The Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the sixth season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater during the American Opera Initiative Festival weekend,January 19-21, 2018. The American Opera Initiative is a comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists.
The festival will begin with the world premiere of a new hour-long work by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, Proving Up, on January 19 and 21, 2018, directed by Alison Moritz and conducted by Christopher Rountree, both in their WNO debuts.
Three new pairings of opera composers and librettists-Nathan Fletcher and Megan Cohen, Gity Razaz and Sara Cooper, John Glover and Erin Bregman-offer new, one-act operas during the festival. Two semi-staged concert performances of each 20-minute opera are presented on January 20, 2018.
Three new 20-minute operas will be performed in a concert staging by returning director Andrea Dorf (an alumna of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program), accompanied by a 13-piece chamber orchestra drawn from members of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Each composer/librettist teams has been intensively mentored throughout the creative process by three leading experts in the field of new America opera.
Proving Up is presented on Friday, January 19, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 2 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets are $39
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