CENTRAL OPERA SERVICE BULLETIN VOLUME 27, NUMBER 4 CONTENTS NEK OPERAS AND PREMIERES 1 NEWS FROM OPERA COMPANIES 18 GOVERNMENT ft NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 28 CONFERENCES 30 TAX FACTS 31 NEtf AND RENOVATED THEATERS 32 FORECAST 33 ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS 38 ATTENTION COMPOSERS AND LIBRETTISTS 40 MUSIC PUBLISHERS 42 ATTENTION CONDUCTORS 43 EDITIONS AND ADAPTATIONS 44 EOUCATION 45 APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS 48 COS INSIDE INFORMATION 53 COS NATIONAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM 54 COS SALUTES... 56 WINNERS 58 CAREER GUIDE SUPPLEMENT 60 BOOKS AND PERIODICALS 68 OPERA HAS LOST... 76 PERFORMANCE LISTING, 1986-87 SEASON CONT. 84 FIRST PERFORMANCE LISTING. 1987-88 SEASON 110 COS NATIONAL CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM 125 Sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council !>i>'i'h I it •'••'i1'. • I [! I • ' !lIN., i j f r f, I ;H ,',iK',"! " ', :\\i 1 ." Mi!', ! . 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H)-i -Jin ' vt - j'i Hi I !<! :il --iiiAi hi CENTRAL OPERA SERVICE BULLETIN Volume 27, Number 4 Spring/Summer 1987 CONTENTS New Operas and Premieres 1 News from Opera Companies 18 Government & National Organizations 28 Conferences 30 Tax Facts 31 New and Renovated Theaters 32 Forecast 33 Archives and Collections 38 Attention Composers and Librettists 40 Music Publishers 42 Attention Conductors 43 Editions and Adaptations 44 Education 45 Appointments and Resignations 48 COS Inside Information 53 COS National Conference Program 54 COS Salutes... 56 Winners 58 Career Guide Supplement 60 Books and Periodicals 68 Opera Has Lost... 76 Performance Listing, 1986-87 Season cont. 84 First Performance Listing, 1987-88 Season 110 COS National Conference Registration Form 125 CENTRAL OPERA SERVICE COMMITTEE Founder MRS. AUGUST BELMONT (1879-1979) Honorary National Chairman ROBERT L.B. TOBIN National Chairman MRS. MARGO H. BINDHARDT National Vice Chairman MRS. MARY H. DARRELL Please note pages 54-55: The Complete Program for the COS National Conference October 22-24, 1987 in New York A registration form is included on page 125 at the back of this issue. Central Opera Service Bulletin • Volume 27, Number 4 > Spring/Summer 1987 Editor: MARIA F. RICH Assistant Editors: CHERYL KEMPLER JOHN W.N. FRANCIS Editorial Assistants: FRITZ! BICKHARDT NORMA LITTON Copyright 1987 Central Opera Service. All rights reserved. Permission to quote need not be requested, but source acknowledgment should be made. The COS Bulletin is published quarterly for its members by Central Opera Service. For membership information see back cover. Please send any news items suitable for mention in the COS Bulletin as well as perfor- mance information to The Editor, Central Opera Service Bulletin, Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023. This issue: $4.00 ISSN 0008-9508 NEW OPERAS AND PREMIERES The prospect for big new operas is big news indeed. One is being created COMMISSIONS by Hugo Weisgall as a result of a commission from Terence McEwen and the San Francisco Opera, with an additional grant from the National En- dowment for the Arts. The American composer, who has nine operas to his credit, is writing another full-length opera that will employ the forces of a large opera house. The new work, ESTHER, will have a libretto by Charles Kondek on a subject from Biblical times. The composer's 1964 Athalia, Queen of Judea is based on Racine's treatment of events from the Old Testament, and his 1968 Nine Rivers from Jordan is an allegory based on figures from the New Testament. Esther is slated for a 1991 premiere in the Bay city; subsequent performances by another American company are also being negotiated. The New York City Opera has commissioned Jay Reise to write a new opera for premiere in 1988. It will be the American composer's first venture into the operatic field. He has chosen RASPUTIN as his subject, indicating that this, too, may be a work on a grand scale. Writing his own libretto, he plans to present the relationship between Rasputin and the Tsar's family against the background of the Russian Imperial court. The new work will be in three acts, with the central character scored for a bass-baritone, the Tsar portrayed by a tenor, and Empress Alexandra sung by a mezzo-soprano. The premiere will be staged by Frank Corsaro and conducted by Christopher Keene. Nicholas Nabokov, another composer/ librettist attracted by this highly operatic subject, wrote the two-act opera The Holy Devil, which was premiered in Louisville in 1958. A joint commission from two companies assures not only shared costs but also performances in two cities. Such a commission was recently given to Philip Glass. The performing companies are the American Repertory Theatre of Cambridge, which has reserved the premiere rights for April '88, and the Kentucky Opera in Louisville, whose performances will immedi- ately follow those in Massachusetts. The work will be the eighth operatic treatment of Poe's short story THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. Arthur Yorinks is the librettist. The work commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera from John Corigliano in 1981 (see Vol. 23, No. 3) is nearly completed, and a premiere is con- templated in about four or five years. The title of the full-length work is A FIGARO FOR ANTONIA. The second Met commission, this one to Jacob Druckman, has been canceled. Yet another commission for a large scale opera will result in a premiere in the 1988-89 season. The Cleveland Opera plans to produce the first opera by pop/rock composer and percussionist Stewart Copeland. It will require large forces, "comparable to Aida", says Copeland. The musical idiom will "relate to rock music, but will not really imitate it." Under the provisional title of HOLY BLOOD AND CRESCENT MOON, it will deal with a love triangle set against the background of the war and the political struggle of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. While performing in her own multi-media, in-performance pieces in New York and on tour, and preparing for the coming season's BAM Next Wave Festival, the prolific Meredith Monk is also working on a new opera commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera. Tentatively entitled GHOST STORIES, it is to be premiered in spring '88. -1- NEW OPERAS AND PREMIERES AMERICAN Shakespeare's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL lends its story to a new OPERA opera of the same name composed by David Winkler, with the premiere PREMIERES production conceived and directed by David Pfeiffer. The two-act opera was seen at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre on January 30, produced by Dell' Arte Inc., with a cast of 25 and an orchestra of 27. It was con- ducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos and designed by James Youmans (sets) and Rose Larrabee (costumes). The central figure in Richard Owen's latest opera is again drawn from American history. (An earlier opera told the story of Mary Dyer.) This time it is ABIGAIL ADAMS, and the libretto is fashioned solely from her letters. Premiere performances at the Harkness Center were given in March by the New York Lyric Opera. Former Metropolitan Opera soprano Lynn Owen, who is also the composer's wife, portrayed Abigail; their son Rickey played the young John Quincy Adams. This is the fifth opera by the Honorable Mr. Owen, who is a prominent New York judge. Composer Russell Currie and librettist Robert Kornfeld collaborated on a chamber opera, LIGE1A, based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story. The Bronx Arts Ensemble gave the premiere performance on April 5. The Composers Forum and The Triplex premiered Amina Claudine Myers' WHEN THE BERRIES FELL, a chamber opera for voice choir, percussionists, electric organ, and piano. The performance took place on February 20 at Manhattan Community College. The April 25 and 26 performances of David Finkelstein's SELF REFERENCE by the Downtown Opera Players were the first for the one-act dance and opera parody, which was staged by Paul Wilson. ON BLUE MOUNTAIN is a one-act folk opera set in a tobacco-belt town. It was commissioned from Scott Eyerly by Philip Morris for performances by amateur musicians and by school children. The first performance took place at New York's Town Hall on October 16, 1986. The premiere en- semble is now booking a national tour. HAZEL K1RKE, a new opera by Mark Houston, is based on Francis Culli- nan's adaptation of Steele MacKaye's 1879 melodrama. Set in a Hudson River Valley town, the work will be premiered by the Lake George Opera Festival. The first of five performances is scheduled for August 7. On May 30 and 31, a triple bill of one-act operas was premiered in Chicago by the New Opera Company. Robert Lombardo created TANGO ON THE MOON and THE DODO, and Darius Lapinskas, the company's artistic director, wrote REX AMOS. The performances took place at the Illinois Center Auditorium. CANADIAN The first week of March brought workshop readings of a new opera by OPERAS the Comus Music Theatre in Toronto before an invited audience. The work is by local composer Graham George, and is entitled THE REVOLT IN UPPER CANADA. William Lyon Mackenzie, the mid-19th century lead- er of the insurgents, is the central figure of this four-act opera; 90 minutes of excerpts were performed by a cast of seven young singers with piano accompaniment. The composer, formerly with Queen's Univer- sity, had received a Canada Council grant towards writing of the new opera.