Gotham Chamber Opera - 2015/2016 Season

Gotham Chamber Opera announces its 15th Anniversary Season, which will begin in the fall of 2015 with a 15th Anniversary Celebration Concert (date and venue tba). The season continues in February 2016 with Alessandro Stradella’s 1675 San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist) in a co-production with the Netherlands Nationale ReisOpera, and a concert at (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, NYC, featuring a new work by David Hertzberg, winner of the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Music. The season concludes with the New York premiere of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, a co-production of the Apollo Theater, Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia, at the world famous Apollo Theater in May/June 2016.

15th Anniversary Celebration Concert

Over the course of its history, Gotham Chamber Opera has served as a launching pad for the careers of many singers who have gone on to international careers. The company’s 2015-2016 season will begin with a 15th Anniversary Celebration Concert featuring artists from Gotham Chamber Opera’s past productions, performing selections from the company’s history, and featuring a chamber orchestra, all under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Neal Goren.

San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist)

Music by Alessandro Stradella, Libretto by Ansaldo Ansaldi

Neal Goren, Conductor; Timothy Nelson, Stage Director

With sopranos Maeve Höglund and Harolyn Blackwell, countertenor Timothy Mead, tenor Peter Tantsits, and bass Joseph Beutel

A co-production with the Netherlands Nationale ReisOpera

February 2016

For its second production, the company presents a rare staging of Alessandro Stradella’s 1675 San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist), in a co-production with the Netherlands Nationale ReisOpera. This dramatic retelling of the famous biblical story of Princess Salome’s jealousy and depraved love for the Jewish prophet is the composer’s best-known work. Stradella is the missing operatic link between Monteverdi and Handel, who owned a copy of the manuscript. The role of Salome was a vehicle of the young Maria Callas. The piece will be directed by the young stage director Timothy Nelson, whom critics have lauded as “the future of opera.” It will be conducted by Gotham’s founding Artistic Director Neal Goren leading a baroque orchestra. Vivaldi’s famous cantata Nisi Dominus will be interpolated for English countertenor Timothy Mead, who will be singing the title role. San Giovanni Battista was last heard in New York in 1986 in a concert presentation. Gotham Chamber Opera’s production will be its U.S. stage premiere.

Catherine Doctorow Prize Concert: Music of David Hertzberg

(le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, NYC

A concert of music for voice and chamber ensemble, featuring the world premiere of a new work by rising-star composer David Hertzberg, the inaugural winner of the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Music.

Charlie Parker’s Yardbird

Music by Daniel Schnyder; Libretto by Bridgette A. Wimberly

Neal Goren, Conductor; Ron Daniels, Director

A co-production of the Apollo Theater, Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia

A co-commission by Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia

May 31 and June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm; June 5, 2016 at 3pm, Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, NYC

Tickets $30-125 ($175 premium seats available), on sale Friday, May 15, 2015 at 10am