Event
Center for Contemporary Opera presents "Henry's Wife" by Randall Eng
When it seems in life that someone is pulling the strings, someone just may be. Henrys Wife takes place at the mysterious summit of shifting fate, love, and loyalty among the reclusive artist Henry, his devoted daughter, his beautiful second wife, and the young man who has been unwittingly summoned in to alter everyones direction. But the character with all of the unseen power and influence is the one whose death was long agoHenrys first wife. Set to a propulsive, jazz-influenced score, Henrys Wife creates a musical landscape of longing, desire, inevitability, and hope.
Synopsis
Daniel, a journalist, has been summoned to conduct a rare interview with Henry, a reclusive philosopher/artist, at the secluded estate where he lives with his beautiful second wife, Pascal, and his devoted daughter, Marisa. Almost immediately, Daniel senses that there is a more personal reason for his being there. He meets Pascal and falls in love at first sight. The interview begins, but it seems that Daniel is being interviewed by Henry rather than the other way around. Finally the "truth" is revealedHenry has been having intense, recurring dreams of his late, first wife (Marisa's mother) and in them, she has told Henry that he will bring Daniel to the estate, that Pascal and Daniel must leave together, and most difficult of all, that Marisa must leave as well. With varying levels of awareness of this "plan", the four characters embrace, resist, and accept Henry's wife's directives.
About Composer Randall Eng
Hailed as one of the most brilliant young composers of his generation (New Music Connoisseur), Randall Eng has devoted his career to mining the territory between opera, music-theatre, and jazz. His opera Florida received its first full production at Lyric Opera Cleveland in 2006; reviews praised the score as brilliant, captivating, luminous, thrilling, beguiling, haunting, delectable, a significant, snazzy work (Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer). Florida was also presented at New York City Operas VOX festival and the Public Theaters New Work Now! festival.
Previous workshops and presentations of Henrys Wife have been performed at Tapestry New Opera Works (Toronto), American Opera Projects, and the Virginia Arts Festival. Randalls other works include Cocktails (Circle East Theater), Usher, Falling (Opera Vindaloo Festival), the video opera The Woman in the Green Coat (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), and non-theatrical commissions from Albany Symphony Orchestras Dogs of Desire and the Mirror Visions Ensemble. He is a graduate of Harvard University, Cambridge University, and New York University, and he currently teaches in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU.
UP NEXT! Thursday-Sunday April 9-12, 2009 8pm
Dinner and Delusion by Michael Sahl and Nancy Manocherian
Staged Production/U.S. Premiere
Dinner and Delusion has been described as a cross between Isaac Singer and Tony Kushner with a dollop of Phillip Roth. The work explores temporal and mystical aspects of love and family with humor, passion, and a score that ranges from contemporary American to klezmer. The piece begins and ends with Passover Seders that are sixty years apart. On Passover 1945, against a family background of dissension about a Jewish State, a fifteen year old boy misbehaves with his Aunt Rosie. When he is locked in the closet for his misdeeds, he meets the prophet Elijah, who tells him that Rosie is the Shekkinah, the apparition of God as a female body perhaps even the Eternal Feminine.
CCO TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION
Tickets to Henrys Wife are $20 and include a post-performance reception available through www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006. All performances take place at the cell, 338 West 23 Street, New York City. For updated event performance information: www.conopera.org.
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LocationThe Cell
338 West 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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