O23 Festival Guide

11 DAYS. 33 PERFORMANCES. THE CITY AS A STAGE.

VERDI Simon Boccanegra

Sept. 22 – Oct. 1 | Academy of Music

ORTH / MOSCOVITCH

10 Days in a Madhouse

Sept. 21 – 30 | The Wilma Theater

SULAYMAN

Unholy Wars

Sept. 23 – Oct. 1 | The Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Plus Afternoons at AVA

Curtis Voices

Late Night Snacks

“Opera in Philadelphia really can claim to offer something for everyone.”

- The Washington Post

“It’s as if I’d put down a book about opera I’d grown bored with back in the 1990s…and the whole story inside had changed. Had opera in Philly become edgy? Was it the place to be?”

“A hotbed of operatic innovation.”

- The New York Times

- Philadelphia Citizen

“Of course opera is relevant when it’s done like this, and of course audiences will flock to it when the productions are this fresh and thoughtful.”

- Hyperallergic

“Philadelphia is reaffirming that classical music has a legit place in 21st century American art.”

- The Denver Post

“Opera Philadelphia’s boldly curated September festival, held at various venues in the city, is designed to make a splash while other companies are still rubbing the summer from their eyes.”

- The New Yorker

Simon Boccanegra

SEPT. 22, 24, 29, OCT. 1

ACADEMY OF MUSIC

Music by Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and Arrigo Boito

Performed in Italian with English supertitles

Approximately 3 hours including one 20-minute intermission

Featuring some of Verdi’s most beautiful music performed in the historic Academy of Music, Simon Boccanegra is grand opera with a whiff of HBO drama. At the center is a leader coming into great power who must balance duty to his nation with his duties as a father after his long-lost daughter Amelia reenters his life.

Political turmoil, poisonous rivals, family reunions – this opera has it all, including a powerhouse cast!

New Production

VERDI

Simon Boccanegra

Corrado Rovaris Conductor

Laurence Dale* Director

Quinn Kelsey Simon Boccanegra

Ana María Martínez Maria/Amelia

Christian Van Horn Jacopo Fiesco

Richard Trey Smagur* Gabriele Adorno

Benjamin Taylor Paolo Albiani

Cory McGee* Pietro

*Opera Philadelphia debut

Family Drama Tree

Genoese nobleman exiled by the Doge Boccanegra who returns under the pseudonym Andrea Grimaldi and plots to overthrow Simon.

Relationship Status: Adoptive father and biological grandfather of Maria; enemy of Simon.

A corsair who becomes the first Doge of Genoa.

Relationship Status: Biological father of Amelia, resulting from his relationship with Maria.

Birth name is Maria Boccanegra. The adoptive daughter and actual granddaughter of Fiesco. She is in love with Gabriele, whom she thinks might be trying to conspire against Simon, her actual father.

Relationship Status: It’s complicated.

Amelia’s biological mother, Simon’s former lover, and Fiesco’s daughter.

Relationship Status: Dead.

Genoese gentleman who is the lover of Amelia. After she is kidnapped, Gabriele kills her kidnapper and plots to kill Simon, who he thinks was behind the kidnapping.

Relationship Status: In love with Amelia.

BRINGING BACK BOCCANEGRA

It has been 40 years since Simon Boccanegra was last performed at the Academy of Music! Go to operaphila.org/throwback to see more photos from the 1983 production, then come see how it compares this fall!

Maria

Fiesco Simon

Amelia Gabriele

Quinn Kelsey Meet

You are known as a “Verdi baritone” – what does that mean?

How did you get started in opera?

My mother was classically trained in Honolulu, Hawaii at the University of Hawaii–Manoa. She and my father met singing a duet in college. Music became what we did as a family. Once I graduated from high school, the only question was what my major would be in college. I felt like I would be "cheating" in a way if I pursued vocal performance. I tried other things I thought were important to me: Hawaiian studies, visual art, marine biology. But as you'd expect, music was too strong a force already in my life by then. The rest is history, as they say.

The role of Simon Boccanegra will be your role debut. What does this mean to you?

I covered (understudied) Simon in 2012 in Chicago and sang Paolo. I've sung the entire role, but only in a rehearsal run-through. So now I can formally add Simon to my list of Verdi roles. I know Simon in Philadelphia will give me the opportunity to draw more connections to the rest I've already sung and elevate my performances that much more.

In my humble opinion, it's very possible that the Verdi baritone came from an actual voice that Verdi himself knew and incorporated into his music. I'm not sure how else he could have written the vocality into his baritones so specifically. As my friend and colleague, Ferruccio Furlanetto, noted about Verdi baritones, there's a nobility that must exist in the tone. A strong color in the voice that must exist in order to sing these roles.

What is your favorite part of Simon Boccanegra?

The duet between Simon and Amelia is a gorgeous piece of music. A serious tearjerker, for sure!

Interview has been condensed, read the full Q&A at operaphila.org/meetquinn

Fun Fact

The Academy of Music opened its doors for the first time on January 26, 1857 with Verdi's Il trovatore.

Verdi's Simon Boccanegra premiered less than two months later on March 12, 1857 at La Fenice in Venice.

ORTH/MOSCOVITCH 10 Days in a Madhouse

SEPT. 21, 23, 26, 28, 30

THE WILMA THEATER

Music by Rene Orth

Libretto by Hannah Moscovitch

Performed in English with English supertitles

Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission

A story of strong women and social justice, this new opera from Philadelphia composer Rene Orth is inspired by a real-life story. This psychological drama follows trailblazing reporter Nellie Bly through her internment at Blackwell's Asylum, exposing notions of madness and societal biases against women.

This 90-minute opera showcases Orth’s cutting-edge use of electronic music that will make you rethink the possibilities of opera, while designer Andrew Lieberman’s sets evoke the dark labyrinth of the asylum and Nellie’s journey within its walls.

World Premiere

Rene Orth Composer

Hannah Moscovitch Librettist

Daniela Candillari* Conductor

Joanna Settle Director

Kiera Duffy The Madwoman/Nellie

Raehann Bryce-Davis* Lizzie

Will Liverman Josiah Blackwell

Lauren Pearl Nurse/Matron

*Opera Philadelphia debut

10 Days

BY THE NUMBERS

1887

The year Nellie Bly left the Pittsburgh Dispatch to seek work as a reporter in New York City.

23 Nellie’s age when she went undercover at the asylum on Blackwell’s Island.

$850,072

The increase in funding for the asylum that was appropriated following Nellie’s exposé.

72 Days it took Nellie Bly to circle the globe in her attempt to beat Jules Verne’s fictional Around the World in 80 Days.

1894

Year the asylum closed and became Metropolitan Hospital. Its central octagonal structure still stands today on Roosevelt Island.

5 Years composer Rene Orth worked on the opera 10 Days in a Madhouse.

288 Pages in the score.

Listen to a preview of 10 Days in a Madhouse! In this clip, mezzosoprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms sings “My Daughter,” an aria for the character Lizzie as she tells Nellie why she is in the asylum.

Electrifying

Rene Orth discovered 19th century investigative reporter Nellie Bly in a very 21st century way – scrolling through social media. She quickly realized Nellie’s story represented “a strong woman, putting herself into a dire situation in the name of social justice, which is everything I care about.”

Rene wasn’t always an opera fan, and she didn’t start composing until she was in her twenties. After college, she studied audio engineering and sound design. As Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence from 2016 to 2019, she explored ways to integrate electronics with opera, music that is traditionally unamplified, or performed without microphones.

“I want to combine these worlds to produce that sound and that music,” she said.

She experimented with technology such as Ableton Live, and for her 2021 digital commission TakTakShoo utilized a Mimu glove, wearable technology that produced real-time vocal manipulation with a gesture of the hand.

“We really wanted to support and augment her in figuring out, how does it work when you add electronics and sound elements in a different way to opera,” said New Works Administrator Sarah Williams.

“It’s a necessary thing in the world today and how peopleare writing. Why can’t that be fostered more in opera?”

Now, with 10 Days in a Madhouse, electronics will play a role in a full opera.

Unholy Wars

SEPT. 23, 27, 30, OCT. 1

THE SUZANNE ROBERTS THEATRE

Music by George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi,

Performed in Latin and Italian with English supertitles Approximately 70 minutes with no intermission

Mary

Kouyoumdjian

Unholy Wars closes the dusty history book and reframes the Crusades from a Middle Eastern perspective to reveal a new story of belonging and resilience in this 70-minute opera.

Music by Handel and Monteverdi is interwoven with that of composer Mary Kouyoumdjian and combined with dance and projections to reexamine Baroque interpretations of the Crusades and depictions of the Middle East. This boundary-breaking piece explores the tensions of history, representation, identity, and survival through music and dance.

SULAYMAN

Philadelphia Premiere

Raha Mirzadegani* Soprano

John Taylor Ward* Bass-baritone

Coral Dolphin* Dancer

*Opera Philadelphia debut

Unholy Wars stitches together a collection of baroque music centered around the Middle East and the Crusades. It examines the separation of the human race based on creed and color. At its heart is the story of Tancredi and Clorinda from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata set to music by Claudio Monteverdi as Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda in1624. The poem takes place during the First Crusade of 1096, when Christian armies set out to conquer Jerusalem from the Saracens. It tells of the Christian knight Tancredi who, in love with the Muslim warrior Clorinda, unwittingly kills the object of his affection in a battle because he does not recognize her in her armor and under the veil of night. At the time of its creation, and surely in the minds of its original audiences, this is a powerful story in which love could transcend cultural boundaries, while highlighting war as a dividing force.

Unholy Wars asks:

What if we reframe it all?

What happens to these works when they are embodied by the “other?”

How are they changed when the subjects are given the chance to reclaim their stories?

What if marginalized people are invited into this space to reshape it, to lay new borders (or perhaps remove them altogether)?

Can we lean into the discomfort of our collective history while forging a new path forward?

Read the full creator's note by Karim Sulayman at operaphila.org/karimnote

When you think of opera, what comes to mind? Swelling orchestral music, powerful voices that fill the auditorium?

What about dance?

In the late 17th century ballet began to be incorporated into grand opera to appeal to French audiences. The practice continued into the 1800s, as ballets were added to operas by Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi staged in Paris, before waning toward the end of the century.

While dance is not always part of operas today, it is sometimes used to enhance the story. Dance has factored prominently in several Opera Philadelphia productions over the past several years. The legendary Bill T. Jones choreographed We Shall Not Be Moved, and a vibrant production

of Handel’s Semele from director James Darrah was enhanced with movement choreographed and performed by Lindsey Matheis. More recently, Digital Commissions TakTakShoo and PAPER TIGER have showcased dance, with choreography by the Emmy-nominated Jeffrey L. Page and Toogie Barcello, respectively.

This fall, Unholy Wars continues this tradition of weaving together opera and dance with compelling choreography by Ebony Williams performed by dancer Coral Dolphin. Ebony has choreographed for stage and film and danced with Beyoncé, including in the video for “Single Ladies.” Coral has also performed with Beyoncé, Madonna, Janet Jackson and other celebrity artists.

“Charged, mesmerizing choreography”

– The Post & Courier

Afternoons at AVA

Recitals featuring Academy of Vocal Arts graduates Anne Marie Stanley and Musa Ngqungwana.

SEPT. 23, 27 & 30

Curtis Voices

Featuring Curtis graduate Amanda Majeski in recital on the 22nd, and current Curtis Opera Theatre students on the 29th.

SEPT. 22 & 29

Late Night Snacks

Everyone’s favorite after-opera cabaret is back, hosted by The Bearded Ladies and featuring a range of special guests, including award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, for a mixed-plate performance that’s 50% cabaret destination, 50% neighborhood jawn, and 100% good to the last bite.

Festival O23 Flex Package

See all three productions in Festival O23 and save 20%. Add on recitals at the Academy of Vocal Arts and Curtis Institute of Music for the full festival experience.

Join VIVACE

Enjoy special discounts and a calendar of social events by joining VIVACE, our community for friends ages 21–45. operaphila.org/VIVACE

ACCESS Tickets

Opera Philadelphia is proud to work with Art-Reach as an ACCESS Partner! Those from a low-income household or household with disabilities can use Art-Reach’s ACCESS card or a state benefits card to purchase $2 tickets. operaphila.org/ACCESS

Attend with a Group

Experience opera with the benefits of a Group Sale during the 2023–2024 Season! Groups of 10 or more enjoy special benefits, discounts, and perks. To ensure the best seating location, make your reservation early by emailing groups@operaphila.org. operaphila.org/groups

Questions? For personalized assistance curating your Festival O23 experience, contact Guest Services at 215.732.8400

Plus…

Join us for wraparound events like Opera Overtures pre-show lectures, roundtable discussions, and more. operaphila.org/events

Shop

Get your Festival O23 merch today: posters, hats, mugs, T-shirts, totes and more! shop.operaphila.org

Experience Festival O in Philadelphia

Academy of Vocal Arts

Production from Opéra Royal de Wallonie – Liege (Belgium).

Maestro Corrado Rovaris' engagement as the Jack Mulroney Music Director has been made possible by Mrs. John P. Mulroney.

10 Days in a Madhouse

Co-commissioned and co-produced with Tapestry Opera.

The commissioning of Rene Orth for 10 Days in a Madhouse received funding from OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sponsored by

Unholy Wars

Commissioned and co-produced by Spoleto Festival USA, co-produced and developed by Up Until Now Collective.

Curtis Institute of Music

Wilma Theater

Academy of Music

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Simon Boccanegra