| |
Richard Danielpour |
New York, NY (August 20, 2007) - New York City Opera will open its 2007-2008 season with a production of Margaret Garner, the theatrically powerful collaborative work of Grammy Award-winning Yaddo composer Richard Danielpour and Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison.
The riveting fact-based story of a runaway slave who kills her own children rather than return them to a life of bondage, Margaret Garner received its world premiere in May, 2005, with Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit, where it received a 12-minute standing ovation on opening night. Critical praise followed the opera in subsequent performances in July, 2005, and February, 2006, with Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia, which co-commissioned the two-act work with the Michigan company, and later in 2006 with Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina. New York City Opera's September 11-29 production will be the New York debut of the landmark new work for the operatic stage.
Much of the music for Margaret Garner was written at Yaddo. It is the first opera for both Mr. Danielpour and Ms. Morrison, who wrote the libretto, and it took them nearly three years to complete the project. But the germination of the idea goes back much further. Mr. Danielpour first thought of using Margaret Garner's life as the subject of a musical piece in the 1980s when he read a volume of poetry about runaway slaves. A decade later, he found that Ms. Morrison, with whom he had formed a creative partnership in the mid-1990s, shared the same inspiration, which found its form in her acclaimed book Beloved.
For additional information about performances and tickets, please see the online Yaddo Artists Calendar.
|
