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Vox: Showcasing American Composers History

Works Presented:

• The Noblest Game by David Diamond (NY) is about a beautiful war widow whose charms lead to a web of complicated love affairs.

• Pope Joan: An Operatic Heresy by John Musto (NY) retells the story of the controversial heroine John/Johanna Anglicus who reigned as Pope (845-847) disguised as a man.

• Dora by Melissa Shiflett (NY) tells the story of a young patient who undergoes Freud's analysis of her psychosomatically-induced illnesses.

• Blood on the Dining Room Floor by Jonathan Sheffer (NY) recounts one intrigue-filled summer in the life of Gertrude Stein.

• Welfare: The Opera by Lenny Picket (NY) portrays a 1974 New York welfare office.

• Little Women by Mark Adamo (NY) is based on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel.

Works Presented:

• Haroun and The Sea of Stories by Charles Wuorinen (NY) tells the story of Haroun which is a tale of a fight between the free imagination and the powers that oppose it.

• The Thief of Love by Sheila Silver (NY) about a highly learned scholar and young woman of great beauty, who has vowed to marry only the man who can defeat her in debate.

• Romeo and Juliet by Lee Hoiby (NY) based on Shakespeare's classic play.

• My Kinsman, Major Molineux by Bruce Saylor (NY) is based on the 1832 story by Nathaniel Hawthorne about a young man's desire to find his kinsman.

• Nicholas and Alexandra by Deborah Drattell (NY) recounts the story of Tsar Nicholas and Rasputin.

• Democracy by Scott Wheeler (MA) is based on the novels Democracy and Esther by Henry Adams and on the administration of Ulysses S. Grant.

• The Highway by Jeremy Beck (CA) is derived from the O. Henry short story Roads of Destiny. The story is set in the present and concerns James, a young man who dreams of living an artistic life.

• With Blood, With Ink by Daniel Crozier (NY) recounts the life of the 17th century Mexican nun and poet, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz who dazzled the Mexican court with her beauty, brilliance, and intellectual virtuosity.

• Muhammad Ali by John Duffy (ME) is a tale of a hero's journey from innocent youth to worldly warrior.

• Last Leaf by Michael Remson, (NY) based on the O. Henry short story about a woman's desire to overcome a debilitating illness.

• Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Matthew Harris (NY) tells the story of a country girl in Victorian England who is sent by her parents to work for a rich distant relative who she hopes to marry.

• Sacco and Vanzetti by Anton Coppola (FL) tells the well-known story of two Italian immigrants wrongfully accused and executed for a murder they did not commit.

Works Presented:

• Hit & Run by Michael Abels (CA) recounts the effects of a horrible accident on its characters.

• The Nude Goddess by Mark Adamo (NY) is based on Aristophanes' Lysistrata and involves the deeds and misdeeds of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, and Ares, the God of War.

• Mrs. Satan by Victoria Bond (NY) is about the 19th century clairvoyant, feminist and "Free Love" advocate Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States.

• to scratch an angel by Ari Frankel (NY) is based on the writings of Primo Levi and is an allegory about the various paths to redemption, led by the enlightening and compassionate spirit of music.

• Androcles and the Lion by Philip Hagemann (NY) is based on the play by George Bernard Shaw and recounts the plight of early Christian martyrs.

• The Lost Childhood by Janice Hamer (CA) is based on the memoir of a child survivor of the Holocaust.

• All My Sons by James Legg (CA) is based on the Arthur Miller play.

• www.love by Kevin March (MA) is a 21st century romance, virtual and otherwise.

• Henry and Clara by Jorge Martin (VT) is based on the lives of Henry and Clara Rathbone who sat in President Lincoln's theater box the night he was assassinated.

• Dreaming of Wonderland by Manly Romero (ME) is based on the famous story by Lewis Carroll.

• The Cows of Apollo or The Invention of Music by Chris Theofanidis (NY) is a retelling of the legend of Dionysus and the redemptive value of the Apollonian spirit.

Works Presented:

• Madame Mao by Bright Sheng (MI) with libretto by Colin Graham presents the transformation of Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's wife, from a young star-struck actress to a vengeful politician.

• The Rape of the Lock by Deborah Mason (NY) based on Alexander Pope's "mock-heroic" poem by the same name, which tells the story of Belinda, from whom a man has stolen a lock of hair.

• Florida by Randall Eng (NY) with libretto by Donna DiNovelli is based on a true story of how Florida Fandango was tried for conspiracy to commit matricide after her boyfriend killed her mother.

• Lovers and Friends (Chautaqua Variations) by Michael John LaChiusa (NY) a fictitious story in which the United States poet laureate's claim to the work that established him as a poet is challenged by an old friend.

• The Firmiana Rain by May-Tchi Chen (PA) is based on a story from the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) that tells the tragic love story of Emperor Ming Huang and Lady Yang Yuhuan.

• Merlin by Ezequiel Viñao (NY) with libretto by Caleb Carr uses the Arthurian legends as its central theme.

• Life is a Dream by Lewis Spratlan (MA) with libretto by James Maraniss is based on Pedro Calderón de la Barca's drama La vida es sueño.

• Della's Gift by Dan Welcher (TX) with libretto by Paul Woodruff is based on O. Henry's short story The Gift of the Magi.

• Dum Dee Tweedle by David Del Tredici (NY) is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

• The Newport Rivals by Kirke Mechem (CA) is freely based on Richard B. Sheridan's play The Rivals.

• Apollo 14: A Space Opera by David Meckler (CA) tells the story of the Apollo 14 space mission and the characters involved in it, including two space spirits who comment on the astronauts' activities.

Works Presented:

• Belladonna Music by Bernard Rands (MA), Libretto by Leslie Dunton-Downer (MA) is about a dinner conversation among five women.

• Borgia Infami, Music by Harold Blumenfeld (NY), Libretto by Charles Kondek (NY) (after Klabund and Hugo) depicts the lives, passions and crimes of the notorious Borgia clan.

• Twelfth Night, Music by Joel Feigin (CA), Libretto adapted from the Shakespeare play by Joel Feigin.

• Inferno of Dante: Canto V, Music by Patrick Soluri (NY), Libretto from The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translation by John Ciardi.

• Young Caesar, Music by Lou Harrison (CA), Libretto by Robert Gordon (CA) is based on actual events in the early life of Julius Caesar.

• All Quiet on the Western Front, Music by Nancy Van de Vate (NJ and Austria), Libretto by Nancy Van de Vate, adapted from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

• Frankenstein, Music by Greg Sandow (NY), Libretto by Thomas M. Disch from the novel by Mary Shelley.

• The Awakening, Music by James Stepleton (NY), Libretto by Andrew Joffe (NY) from the novel by Kate Chopin.

• Strange Fruit, Music by Chandler Carter (NY), Libretto by Joan Ross Sorkin (NY) from the novel by Lillian Smith.

• The Old Majestic, Music by Robert X. Rodríguez (TX), Libretto by Mary Medrick (TX) is a backstage comedy-romance set in 1930 and inspired by the historic Majestic Theater in San Antonio, Texas.

Works Presented:

• Margaret Garner, music by Richard Danielpour (NY), libretto by Toni Morrison (NJ) follows the tragic and shocking case of a fugitive slave.

• Summer and All it Brings, music by Daniel Felsenfeld (CA), libretto by Ernest Hilbert (NY) is a monodrama depicting modern variations on the Greek gods Amor and Psyche.

• Korczak's Orphans, music by Adam Silverman (NY), libretto by Susan Gubernat (NJ), recreates events on and around the day an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto was flushed out and its inhabitants sent to Treblinka concentration camp.

• Waking in New York, music by Elodie Lauten (NY), based on the poem by Allen Ginsberg.

• The Reverend Jim Jones, music by John Eaton (IL), libretto by James Reston, Jr. (NY) traces the decline of the charismatic minister and founder of the People's Temple.

• Dream President, music and libretto by Jennifer Griffith (OR), alternates spoken monologues with arias as a professional dominatrix dreams about the US president.

• Glory Denied, music by Tom Cipullo (MA), adapted from the novel by Tom Philpott, follows the challenges a Vietnam faced upon returning home from the war.

• Inspiration, music by Donald Hagar (NY), libretto by John Burns (WI), tells the true story of a man who attached weather balloons to his lawn chair to fly 16,000 feet over Los Angeles.

Works Presented:

• H. Leslie Adams, Blake, Libretto by Daniel Mayers, Cleveland-based composer Adams sets the 1970 novel by Martin Delaney, following the lives, loves, and trials of African-Americans on the eve of the Civil War.

• Mason Bates, California Fictions, Winner of the Rome Prize and fellowships from Ives, Tanglewood, and ASCAP, Bates tells the story of a middle-aged author spiraling into lethargy and self-destruction while grappling with a failed marriage, ultimately looking for renewed vigor in contact with a mysterious neighbor and a club kid plucked from San Francisco's techno scene.

• Robert Carl, Harmony, Libretto by Russell Banks, The chair of the composition department of the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut teams with the celebrated fiction- and screenwriter (Affliction, The Sweet Hereafter) to imagine romantic intrigue between American composer Charles Ives and Harmony Twichell — despite the disapproval of her scowling and widowed godfather, Mark Twain.

• Justine F. Chen, The Maiden Tower, A moody, post-apocalyptic Tempest variation follows a protective father who uses a computer to protect his daughter from the outside world. Chen is a Brooklyn-based composer-violinist and set the piece for four singers, chamber orchestra, and electronics.

• Herschel Garfein, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Based on the play by Tom Stoppard, Theater composer-director Herschel Garfein adapts Tom Stoppard's popular play, a metaphysical gloss on Hamlet told from the point of view of the play's inconspicuous duo.

• Martin Hennessy, Letter to E. 11th Street, Libretto by Mark Campbell, Hennessy, a New York-based composer, creates a two-character drama for chamber ensemble about a man with AIDS saying goodbye to his former roommate in the city.

• Jenny O. Johnson, Leaving Santa Monica, An evocative and abstract tone-poem about a daughter's reminiscences of her mother, set for amplified orchestra by this New York-based composer.

• William Kraft, Red Azalea, Libretto by Christopher Hawes, Los Angeles-based percussionist/composer, former composer-in-residence at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, adapts Anchee Min's harrowing memoir of escape from Communist China.

• Anne LeBaron, Crescent City, Libretto by Philip Littell, Los Angeles-based composer/harpist LeBaron presents a quirky, electronic-driven score to tell a Brechtian political tale of one city's response to a natural disaster. "An ambitious and alarming new opera." — Los Angeles Times

• Thomas Pasatieri, Frau Margot, Libretto by Frank Corsaro, The accomplished composer of The Seagull teams up with longtime City Opera director Frank Corsaro for this new opera to be premiered at Fort Worth Opera in 2007. The troubled widow of a great composer guards his final, incomplete manuscript, until a young composer, determined to finish the work, unravels the truth behind the widow's anguished memories.

• Max Stern, Messer Marco Polo, A lush, fantastical retelling of Donn Byrne's novel about the Italian explorer's voyage to China by New York-born, Israeli-based composer/librettist Stern.

• Stephen Andrew Taylor, Paradises Lost, Libretto by Kate Gale, from the novel by Ursula Le Guin, The Champaign-Urbana, Ill., composer and teacher adapts the famed science-fiction writer's fable of religious desperation onboard a starship bound for a distant planet with an electronic-driven, futuristic score.