photo of composer David T. Little by Stephen Taylor
The Graduate Vocal Arts Program of the Bard College Conservatory of Music presents an evening and matinee of opera in the Fisher Center this Friday, February 26 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 28 at 3 p.m. The program features three fully staged one-act operas, including the world premieres of two Conservatory-commissioned works–Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt by Missy Mazzoli and Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera by David T. Little, with libretto by Royce Vavrek – plus the 1925 French opera L’Enfant et les Sortileges (The Child and the Magic Spells) by Maurice Ravel, with libretto by French author Colette. The libretti will be translated into English via supertitles for this production.
The biennial production of opera highlights the Conservatory’s best and brightest voices. This year, the inclusion of commissioned works by notable up-and-coming New York-based composers makes for a particularly rare and excellent program. “We are delighted to be presenting world premieres by David T. Little and Missy Mazzoli: two young composers who came to my attention by way of the Composing Song workshop that Bard undertakes with the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall,” says Dawn Upshaw, artistic director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program. “Collaborating with composers is a joy that I wish to pass on to the students in the Vocal Arts Program.”
Conductor James Bagwell and director Dan Rigazzi will lead the production on these new works, plus Ravel’s L’Enfant, comprising a ravishing triple bill for the young artists to address. With scenic design by John Pollard, costumes by Melissa Schlachtmeyer, lighting by Andrew Hill, puppet design by Lake Simons and choreography by Jean Churchill, the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra and Bard College Chamber Singers complete the lineup. All roles are sung by Master’s degree students in the Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, including Mary Bonhag (soprano), Julia Bullock (soprano), Jeongcheol Cha (baritone), Leroy Davis (bass/baritone), Ariadne Greif (soprano), Jeffrey Hill (tenor), Clarissa Lyons (soprano), Celine Mogielnicki (soprano), Matthew Morris (baritone), Madyson Page (soprano), Katarzyna Sadej (mezzo-soprano), Megan Taylor (soprano), Nian Wang (mezzo-soprano), and Ilana Zarankin (soprano).
Mazzoli’s music has been performed all over the world by orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Kronos Quartet, the Minnesota Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird and many others. She writes for melodicas, out-of-tune guitars and electronics, as well as orchestras and string quartets, to create a unique and personal sound. Mazzoli is also active as an educator, arts advocate and performer. Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt was inspired by the journals of Isabelle Eberhardt, a 19th-century explorer, journalist, novelist, passionate romantic, Sufi and one of the most unusual women of her era. The piece immerses the audience in the surreal landscapes of Isabelle’s life. Steve Smith recently wrote in The New York Times that the multimedia song cycle that Mazzoli created with video artist Stephen S. Taylor is “polished, haunting and powerfully moving.”
Little’s work fuses classical and popular idioms to dramatic effect. His music has received awards and recognition from Tanglewood, Aspen, the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, among others. An active drummer in New York City, Little performs regularly with his ensemble Newspeak and with the International Contemporary Ensemble. Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera is about finchsitting (or Vinkensport in Flemish): a sport that developed around birdsong in the late 1500s in Flanders. Little has said that people who played it often became completely obsessed, to the extent of excessive cheating. At its core, Vinkensport is a comedy that might shed light on contemporary obsessions; at the very least the opera proves the possibility of making musical light of almost any subject matter.
Now in its fifth year, the Conservatory’s five-year undergraduate program includes a broad sweep of the liberal arts and sciences; so, while training and studying for the Bachelor of Music degree, students also pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree at Bard, considered to be one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. Only eight students are admitted each year to the Master’s of Music degree program. They have performed at Weill Recital Hall, Zankel Hall and at Bard’s Fisher Center in recitals and as soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets to the triple bill to be held in the Sosnoff Theater are $20, $30 and $75 (the latter includes priority seating and an invitation to the February 26 post-performance champagne reception with the artists). All proceeds benefit the Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program. To purchase tickets, call the Fisher Center box office at (845) 758-7900 or go to www.fishercenter.bard.edu.