Everything Comes to a Head with Decameron Opera Coalition
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been hard at work on several projects intended for screens rather than live performance. One such project coming to a screen near you next month is Everything Comes to a Head. I was happy to be recruited to co-write a short opera as part of the newly formed Decameron Opera Coalition. Here is how the coalition describes the overall project, entitled Tales from a Safe Distance:
10 creative teams. 9 companies from across the United States. 4 electric nights of new opera.
Boccaccio’s 14th century masterpiece “The Decameron” involved ten characters passing the time while sheltering from a plague by telling one another stories – stories comic, tragic, romantic, sexy, terrifying. The Decameron Opera Coalition has adapted those stories for the modern pandemic era.
“Tales from a Safe Distance” features nine World Premiere one-act operas, and a tenth wrap-around story starring internationally renowned bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni.
Everything Comes to a Head was commissioned by Lyric Opera of the North based in Duluth, Minnesota and features a libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek, both favorite veterans of LOON. I’m especially thrilled to be writing for longtime muse, superbaritone Jorell Williams once again, as well as his wife, the stunning mezzo Marjorie Maltais, for the first time. I know that they are game for anything, and I was certainly not about to waste that opportunity. We’re leading the way in the premiere episode!
Read more and get your tickets to this very special mammoth effort uniting so many fantastic opera companies around the country! It will be available through the fall, but tune in on “opening night” to see the creative forces who made this wild dream a reality. View some preview videos below about the overall Coalition as well as the process of putting together our chapter.
