Thursday, February 6, 2014

ArtsBeat.Blogs.NYTimes.com: Be-Bopera: ‘Charlie Parker’s Yardbird’ Coming From Opera Philadelphia

Lawrence Brownlee (Los Angeles Opera)

John Malveaux of www.MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

Please see commission for opera about Charlie Parker: 
 
 
Thanks
John Malveaux


ArtsBeat.Blogs.NYTimes.com

Opera Philadelphia has commissioned Daniel Schnyder, a composer and saxophonist who works in jazz and classical music, to compose a chamber opera about the jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, the company is expected to announce Thursday. The work will have a libretto by Bridgette A. Wimberly, and is being produced in a partnership with Gotham Chamber Opera, in New York. It is expected to have its world premiere in Philadelphia in June 2015 in a production directed by Ron Daniels, with later performances by Gotham Chamber Opera.


The opera, “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird,” is set on the day Parker died — March 12, 1955 — but takes place in his imagination as he is dying. The tenor Lawrence Brownlee will play Parker; Angela Brown, the soprano, will portray his mother, Addie, and Will Liverman, the baritone, will play Dizzy Gillespie, a frequent collaborator.

No comments: