The Wake World
The Wake World is an opera with music and libretto by David Hertzberg. It premiered September 18, 2017, at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.[1][2] The Wake World was a co-presentation of Opera Philadelphia and the Barnes Foundation, directed by R. B. Schlather and conducted by Elizabeth Braden. [1][2] The opera is based on the story "The Wake World" by Aleister Crowley.[1]
Critical reception
"The whole evening felt celebratory", Opera News wrote of The Wake World.[1] The New York Times called the music engrossing. "Just five instrumentalists produce wondrous colors and sonorities. The score, spiked with modernist elements, makes Mr. Hertzberg seem a 21st-century Ravel", wrote Anthony Tommasini.[3]
"The prose was purple, and so was the music, so thoroughly an antique musical language that it sounded like a half-remembered dream", wrote Peter Dobrin in The Philadelphia Inquirer.[4]
In 2018, The Wake World was awarded the Music Critics Association of North America Award for Best New Opera.[5]
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast[2] |
|---|---|---|
| Lola | soprano | Maeve Höglund |
| The Fairy Prince | mezzo-soprano | Rihab Chaieb |
| Parthenope | soprano | Rebecca Myers |
| Ligeia | soprano | Veronica Chapman-Smith |
| Leucosia | mezzo-soprano | Joanna Gates |
| Luna/Hecate | soprano | Jessica Beebe |
| Morbus | tenor | George Ross Somerville |
| Pestilitas | bass | John David Miles |
| Giant/Bone Man/Man in the Azure Coat/Man of the Blue House | bass | James Osby Gwathney, Jr. |
References
- ^ a b c d "The Wake World". www.operanews.com. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
- ^ a b c "The Wake World". Opera Philadelphia. September 9, 2017. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
- ^ Anthony Tommasini. "5 Operas in 72 Hours: A Philadelphia Festival Is a Test of Survival". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
- ^ Dobrin, Peter. "O17 hits the Barnes with a hallucinatory fairy tale". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
- ^ "Hertzberg Wins New Opera Honor For Wake World". Retrieved 2018-10-29.