ANTINOUS and HADRIAN, from Act I of operamission's 'Creating the Work' sessions from operamission on Vimeo.
THE climactic finale to the world's first opera about Hadrian and his beloved Antinous will be performed today in Manhattan ... a first in operatic history.
Act II of ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN will be performed at 4 p.m. September 7th in New York City at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Chelsea, 296 Ninth Avenue, at 28th Street.
The first act was performed last week and we are honored to show a video excerpt at the top of this blog entry.
This ground-breaking opera was written by composer CLINT BORZONI with a libretto by EDWARD FICKLIN.
Borzoni's award-winning music reflects his passion for lyricism and functional harmony. He has written over sixty pieces, including a full length opera, two one act operas, a piano concerto, percussion quartet, piece for orchestra, two string quartets, several works for chamber orchestra, and many art songs.
Ficklin has composed and written librettos for various forms of music-theater. He has realized his works in a number of unusual venues, like a store window near Grand Central Station and a vacant bank lobby near the World Trade Center (with the support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the September 11th Fund). His work has also been presented by numerous opera companies across the United States and Europe.
He describes "Antinous and Hadrian" as truly "grand opera," a hugely ambitious project.
"Rome wasn't built in a day," says Ficklin. "When embarking on something large, we're often given that sage, if cliche, advice. Having recently laid down on paper, finally, the first few lines a new libretto destined to be a grand opera, I find that I need to remind myself of this. Indeed, large endeavors always require a large perspective.
Follow updates on this bold new opera project on TWITTER.
Thank you for this post and for your energetic support of our production of Clint and Eddy's ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN opera.
ReplyDeleteWe are hoping it will find its way to its full stage premiere soon!
Best wishes,
Jennifer