In Thursday’s (3/24) Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns writes, “Composers in residence aren’t uncommon in symphony orchestras or unknown in opera companies. Yet the shape and form of a two-composer-in-residence program being announced Thursday by the Opera Company of Philadelphia has enough working parts to be what general director David B. Devan calls a ‘landmark investment in the future of opera.’ ‘For opera to remain vital we need to have a contemporary voice and contemporary sensibility that we, as living people, can connect with as our own,’ said Devan. … Though OCP is what Devan calls ‘the mother ship,’ the initiative is a three-way collaboration with two New York organizations, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theatre Group, that also joined with OCP to commission the forthcoming Nico Muhly opera Dark Sisters. The program—funded by a $1.4 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—is distinguished by a range of exposure to the genre that won’t just foster grand opera. ‘The partnership between our three companies will immediately expand the chosen composer’s access to different scales and types of compositional activity,’ said David Bennett, Gotham’s executive director.”
Posted March 25, 2011
