RWO’s sci-fi chamber opera Red Giant blasts off live online June 20 at 7:00
Who: Rhymes with Opera
What: Live, virtual sci-fi opera
Where: Rhymes with Opera online
When: Live on Sunday, June 20, $20, 7:00 (available on demand June 22 – July 6, $10)
Why: In 2013, New York-based ensemble Rhymes with Opera presented a fully staged production of composer Adam Matlock and librettist Brian Slattery’s Red Giant, a futuristic sci-fi chamber opera in which three humans take off into space, heading toward parts unknown to escape from a dying planet engulfed by the sun. RWO has now reimagined the show for virtual viewing in its first digital presentation, streaming live on Sunday, June 20, at 7:00. Sopranos Bonnie Lander and Elisabeth Halliday-Quan and baritone Robert Maril will be performing from three different locations, accompanied by the six-member RWOrchestra, conducted by George Tsz-Kwan Lam. The forty-minute work is directed by Ashley Tata, with video design by Eamonn Farrell and set design by Afsoon Pajoufar. David Crandall voices the radio announcer.
“As a lifelong fan of science fiction and a composer enamored of opera as a medium, it only made sense to combine the two when given the opportunity to work on a piece,” Matlock said in a statement. “Of course, in the beginning the scenario — people trying to escape a planet’s surface that has become uninhabitable due to their sun becoming the titular Red Giant — was pure fantasy. But in the nearly decade since this piece was first written, we’ve seen governments and societies struggle to reach a consensus as to whether or not climate change is really happening in the face of readily observable evidence — and it’s hard not to feel that this story has gained some resonance in the face of that. And of course, even in the face of a true existential crisis, humans will still find time to bicker.” Tickets for the live performance, in which Lander streams in from Baltimore, Halliday-Quan from Rochester, and Maril from New York City, are $20; a recording of the show will be available on demand June 22 – July 6 for $10.