Utopia Opera Presents New York Premiere of SOME LIGHT EMERGES by BWW News Desk May. 8, 2019

Utopia Opera Presents New York Premiere of SOME LIGHT EMERGES

On June 7 at 8pm, June 8 at 6pm, and June 9 at 3pm, Utopia Opera presents the New York Premiere of SOME LIGHT EMERGES, a chamber opera by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, & Kimberly Reed, in a fully-staged production performed with its original orchestration at the Ida K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College (695 Park Avenue). Drama Desk Award-nominee David Schweizer directs and Utopia founder and artistic director William Remmers conducts. Q&A sessions with Laura Kaminsky, Kimberly Reed, and members of the cast and crew follow each performance.

Following the success of their contemporary masterpiece, AS ONE, Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, and Kimberly Reed were commissioned to create SOME LIGHT EMERGES which premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 2017. Utopia is bringing it to New York for its second-ever production. Pulitzer Prize and Grammy-winning co-librettist and original concept creator Mark Campbell describes the piece as "a new chamber opera set mostly within the Rothko Chapel that chronicles the direct and tangential intersections of five diverse people across four decades who visit the Chapel, as well as the struggles and triumphs of Dominique de Menil in realizing her dream of creating it." Co-librettist Kimberly Reed adds, "Through humor and levity and the deeply personal stories of its characters, SOME LIGHT EMERGES reveals how political and spiritual conflicts can be better understood through art, while honoring the people who create and support it."

Director David Schweizer states, "In SOME LIGHT EMERGES, a half dozen characters tell the stories of epiphanies in their lives so intimately and touchingly that to direct the action of this piece is to commune profoundly with life's deepest mysteries. The style is almost documentary in its reality. But Laura Kaminsky's music can soar and transport as well." Through its characters, the opera contains reflections on queer issues, the AIDS crisis, suicide, racial aggression and fear generated through jingoistic reactions to terrorism, and citizen displacement after natural disasters. Conductor William Remmers elaborates, "These key sources of trauma and strife in the late 20th/early 21st century are addressed directly, but, through these characters' visits to the Chapel, the opera displays hope in the ability for art to act as a holistic pacifier and interdenominational communication tool. In many ways, this piece is about the very experience had by an audience member sitting down and being involved in that particularly special communion between a work of art and those who bear witness to it."

The production's cast is anchored by Caroline Worra as Dominique de Menil, the real-life patron and progenitor of the Rothko Chapel. Campbell states, "It's hard for me to imagine a better performer than Caroline in the central role of Dominique. Working with her again, as well as with David Schweizer (our fifth collaboration together), is a dream come true." Angela Dinkelman, Laura Virella, Lydia Adelle Brown, Billy Huyler, and Alexander Mason play the five visitors to the Chapel who have revelatory experiences there over several decades. Each represent and express the concerns of people from different eras, races, and social strata, and each with wildly divergent perspectives on art (and the Chapel's) place in their lives, but who are all unified in humanity by one singular haven. Composer Laura Kaminsky explains that "each of the beautifully drawn characters has their own music: a little folksy for Tom, Latin jazz-inflected for Alicia, skittish for Margie, and so on, as does the Chapel itself: sombre, lustrous and fluid. The opera is uniquely scored for flute (doubling alto), bassoon, trombone, percussion (a whole world of disparate sounds played by one musician), piano, violin, and cello."

About Utopia Opera

Utopia Opera was founded in 2011. Striving to present the most entertainingly rich operatic performances possible (for audiences and performers alike) while also maintaining a high standard of musical integrity, Utopia Opera has established itself as a young and vibrant addition to New York City's vast operatic landscape, and was featured in the cover story of the August 2016 issue of Opera News.

In addition to providing young singers with performance opportunities, Utopia aims to share opera of all varieties with a general audience and to reveal its modern relevance. A central part of that mission is realized through giving its audience and performers a stake in the direction of the company, allowing the public to vote on their annual repertoire. Their seventh season (2017-2018) featured Glass & Ginsberg's HYDROGEN JUKEBOX, Flotow's MARTHA, Sondheim & Lapine's PASSION, and the U.S. premiere of Arthur Sullivan's dramatic oratorio, THE MARTYR OF ANTIOCH. The current, eighth season opened with the New York premiere of Thea Musgrave's THE STORY OF HARRIET TUBMAN, Gilbert & Sullivan's THE SORCERER, and Benjamin Britten & Eric Crozier's ALBERT HERRING. SOME LIGHT EMERGES is being presented as a part of 2019's New York Opera Fest. For more information, find Utopia on Facebook at facebook.com/utopiaopera or visit their website: utopiaopera.org

Tickets ($20 for general admission) are available online (with card) and at the door (card/check/cash). Tickets are available online at: https://somelight.brownpapertickets.com/