"One-Track Mind": 2008

Rhymes With Opera

presents
One-Track Mind
East Coast Tour 2008

New Operas by Ruby Fulton and George Lam
Featuring Robert Maril, baritone and Bonnie Lander, soprano

TWO WORLD PREMIERES!

closer to mona
libretto by Amy Kirsten, music by Ruby Fulton

Heartbreak Express
libretto by John Clum, music by George Lam

Baltimore, Maryland
with Matt Diamond and Will Chang
Friday, May 23, 2008
9:00pm, Load of Fun
120 W North Ave
Baltimore, MD 21201-5813

$5 suggested donation


Durham, North Carolina
with pulsoptional, Durham's Band Of Composers
Saturday, May 24, 2008
9:00pm, Bull City Headquarters
723 N. Mangum St.
Durham, NC 27701

$5 suggested donation at the door

rhymes with dolly

george here. a little bit more about the dolly opera. by the way, look for an "official" "announcement" of our upcoming tour schedule soon! baltimore on may 23, durham on may 24. rhymes with opera brings new opera to where you live! (well, where *we* live, anyway.)

i'm working on my piece with playwright John Clum, currently the head of the theater studies department here at Duke. last fall, i wrote music for John's production of Shakespeare's Pericles, where the entire ensemble produced the music; the actors sang, played and strummed throughout the play.

this new project is a short opera about a man obsessed with dolly parton. the inspiration came with Robert Maril telling me about this documentary that came out on LOGO (and probably a few movie theaters) a while ago, which chronicled the fanatic fans who followed dolly everywhere. they were in love with dolly's image, dolly was in love with dolly's image, and all of this slowly became "heartbreak express".

a little bit from the beginning of the libretto:

Mama used to play me Dolly
The happy songs
She played the sad stuff after I went to bed
She thought I didn’t hear it.
For me,
even Dolly’s sad songs sound like hope.

I can’t remember when Dolly didn’t sing to me.
When I was little, I loved the sound of her voice.
It’s the voice of joy, of resilience.
Our favorite was “Here You Come Again”
Mama would pick me up in her arms and dance around the room with me.
Filled with the joy of wishful thinking.
She never stopped wanting Daddy back.
But he was in love - how does the line go? –
He was in love with long distance.

“Here you come again
Lookin’ better than a body has a right to.”

Bonnie Lander

Bonnie Lander will sing with Rhymes With Opera in our upcoming shows, May 23 in Baltimore and May 24 in Durham.


Soprano Bonnie Lander is a GPD student in Voice and Computer Music Performance at the Peabody Conservatory in the voice studio of Phyllis Bryn-Julson.

During the past two seasons, Bonnie has made a name for herself performing contemporary classical and electronic music by working with composers and musicians at Peabody and in the Baltimore area. On campus she has performed with the Peabody Camerata under the
direction of Gene Young and has been a repeat guest performer with the Conservatory Avant-Garde Ensemble (CAGE). In Baltimore, she appeared with the Left Bank Concert Society at the University of Maryland, College Park, performed on the An Die Musik series, and sang the lead role of The Woman in the premiere production of Catherine Reid's The Yellow Wallpaper at Baltimore's Theatre Project.

Last year, Bonnie received the first Phyllis Bryn-Julson Prize in Performance and Commitment to music of the 20th/21st Centuries.

libretto shot

the libretto for closer to mona as layed out on my floor... it's done!!!

Ruby Fulton

Ruby Fulton (b. 1981) grew up in Northwest Iowa and studied at Boston University and the San Francisco Conservatory before moving to Baltimore, where she is currently working towards a doctorate at the Peabody Conservatory. Her music is built from musical and non-musical influences alike, ranging from The Beatles to buddhist philosophy to psychological patterning.

Along with composer George Lam, she is co-artistic director of Rhymes With Opera, a new opera company committed to bringing new works of opera and music-theater out of the opera house and into unconventional spaces. Her music has been performed recently at the 2007 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA and the 2007 A•Devantgarde Festival in Munich. She has collaborated with the Peabody Opera Department, the West End String Quartet of Hartford, CT, and soprano Bonnie Lander. Upcoming projects include pieces for SONAR New Music Ensemble, marimba player Michael Compitello, and the Bay Area bass clarinet duo, Sqwonk.

Also a performer and teacher, she plays viola in the Baltimore band The Greatest City in America and teaches music theory for Peabody Preparatory. She has studied with composers Christopher Theofanidis, Moritz Eggert, Elinor Armer, Dan Becker, Charles Fussell, Tison Street and Martin Amlin.

George Lam

George Lam (b. 1981) works and lives in Durham, North Carolina, where he is currently pursuing graduate studies in music composition at Duke University. Recent projects and collaborations include works written for American Opera Projects, Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Voices, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Volti and the Boston University Concert Band. In addition, George has collaborated with flutist Brook Ferguson, baritone Robert Maril, violinist Lydia Miller, and writers Lap Lam, Benjamin Rogers, John Clum and Martin Zimmerman.

Along with Ruby Fulton, George is a founding co-artistic director of Rhymes With Opera, a new opera company dedicated to bringing new works of music-theater into unconventional spaces. In addition, George is also the current director of the Duke New Music Ensemble.

George studied composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Boston University, and has worked with composers Scott Lindroth, Stephen Jaffe, Christopher Theofanidis, Nicholas Maw, Charles Fussell and Martin Amlin.

Robert Maril

a little bit about Robert Maril, who will be singing with Rhymes With Opera in our upcoming tour.


Hailing from Ponca City, Oklahoma, Robert Maril holds a B.M. in Voice Performance from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN and a M.M. in Voice Performance from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with baritones John Shirley-Quirk and Steve Rainbolt and was the recipient of the George Castelle Memorial Award. While at Peabody, Robert sang the roles of Hans Scholl in Weisse Rose, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi, and Macheath in The Threepenny Opera. Working with composer George Lam, he sang the premieres of the song sets Fog Argument and We Two Boys. This spring, he will sing the role of Claudio in Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict with Harbor Opera in New York City, followed by Opera New Jersey, where he is a Young Artist. Robert currently lives in New York City and is a member of the Sanctuary Choir at Christ Church United Methodist.