Nicole Paiement and Brian Staufenbiel have announced Opera Parallèle’s next season: Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking (Feb. 20-March 7) and Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness (May 1-3).
Both operas, according to the announcement, are "based on significant literary works, plumb the depths of human emotion, resilience, fortitude, hope and redemption, making them ideal subjects for the operatic stage and for Opera Parallèle’s brand of story-telling and rich exploration of the human experience in provocative and intense stagings."
Heggie's opera, commissioned and premiered by San Francisco Opera in 2000, and performed both nationally and internationally, is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 memoir. The cast consists of Jennifer Rivera (Sister Helen Prejean), Michael Mayes (Joe DeRocher), Catherine Cook (Mrs. DeRocher), Talise Trevigne (Sister Rose), Robert Orth (Owen Hart); along with Kristin Clayton, Michelle Rice, Joseph Mayers, Mark Hernandez, Jonathan Smucker, and members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
Based on the 1899 novella by Joseph Conrad, O’Regan’s one-act opera, with libretto by Tom Phillips, was premiered in a co-production by Opera East and ROH2 at the Royal Opera House/Linbury Theatre in London in 2011. The cast will include Isaiah Bell (Marlow), Matthew Stump (Kurtz), Jonathan Blalock (Manager/Secretary), Thomas Glenn (Accountant/Helmsman), Daniel Cilli (Thames Captain), Crystal Kim (Fiancée), Shawnette Sulker (River Woman), Jonathan Boyd (Harlequin), and John Bischoff (Doctor/Bowlermaker).
The Guardian's review said: "75 minutes of intense, sinister storytelling, combining crystal-clear narrative with complex ideas about idealism and self-delusion."
Both productions will be led by Paiement on the podium, with production design and direction by Opera Parallèle Creative Director Staufenbiel, and members of the creative team responsible for OP’s acclaimed productions of Orphée, The Great Gatsby, Ainadamar, and Trouble in Tahiti.
Paiement said of the plans for the 2014-2015 season:
Our season continues Opera Parallèle’s tradition of balancing new works with operas that are better known but that are presented in a new light. The premiere of Heart of Darkness clearly serves the first goal as we introduce Bay Area audiences to this vibrant British composer, and Dead Man Walking represents the second.While Dead Man Walking is definitely a "grand opera" in content and scope, we once again shed a more intimate light on the work — just like we did with Wozzeck and The Great Gatsby — by using a new orchestration. This will no doubt bring out the deeply personal relationship and intense emotional aspects of the work.
We also wanted to celebrate with our own San Francisco composer Jake Heggie the 15th anniversary of this popular work, which was commissioned and premiered here but never done since.
We are also excited to present our first commissioned children’s opera by Chris Pratorius based on a very beautiful children’s book. The composer has crafted a work that combines both a sophisticated and accessible musical language that will speak to an audience of all ages — a rare thing when it comes to the genre.”
Also planned: a children's opera, My Head is Full of Colors, based on the book of the same name by Catherine Friend. Commissioned by Opera Parallèle, it is composed by Chris Pratorious, from Santa Cruz, the libretto is by Paiement. It will be performed during National Opera Week on November 1 in the Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library main branch.