DAMASCUS MIX

Music by Erik Spangler

Red Giant

Music by Adam Matlock
Libretto by Brian Slattery

 

 

Overview

In 2011, Rhymes With Opera commissioned New Haven composer Adam Matlock for a new opera. Matlock, working with librettist Brian Slattery, created Red Giant, a surreal story set in the future. Red Giant takes place in a spaceship on a journey to an unknown destination. As the sun slowly explodes and engulfs their former planet, the three humans onboard reflect on both the futility of their search for a new home and their need for a sense of hope.

RWO opened our 2013-14 season with a fully staged production of Red Giant, featuring the RWO ensemble, with Britt Olsen-Ecker (director), Dustin Morris (set design), David Crandall (lighting design and technical director), and Rachel Christensen (costume design).

The production also included a special world premiere: a concert presentation of Erik Spangler’s Damascus Mix, developed through a long-distance collaboration between the composer and RWO ensemble member Bonnie Lander. The live vocal part emerges from a cut-up of international news reports; the music stretches beyond our idea of “language,” while defining a unified field between the human voice and electronically generated sound.

Special thanks to Zach Herchen, Con Vivo Music, The Barrow Mansion, and York College CUNY for their support of this production.

Cast

Production

Britt Olsen-Ecker, director
Dustin Morris, set designer
David Crandall, lighting design and technical director
Rachel Christensen, costume designer
Ruby Fulton, production manager
Lena Salins, stage manager

RWO Orchestra

Lisa Casal, violin
Greg Williams, viola
Jennifer Girone-Virgilio, cello
Sidney Boquiren, keyboard
Zach Herchen, saxophone
Maiko Hosoda, percussion

George Lam, conductor

 

World Premiere

Saturday, January 11, 2014 at 9:00pm
Sunday, January 12, 2014 at 2:00pm
The Wind-Up Space
12 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD

Saturday, January 18, 2014 at 8:00pm
The Great Room at South Oxford Space
138 S Oxford St, Brooklyn, NY

Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 2:00pm
The Barrow Mansion
83 Wayne St, Jersey City, NJ

Rhymes With Opera's programming was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by grant funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

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