American Opera Project
The American Opera Project is a professional opera company based in Brooklyn, New York City, and is a member of Opera America, the Fort Greene Association, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, and the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. The company's primary mission is to develop and present new operatic and music theatre works and has gained a reputation for the "rarefied range" of the projects it fosters. AOP was founded in 1988 by Grethe Barrett Holby who served as Artistic Director of AOP from 1988 until 2001, at which point Charles Jarden became the company's Executive Director and Steven Osgood the company's Artistic Director. Steven Osgood left the post of Artistic Director in 2008 to pursue conducting full-time but remains the Artistic Director for AOP's "Composers & the Voice" program.
AOP's year-long writing fellowship, "Composers & the Voice" was created in 2002 to bring emerging operatic composers and librettists together with singers, directors, and other artists to create a series of pieces exploring the potential of theatre and the voice. Past and present mentors for the program include Mark Adamo, Mark Campbell, John Corigliano, Tan Dun, Daron Hagen, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, John Musto, Tobias Picker, Kaija Saariaho, and Stephen Schwartz. Past participants include Clint Borzoni, David Claman, Conrad Cummings, Randall Eng, Renée Favand, Vivian Fung, Kristin Kuster, Hannah Lash, Gilda Lyons, Robert Paterson, Jack Perla, & Sara Cooper, Daniel Sonenberg and Alex Weiser.
Amongst the venues and festivals where AOP productions have appeared are the Lincoln Center Festival, BAM's Next Wave Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, Symphony Space, Irondale Center, Philadelphia's Annenberg Center, Pittsburgh Opera, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, London's Royal Opera House, Berlin's Stükke Theater, Aleksander Fredro Teatr in Poland, the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in Norway, and the in Vienna. It has also given many out-of-doors performances sponsored by the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation. AOP won a 2005 Encore award from the Arts & Business Council of New York for its innovative work.
Operas and other works developed with AOP
World premieres
As One by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, and Kimberly Reed Beauty Intolerable by Sheila Silver with texts by Edna St. Vincent Millay Before Night Falls by Jorge Martin and Dolores M. Koch Brooklyn Bones by Alvin Singleton and Patricia Hampl Brooklyn Cinderella by Nkeiru Okoye Darkling by Stefan Weisman and Anna Rabinowitz Fade by Stefan Weisman and David Cote Fireworks by Kitty Brazelton and Billy Aronson Flurry Tale by Rusty Magee and Billy Aronson, with commissioned orchestrations by John Rinehimer Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom by Nkeiru Okoye Heart of Darkness by Tarik O'Regan and Tom Phillips Judgment of Midas by Kamran Ince and Miriam Seidel L'abbe Agathon by Arvo Pärt and Tarik O'Regan Love/Hate by Jack Perla and Rob Bailis Marina: A Captive Spirit by Deborah Drattell and Annie Finch Model Love by J. David Jackson based on poems by Henry Normal Nora, in the Great Outdoors by Daniel Felsenfeld and Will Eno Out Cold by Phil Kline Patience and Sarah by Paula M. Kimper and Wende Persons Paul's Case by Gregory Spears and Kathryn Walat Romulus by Louis Karchin Séance on a Wet Afternoon by Stephen Schwartz Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Richard Peaslee and Kenneth Cavander State of the Jews by Alex Weiser and Ben Kaplan The Blind by Lera Auerbach The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language by Alex Weiser and Ben Kaplan The Scarlet Ibis by Stefan Weisman and David Cote This is the Rill Speaking by Lee Hoiby and Lanford Wilson Tone Test by Nick Brooke Windows by Zach Redler and Sara Cooper
Works developed/in development
1000 Splendid Suns by Sheila Silver and Stephen KitsakasAfrican Tales by Nkeiru Okoye and Carman MooreAlice in the Time of the Jabberwock by Daniel Felsenfeld and Robert CooverCompanionship by Rachel PetersDecoration by Mikael Karlsson and David FlodenEichmann in Jerusalem by Mohammed Fairouz and David ShapiroHeinrich Heine: Doppelganger by Jacob Engel, Paula Kimper, and Nino SandowHenry's Wife by Randall Eng and Alexis BernierIndependence Eve by Sidney Marquez Boquiren and Daniel NeerLost Childhood by Janice Hamer and Mary Azrael Marymere by Matt SchickeleMemoirs of Uliana Rooney by Vivian Fine and Sonya FriedmanMila by Andrea Clearfield, Jean-Claude van Itallie, and Lois WaldenNuminous City by Pete M. Wyer and Melissa SalmonsOur Basic Nature by John Glover and Kelley RourkePrairie Dogs by Rachel Peters and Royce VavrekRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Herschel GarfeinSemmelweis by Raymond J. Lustig and Matt GraySharon's Grave by Richard Wargo, based on the play be John B. KeaneTesla in New York by Phil Kline and Jim JarmuschThe Bridge of San Luis Rey by Paula M. KimperThe Companion by Robert Paterson and David CoteThe Family Room by Thomas Pasatieri and Daphne MalfitanoThe Golden Gate by Conrad Cummings, based on novel by Vikram SethThe Leopard by Michael Dellaira and J.D. McClatchyThe Summer King by Daniel SonenbergThe Walled-Up Wife by Gilda LyonsThe Wanton Sublime, formerly The Woven Child, by Tarik O'Regan and Anna Rabinowitz The Weeping Camel by Huang Ruo and Candace ChongThree Way by Robert Paterson and David CoteUgetsu by Michael Rose and Emily HowardUnruly Horses based on the life and songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, conceived by Mina Yakim and Moni Yakim, with additional book by Peter KelloggWolf-in-Skins, formerly The Lost Lais of Albion, by Gregory Spears, choreographed by Christopher Williams