Two Operas: Theotokia & The War Reporter

Drawing on the combined talents of an award-winning creative team and an all-star cast from the spheres of opera and chamber music, these two new chamber operas present the stories of two people, each haunted by inner voices. Composer and Stanford Professor of Music Berger transforms the concert hall into the interior world of the mind in a pair of tender and powerful dramas directed by Grammy winner Rinde Eckert.

Theotokia takes the audience inside the mind of a man possessed by ritualistic and… Show more religious hallucinatory voices. These delusions portray the inner struggle of mental illness in a rich musical, dramatic, and philosophical counterpoint.

The War Reporter is based on the true story of Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Paul Watson. Convinced that he is haunted by the ghost of an American soldier he photographed in Mogadishu in 1993, Watson seeks to rid himself of this curse. Librettist Dan O’Brien’s interviews with Watson are the primary source for the work.

PERFORMERS:

Heather Buck, soprano

New York Polyphony:
Geoffrey Williams, countertenor
Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor
Christopher Dylan Herbert, baritone
Craig Phillips, bass

St. Lawrence String Quartet:
Geoff Nutall & Scott St. John, violins; Lesley Robertson, viola; Christopher Costanza, cello

Stephen Tramontozzi, bass;
Tara Helen O’Connor, flute;
Todd Palmer, clarinet;
Pedja Muzijevic, piano;
Steven Schick, percussion

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