Following Civil Rights Landmark Anniversary, Historic Struggle becomes Artistic Triumph as Opera Freedom Ride Performed at Marigny Opera House in March 2013
Vignettes from the Longue Vue-commissioned opera Freedom Ride,
twice nominated for Big Easy Awards, will be performed at the Marigny
Opera House in late March 2013. Composer Dan Shore will debut new
material for the opera, which has been previewed at Longue Vue, Xavier
University of Louisiana, the 2012 French Quarter Festival, and the 2013
Tribute to the Classical Arts. The Marigny Opera House shows take place
on March 22 and 23, 2013 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for
$15/general admission and $10/students and seniors.
Longue Vue debuted three vignettes from Freedom Ride
on October 20 and 22, 2011, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of
the historic civil rights freedom rides. Additional selections were
performed at Xavier University on March 13, 2012, to complement a
lecture and conversation with original Freedom Riders. Shore, a composer
and librettist who is also on the faculty at Xavier University, wrote
new music for the French Quarter Festival as well, leading to the second
Big Easy Award nomination. “Experience the turmoil and triumph as a
young woman from New Orleans must decide whether or not to risk
everything she has to join the Freedom Riders and the civil rights
movement in 1961,” says Shore.
The
performance at the Marigny Opera House, an unaffiliated,
non-denominational, neighborhood church and performance venue offering
community-based arts programs, recovery group space and writers
workshops, will feature the Xavier University of Louisiana Concert Choir
and soloists Dara Rahming, Tyrone Chambers, Ivan Griffin, and Valerie
Francis.
Freedom Ride came
about as a result of a meeting between Shore and former Longue Vue
Executive Director Joe Baker, who envisioned a musical work that would
celebrate both New Orleans and the Civil Rights Movement. “Longue Vue is
thrilled to be a center for commissioning new works and enlivening
civil discourse in New Orleans, in the tradition of Longue Vue founders
Edith and Edgar Stern,” says Baker. Bringing that discourse to young
people, New Orleans-area students will be invited to rehearsals in order
to observe the overall process of staging a professional theatrical
production.
This
program is supported in part by a grant from the Louisiana Division of
the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture,
Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts
Council and in part by a Community Arts Grant made possible by the City
of New Orleans. These grants are administered through the Arts Council
of New Orleans.
The Marigny Opera House’s performances of Freedom Ride
will take place Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23, at 8 p.m. at
725 St. Ferdinand Street. Tickets will be sold at the door; no advance
tickets or reservations. For more information, contact Christopher
Bowers at 504.293.4719 or cbowers@longuevue.com.
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