On November 2-5, 2023, Eastman Opera Theatre (EOT) launches its 2023-24 season with A Double Bill: Mythology Through a New Lens, featuring two 21st-century operas by notable living composers Jake Heggie and Nkeiru Okoye. Heggie’s To Hell and Back (2006) and Okoye’s We’ve Got Our Eye on You (2016) mutually confront stories of redemption, gender roles, empowerment and desire, with feminist themes that women can connect to today. These operas will be performed in Kilbourn Hall, and both are sung in English with supertitles. Making his directorial debut as a new member of Eastman’s faculty, Pat Diamond shares “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to make a debut in a such a storied place, in the company of truly wonderful colleagues and students.” Associate Music Director for EOT Wilson Southerland conducts and is excited to work with musical styles that “run the gamut from Baroque to Broadway.”
To Hell and Back, with music by Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer, contains a 40-minute score reflective of music by Britten, Bernstein and Copland. Utilizing Baroque sounds alongside modern musical language, the story is inspired by the myth of Persephone and told in five scenes by a cast of two. Focused on the relationship between a woman, Anne, and her daughter-in-law, Stephanie, the story revolves around the shattering acknowledgement that Stephanie is a victim of spousal abuse at the hands of Anne’s son.
We’ve Got Our Eye on You, composed by Okoye with a libretto by David Cote, “delivers a humorous but uplifting message about giving in to desire prematurely…It challenges today’s ‘hookup’ phenomenon that is especially pervasive amongst teens and college students,” according to Okoye. This amusing, 60-minute vaudevillian show employs a brand of humor that is similar to Monty Python’s. It turns the Greek myth of Perseus on its ear and is based on the story of the Graeae (Grey) Sisters, who share an eye (hence the title).
Pulling inspiration from Route 66 and neon signs, motels and diners, the tone of this performance will apply country-western aesthetics to mythological themes. The director and EOT production team chose to set both operas in a diner on a dusty road in the American desert, as opposed to ancient Greece, because there are food themes in each, and they wanted to create an environment where, as Diamond puts it, “you can tell stories and have community, because both those things are important to both pieces.” He continues, “We liked the idea of setting the performance in a desert, like it’s on this long highway in small, isolated places.”
Eastman Opera Theatre’s performances of A Double Bill: Mythology Through a New Lens are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday 10/2, Friday 10/3, and Saturday 10/4, with a matinee at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday 10/5. (Please note that seating will be limited to the public on Friday, 10/2.) This production is double-cast and runs for approximately two hours, including a 15-minute intermission.
Tickets are $20.00 for general admission. University of Rochester, students, faculty and staff may present their URID to receive one free ticket. Tickets can be purchased at the Eastman Theatre Box Office, 433 East Main St., or online at EastmanTheatre.org.
View our Concerts and Events Calendar for more information about this performance and other Eastman events.
Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content,
(585) 451-8492, lsageer@esm.rochester.edu
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About Eastman Opera Theatre:
Eastman Opera Theatre offers a comprehensive program of training and performance opportunities for the modern singer-actor. Each year, productions feature a wide range of musical styles, unusual lyric forms, and both traditional and contemporary repertoire that prepare the motivated student for the professional lyric theater world of tomorrow.
Most productions have two complete principal casts (given an equal number of performances), are fully designed, performed in the original language, and depending on the venue, use full orchestral accompaniment. Studio productions, scenes programs, and outreach events are also offered to further enhance the variety of performance opportunities. Eastman Opera Theatre utilizes both undergraduate and graduate students in all roles for all productions.
Recent and past productions include Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas; Davis’s Lear on the 2nd Floor; Sondheim’s Into the Woods; Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea; Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox and Les Enfants Terribles; Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza; Gordon’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead; Mozart’s Don Giovanni; and Puts’ Elizabeth Cree. EOT is committed to working with living composers and librettists. Recent production collaborators have included Anthony Davis, Adam Guettel, Jake Heggie, Gene Scheer, Ricky Ian Gordon, Kevin Puts, and Mark Campbell.
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854–1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.