September 13th, 19th and 22nd -

OPERAtion Brooklyn teams up with the newly launched BEAT festival to present new works of opera -Brooklyn style. The festival, which aims to showcase Brooklyn’s most innovative and forward-thinking emerging artists in theater, dance and voice, will be held from September 12-23 with performances in venues throughout the borough. This exciting program will include the world premiere of Daniel Felsenfeld’s song cycle A Genuine Willingness to Help (Book 1),which features texts by Brooklyn authors, as well as songs from the indie outfit One Ring Zero, and new scenes from American Opera Project’s series, Composers & the Voice.

 Performances:
Thursday Sept. 13 - 7:30PMPhoto by Meghan Hickey
Flatbush Reformed Church
890 Flatbush Avenue, Flatbush

Wednesday, Sept. 19 – 7:30PM
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
58 7th Avenue, Park Slope

Saturday, Sept. 22 – 7:30 PM
The Irondale Center
85 S. Oxford Street, Ft Greene
 

 Tickets: $20 (beatbrooklyn.com) as well as limited tickets sold at the door for a suggested donation of $20.

The concerts on the 19th and 22nd will also be featured as part of the Brooklyn Book Festival Book-end Events. (www.brooklynbookfestival.org) 

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The Program

A Genuine Willingness to Help (Book 1) - by Daniel Felsenfeld

A Genuine Willingness to Help (Book I) is the first installment in the composer’s “Author Project,” which will build to an evening length multi-media presentation of musical settings of the words of living writers and songwriters working in the English language, a kind of work in progress.  These texts represent a wide range of modes of expression from some of our most formidable writers, from the abstract wordplay of Rick Moody, the echt-nostalgia of Jonathan Lethem, the fragmented ebullience of Fiona Maazel, to the confessional sadomasochism of Stephen Elliott.

Raw Footage: Composer's Cut -by Daniel Felsenfeld

This piece was written to commemorate the retirement of writer Robert Coover from Brown University as part of the The Cabinet of Unusual Practices V. The text is drawn from Coover's novel The Adventures of Lucky Pierre: Director's Cut.

Stop and Frisk - by composer Sidney Marquez Boquiren and librettist Daniel Neer

In “Stop and Frisk,” Joe and Sean, best friends and successful urban professionals, meet  for an awkward lunch in the park and discuss the racial aftermath of Sean's recent brush with police in a 'Stop and Frisk' search and investigation. Featuring a libretto by Daniel Neer, “Stop and Frisk” is part of the opera-in-development Triptych in Grant Park.

Male Identity - by composer Zach Redler and librettist Sara Cooper

With their 30th birthdays on the horizon, three friends worry what kind of men they are becoming after three decades of pop culture consumption and father figure issues in the humorous “Male Identity.”

Photos by Meghan HickeySongs from One Ring Zero - by Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst

The program will include four songs drawn from One Ring Zero’s album As Smart As We Are (The Author Project). These “mysterious pop songs,” arranged for piano and chamber ensemble by Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp, have been called “both haunting and entertaining” by The New Yorker and feature texts by Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and David Wondrich.

Performers:

Kayleigh Butcher, mezzo-soprano  
Justin Hopkins, bass-baritone
Marcy Richardson, soprano
Delea Shand, soprano
Brandon Snook, tenor
Jorrell Williams, baritone

Grover Edwards, clarinet   
Michael Katz, cello
Ann SunHyung Kim, violin
Jessica Taskov, flute
Jeanne-Minette Cilliers, piano
Mila Henry, piano
               
Yoon Jae Lee, conductor
Noah Himmelstein, stage director

More about the BEAT Festival:

The Beat Festival aims to fill a void in Brooklyn’s performing arts community with a yearly fall festival showcasing the greatest works of Brooklyn’s finest performing artists. For its inaugural year, the BEAT festival has hand-picked the most innovative, forward-thinking of Brooklyn’s emerging artists including Lemon Andersen, Elevator Repair Service, Theater Group Dzieci, Creative Outlet Dance Theatre, Marshall Davis Jr., Ishmael “Ish” Islam, and many more all-star artists. “BEAT creates a platform to celebrate what is already here: extraordinary world-class performers who stand as the greatest innovators of the performing arts,” says festival artistic director Stephen Shelley. From September 12-23, artists will perform in venues throughout the borough. For complete information and tickets visit www.beatbrooklyn.com .

MARCH 25TH & 26TH, 2012- CURIOUSER & CURIOUSER

An Opera-Burlesque Circus in Wonderland

In celebration of his 75th birthday in March, David Del Tredici, the composer whose name has become synonymous with "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," will perform his rarely-seen "Haddocks' Eyes" at a two-evening Alice-themed opera-burlesque party at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. The event will be the latest showcase of contemporary opera from Opera on Tap and American Opera Projects, two Brooklyn opera companies who have been artists-in-residence at Galapagos since 2009. Composers Manly Romero and Susan Botti will also be on hand to present music from their Alice-inspired operas alongside Rita MenWeep's burlesque-circus "Through the Peeping Glass."

Sunday, March 25th-Program 1
"Dreaming of Wonderland" by Manly Romero-opera excerpts
"Through the Peeping Glass"-Part 1" a burlesque/ cirque Alice in Wonderland
"Haddock's Eyes" by David Del Tredici

Monday March 26th- Program 2
"Wonderglass" by Susan Botti-opera excerpts
"Through the Peeping Glass-Part 2" a burlesque/ cirque Alice in Wonderland
"Haddocks' Eyes" by David Del Tredici

EVENT INFO

March 25 and 26-8:00PM
Doors open at 7:00PM
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main St., Brooklyn, NY 11201
DIRECTIONS