from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts; Jan Serr and John Shannon, and other generous donors.