Performance Details Announced for Free Public Reading of 2013 Opera Fusion: New Works Residency Fellow Travelers Music by Gregory Spears Libretto by Greg Pierce Tuesday, November 26, 2013 Cincinnati Masonic Center

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) Opera Program are pleased to announce performance details for the free public reading of the 2013 Opera Fusion: New Works residency Fellow Travelers. The reading will be held on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. in the Small Auditorium of the Cincinnati Masonic Center. The event is free, but reservations are required.

 

Fellow Travelers, composed by Gregory Spears with a libretto by Greg Pierce, will be in workshop in Cincinnati from November 17 to 26, 2013. Mr. Pierce’s libretto is adapted from the best-selling 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon. The director of the work is Kevin Newbury, who directed Cincinnati Opera’s 2007 production of Nixon in China. Mark Gibson, Director of Orchestral Studies at CCM, will conduct. G. Sterling Zinsmeyer is the executive producer of Fellow Travelers.

 

About Fellow Travelers

Based on the best-selling 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon, Fellow Travelers takes place in 1950s Washington, D.C.: a world of bare-knuckled ideology, hard drinking, and secret dossiers. Into this fevered city steps Timothy Laughlin, a recent Fordham graduate and devout Catholic eager to join the crusade against Communism. A chance encounter with a handsome, profligate State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim’s first job in D.C. and — after Fuller’s advances — his first love affair. As McCarthy mounts his desperate bid for power and internal investigations focus on “sexual subversives,” Tim and Hawk find it ever more dangerous to navigate their double lives. Drawn into a maelstrom of deceit and intrigue, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his love for God, and his love for Fuller — an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal. Fellow Travelers is an extraordinary journey through the intriguing, gut-wrenching world of the 1950s American witchhunts, revealing an intimate, personal story set against the public, political backdrop of the “Lavender Scare.”

 

About Opera Fusion: New Works

Opera Fusion: New Works, a unique collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and CCM Opera, was created in 2011 to foster the development of new American operas. The program offers composers or composer/librettist teams the opportunity to workshop an opera during a 10-day residency in Cincinnati, utilizing the talent, personnel, and facilities of both organizations. The workshops are cast with a combination of CCM students and professional artists who have appeared in Cincinnati Opera’s mainstage productions, and each workshop concludes with a public performance. The program is led by co-artistic directors Marcus Küchle, Director of Artistic Operations of Cincinnati Opera, and CCM’s Robin Guarino, the J. Ralph Corbett Distinguished Chair of Opera. Opera Fusion: New Works is generously funded by a $300,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

In 2011, Opera Fusion: New Works awarded its first workshop to composer Douglas J. Cuomo and librettist John Patrick Shanley in support of their new opera Doubt, which premiered at Minnesota Opera in January 2013. In 2012, Opera Fusion: New Works provided workshops for Champion, by composer Terence Blanchard and librettistMichael Cristofer, which premiered at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in June 2013; andMorning Star, by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist William M. Hoffman. The program is open to American composers and composer/librettist teams of proven merit, with no age restrictions. Eligibility is restricted to operatic works, either completed or in progress, which have not yet received a professional premiere. Opera Fusion: New Works will continue to offer residencies through 2014.

 

For more information, visit www.cincinnatiopera.org or call the Cincinnati Opera Box Office at (513) 241-2742.

Opera Fusion: New Works presents

Public Reading of a New American Opera in Progress

 

Fellow Travelers

Music by Gregory Spears

Libretto by Greg Pierce

 

When: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Small Auditorium, Cincinnati Masonic Center, 317 East 5th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Admission: Free, but reservations are required. Call the Cincinnati Opera Box Office at (513) 241-2742 to reserve.

 

 

Opera Fusion: New Works is sponsored by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

Cincinnati Opera’s 2014 Summer Festival will take place June 12 through July 27, featuring Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Silent Night, Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, and Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. The season will open on June 8 with Opera in the Park, a free community concert in Washington Park. Cincinnati Opera’s 2014 season is made possible with support from ArtsWave, Ohio Arts Council, The Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund, and many generous individuals, corporations,  

and foundations.

 www.cincinnatiopera.org

 

CCM Opera’s 2013-14 performance season opens with a Mainstage Series production of Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave (Nov. 21-24), presented as part of a semester-long celebration of the composer’s centenary. Other highlights include a free Studio Series production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Étoile (Feb. 14-16) and a Mainstage Series production of Gaetano Donizetti’s comedic masterpiece Don Pasquale (April 3-6). CCM’s 2013-14 season also includes a concert production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos (Sept. 22), a unique staged performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’sSt. John Passion (Nov. 3), a guest artist recital by acclaimed baritone Gerald Finley (Feb. 5) and a concert performance of John Adams’s El Niño (March 2). CCM gratefully acknowledges the support of Season Presenting Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation; Community Partner: ArtsWave; Mainstage Season Production Sponsor: Macy’s; Opera Department Sponsor: Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Rosenthal; and Benjamin Britten Centenary Celebration Sponsor: The Britten-Pears Foundation. For a full season schedule and additional information, please visit http://ccm.uc.edu.

 

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