Kurt Gottschalk
|
March 2, 2017

Opera spotlight: Two of NYC’s most exciting composers debut new works this week

Kurt Gottschalk
|
March 2, 2017

Opera spotlight: Two of NYC’s most exciting composers debut new works this week

Kurt Gottschalk
|
March 2, 2017

Opera spotlight: Two of NYC’s most exciting composers debut new works this week

As the executive and creative director of National Sawdust, Paola Prestini is a name to know in New York new music, as she works to secure a home for innovative composition and performance in Williamsburg. A composer herself, Prestini gave a preview performance of her opera Aging Magician at NYC’s Prototype Festival in 2013. And after some out-of-town stagings, the multimedia work makes its Off Broadway debut on Friday 3 for a run of nine performances. Starring and cocreated by the vibrant Rinde Eckert—a powerful vocalist and actor as well as a sharp writer—it tells the story of an aging clockmaker lost in memories of his Brooklyn youth, with the acclaimed Brooklyn Youth Chorus, fittingly, serving as group narrator and commentator. Celebrated director Julian Crouch (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Addams Family) helms the production and crafts the stage design, which incorporates gruesome puppetry, projections and ramshackle musical instruments of pipe and wire built by guitarist Mark Stewart of eclectic chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars.

Read full article >