RECEIVEDJUlt 11983 CENTRAL OPERA SERVICE BULLETIN VOLUME 24. NUMBER pTTrrnoonin INDEX NEW OPERAS AND PREMIERES 1 r- ATTENTION COMPOSERS & LIBRETTISTS 9 NEWS FROM OPERA COMPANIES 10 'GOVERNMENT & NATIONAL ARTS ORGANIZATIONS 19 NEW AND RENOVATED THEATERS 22 LIBRARY COLLECTIONS 23 EDUCATION AND SEMINARS 24 COMPOSER'S SOCIETIES 27 CO" INSIDE INFORMATION 28 GO iALUTES 29 WlNNLRS 31 GAPEtR GUIDE AMENDMENT 32 APPOINTMENTS* RESIGNATIONS 33 NEW EDITIONS, PUBLISHERS 39 BffiBKyjORNER 40 PERIODICALS 48 PERFORMANCE LISTING 1982-83 copt. 49 SJRST PERFORMANCE LISTING 1983-84 Season 63 1 £ Sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council CENTRAL OPERA SERVICE COMMITTEE Founder MRS. AUGUST BELMONT (1879-1979) Honarary National Chairman ROBERT L.B. TOBIN National Chairman MRS. MARGO H. BINDHARDT National Vice Chairman MRS. MARY H. DARRELL The 1983 COS National Conference—a most sensational meeting of opera/theater professionals. October 26, 27, 28, 1983-The St. Regis Hotel, New York Make sure you are counted—return the 1982-83 Opera USA Survey questionnaire to COS promptly. Central Opera Service Bulletin • Vol. 24, No. 3 • Spring/Summer 1983 Editor, MARIA F. RICH Assistant Editor, JEANNE HANIFEE KEMP The COS Bulletin is published quarterly for its members by Central Opera Service. For membership information see back cover. Permission to quote is not necessary but kindly note source. 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. Copies this issue: $3.00 ISSN 0008-9508 NEW OPERAS AND PREMIERES The COS DIRECTORY OF CHILDREN'S OPERAS, which had been projected for publication at this time, will be a much larger and more detailed listing than originally anticipated, thanks to the amount of information submitted to us. The Directory will be completed later this season and will be the last number of Volume 24. The University of Arizona School of Music commissioned Thomas Pasatieri NEW AMERICAN to write a new opera with a Southwest setting, to be premiered during OPERAS the ten-day Tucson Festival of A Celebration of the Americas. The resulting MARIA ELENA (see also Vol. 24, No. 2) is based on the true story of a beautiful Mexican woman. The premiere took place on April 8; of the total of three performances, two were sung in English, one in a Spanish translation by Miguel Cuello and Juan Gilabert. The 70-minute production was under the supervision of the composer; Richard Woitach conducted the performances. The Baton Rouge Opera announced the world premiere of an unpublished full-length opera written by the late William Grant Still. The central character of MINETTE FONTAINE is based on the true story of a singer who performed at the French Opera House in New Orleans in the late 19th century. The libretto is by Verna Arvey, the composer's wife. The first performance is tentatively scheduled for October '84. The company's manager, Dolores Ardoyno, and its artistic director, Donald Dorr, previously heads of Opera/South, were responsible for the first performance of A Bayou Legend by the same composer. Last summer, the Festival of Contemporary Music in Tanglewood, Mas- sachusetts, presented Gheorghe Costinescu's "stage music work", THE MUSICAL SEMINAR, on August 3. The latest in a series of operas on Jewish subjects is THE FALSE MESSIAH by Bruce Adolphe, with a libretto by Mel Gordon. The story tells the history of Sabbatai Zevi, a young Turkish Jew who, in 1665, proclaimed himself the Messiah. The consequences have continued into contemporary times, as there are still some members of a Sabbatean sect. Jewish Opera at the Y was the producer, performing at Kaufmann Auditorium in New York on April 9 and 10. MY HEART IS IN THE EAST is a new musical which is also based on a Jewish historical figure, this one the 12th century Spanish poet and philosopher Judah Halevy. The Jewish Repertory Theater is giving 21 performances between May 28 and June 26. Linda Kline wrote the book, Richard Engquist the lyrics, and Raphael Crystal the music. Ran Avni, the company's artistic director, is responsible for the stage action of the seven member cast. Golden Fleece Ltd. and Composers' Chamber Theater presented a double- bill of premieres at the Opera Gate Theatre in New York, opening March 24. STATUES ON A LAWN by Thomas J. Flanagan has a libretto by Matthew Calhoun; THE POND IN A BOWL by David Macbride is based on a Chinese poem and is scored for a small chamber orchestra, soprano, -1- NEW OPERAS AND PREMIERES and tenor voice. Mr. Maebride conducted the six performances, Lou Rodgers directed. On January 29, the Newport Harbor Art Museum in Newport Beach, California, hosted the first performance of Edward Applebaum's THE FRIEZE OF LIFE. The chamber opera, with a libretto by Julia Garza, is based on the series of paintings of the same title by Edvard Munch, which also formed the basis for the visual effects. The work will be repeated in May at the University of California in Santa Barbara. HIPPOLYTUS, a full-length opera by Joseph Summer, will be given its first production August 19 and 20 by the Pennsylvania Opera Festival and the Contemporary Opera Company of America in Pittsburgh. The staged performances will include chorus and ballet and will be accompanied by two pianos, harp, percussion, and horn. Four additional performances will be given at Drexel University in September. The same composer's one-act The Tenor's Suite was premiered in Philadelphia in 1981. The Bronx Arts Ensemble Orchestra brought UNA JIBARA by American composer Manuel Gonzalez to Tully Hall for a first performance on January 4. IN On February 4, Brooklyn College mounted five new short operas as a ACADEHIA Contemporary Music Celebration: Dean Johnson's EAST RIVER BRIDGE (written for the centenary of the Brooklyn Bridge, with the Bridge's chief engineer as its central character); Mark De Palma's COURTING (which includes "Latin and Black" musical styles); Roger Zahab's HAWK RUN (set in a coal mining town); Robert Starer's MYSTIC TRUMPETER (after Walt Whitman, for one soloist with trumpet obbligato); and Charles Dodge's CASCANDO (after Beckett's radio play, and accompanied by electronic sound). — Other recent premieres at academic institutions include Grant Jeffers' one-act chamber opera WHAT HAPPENED, to an original text by Gertrude Stein, on February 25 at UCLA, and Robert Convery's one-act PIRAMUS AND THISBE at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia on March 23. The latter was staged with Mozart scenes, and accompanied by an orchestra under Boris Goldovsky. MUSICAL PepsiCo Summerfare '83 will, for the first time, produce its own shows THEATRE rather than booking other performing companies into the Center for the Arts at Purchase, New York. Three new music theatre pieces have been selected for first productions. BOOTH IS BACK IN TOWN has a book by Austin Pendleton, music by Arthur Rubenstein, and lyrics by Gretchen Cryer, and is scheduled for July 7 through 17. — MRS. FARMER'S DAUGHTER, with music and lyrics by Eric Williams and direction by Tom O'Horgan, was inspired by the story of Frances Farmer and her mother. It will open July 20 and play through the 31st. — Closing this series will be SHAKESPEARE AND THE INDIANS with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Bob Preston and Rita Briggs, and music by Allan Jay Friedman. Its dates are July 27 through August 7. It was one of the music theatre pieces tried out at the O'Neill Theater Center 1982 Showcase Conference. — In addition, Summerfare will choose two more works for showcase workshop readings. The Mother Lode Troupe in Sacramento staged the premiere of GAMBLING JONES by Monroe Kanouse and Corinne Swall on January 19. The music-theatre piece plays in the California of the early settlers. -2- NEW OPERAS AND PREMIERES Robert Ashley's ATALANTA (Acts of God) was performed at New York's MULTIMEDIA Marymount Manhattan Theatre in a contemporary music festival sponsored by Performing Artservices and its recording division, "Lovely Music". The work uses live and taped music including a synthesizer, and live and videotaped performers, who, in this performance, were all part of the creating team: Gene Tyranny, Peter Gordon, Jill Kroesen, David Van Tiegham, and Mr. Ashley. Atalanta is the first in a three-part series; Perfect Lives (Private Parts) is the second. December 14 was premiere night at New York's Theater of the Open Eye for Richard Isen's music theatre work SALFORD ROAD. The text is by Gareth Owen. CANTICO represents the collaborative efforts of composer and producer Barbara Kolb and painter and film maker James Herbert. Based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, the work was commissioned by the Third Street Music School Settlement and Miss Alice Tully, and premiered by the School on December 5. The collaboration between composer Bentley Jarvis and sculptor Robert NEW CANADIAN Mulder resulted in the musical theatre piece CHROMA, premiered at the OPERAS Comus Theatre in Toronto on April 25. — Quebec City and its AMAQ Theatre hosted the first performance of Bernard Bonnier and Gisele Ricard's multi-media work UNE AUTRE CREATION DU MONDE (Another World Premiere) on November 5, 1982. In January, the National Opera Institute offered two works in an NOI SHOWCASE Showease/Work-in-Progress presentation, first at TOMI in New York, then PRESENTATIONS repeated the following week at Kennedy Center. The two pieces chosen for production were Roger Ames's opera AMARANTHA, a drama based on a short story by Wilbur Daniel Steele, and a musical biography, THE VIRGIN UNMASKED, suggested by the early life and works of Henry Fielding, with music by Hiram Titus and book and lyrics by Sharon Holland.