Mark Adamo

Mark Adamo (born 1962) is a composer and librettist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania known principally for his work for the opera house. The composer and librettist of the highly-regarded Little Women, he served as composer-in-residence for New York City Opera from 2001-2006. New York City Opera inttroduced Little Women to Manhattan in March 2003; the company gave the East Coast premiere of his new opera, Lysistrata, or The Nude Goddess, in March-April 2006. Lysistrata, hailed as “a sumptuous love story, poised between comedy and heartbreak” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker, was David Gockley’s last commission for the Houston Grand Opera, which gave the world premiere in 4 March 2005. "Little Women" has since been given its Asian premiere in May 2005, when New York City Opera's production of the piece was chosen as the U.S. exhibit for the World Expo in Tokyo and Nagoya; State Opera of South Australia gave the Australian premiere at the Adelaide Festival in May 2007, and the opera's Israeli premiere is scheduled by the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv in July 2008.

Adamo began his education at New York University, where he received the Paulette Goddard Remarque Scholarship for outstanding undergraduate achievement in playwriting. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music Degree cum laude in composition in 1990 from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he was awarded the Theodore Presser prize for outstanding undergraduate achievement in composition. At New York City Opera, he curates the contemporary opera workshop series VOX: Showcasing American Composers. Adamo served as master artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in May 2003. He has directed productions of his Little Women in Cleveland and Milwaukee, both of which were cited as among the best classical-music events of the year by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, respectively; and he has annotated programs for Stagebill, the Freer Gallery of Art, and most recently for BMG Classics. His criticism and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Stagebill, Opera News, the Star-Ledger, and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Adamo, who is openly gay, lives with his partner, composer John Corigliano in New York City.

Work

Opera

• Little Women (1998)
• Avow, a 10-minute chamber opera (1999)
• Lysistrata, or The Nude Goddess (2005)

Selected other works

• Garland for children's choir (2006)
• FOUR ANGELS - Concerto for Harp for harp and orchestra (2007)
• Late Victorians for speaker, soloists and orchestra (1995)
• Alcott Portraits for chamber orchestra (1999)
• The Poet Speaks of Praising for men's chorus and piano
• QWERTYUIOP for choir and mad soprano

External links

• Mark Adamo at G. Schirmer