American Lyric Theater
The Long Walk
Composer Jeremy Howard Beck
Librettist Stephanie Fleischmann
$15,000

The opera is based on Brian Castner's critically acclaimed memoir, The Long Walk, which describes a soldier’s return from Iraq where he served as an officer in an explosive ordnance disposal unit; and his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder as he tries to integrate himself back into his family life upon his return from the war. Funds will be used to help underwrite the direct expense of a developmental workshop, planned for May-June 2013, as well as a portion of the work’s commission fees.

American Lyric Theater
La Reina
Composer Jorge Sosa
Librettist Laura Sosa Pedroza
$15,000

Between May 20 and June 2, 2013, American Lyric Theater (New York, NY) will hold a developmental workshop of the complete piano/electronics/vocal score of La Reina, by composer Jorge Sosa and librettist Laura Sosa Pedroza. La Reina is an electro-acoustic opera with text in Spanish and English. The docufiction narrative was inspired by the life of Sinaloan drug trafficker Sandra Avila Beltran, who was arrested in 2007. Funds will be used to help underwrite developmental workshop expenses, and a portion of the work’s commission fees.

The Dallas Opera
Great Scott
Composer Jake Heggie
Librettist Terrence McNally
$27,000

Money will support the commissioning fees and a workshop of Great Scott, scheduled to premiere in the company’s 2015-2016 season. Great Scott is a comic opera whose story will focus on the backstage complications that develop when Arden Scott, a great opera singer, returns to her hometown to sing her signature role. The action takes place onstage and behind-the-scenes as she deals with a co-star she detests and the demands of friends and family as she sings her famous role in the forgotten bel canto opera, Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei. Further chaos ensues in the opera’s two mad scenes, volcanic eruption and children’s chorus, as well as in Arden’s own life.

Florentine Opera
Sister Carrie
Composer Robert Aldridge
Librettist Herschel Garfein
$20,000

In consortium with University of Minnesota Opera Theatre, Florentine Opera (Milwaukee, WI) will workshop Sister Carrie, adapted from the novel of the same name by Theodore Dreiser. The opera follows the flight of the title character from the tedium of her rural Midwestern upbringing to the possibilities of the big city, fraught as urban life is with "the grimness of shift and toil." The grant will fund a series of workshops, participant reviews and audience feedback performances in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014.

The Glimmerglass Festival
the little match girl passion
Composer/Librettist David Lang
$13,000

The Glimmerglass Festival (Cooperstown, NY) is presenting David Lang’s the little match girl passion during the 2013 season. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2008, match girl was originally scored for four soloists and an adult chamber choir. Glimmerglass is commissioning Lang to write a new 24-voice children’s chorus to replace the adult choir. As part of this revision, Lang will also compose a prologue for the children. Lang’s opera is derived from the Hans Christian Andersen tale and inspired by Bach's St. Matthew Passion. The revision will also continue and evolve the company's recent commitment to involve children in at least one main stage production annually.

Minnesota Opera
The Manchurian Candidate
Composer Kevin Puts
Librettist Mark Campbell
$27,000

The grant will help to cover the costs for workshops, travel for the artistic team, defray commissioning fees for the composer and librettist, and for the copying of vocal/piano scores and orchestral parts. The opera is an adaptation of the novel and 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate.

Music-Theatre Group (Brooklyn, NY)
The Doctor and the Devils
Composer Julian Grant
Librettist Mark Campbell
$25,000

Funds will be used to support a libretto reading and first music workshop, to be completed by the end of calendar 2013. The opera is being adapted from a screenplay by Dylan Thomas with the same title. The work is a beautifully structured story full of intrigues and moral dilemmas that are operatic in scope and style. Based on the legendary case of Knox and Burke, the opera follows the driven Dr. Rock (Knox), distinguished surgeon at the Royal Academy in Edinburgh, who in pursuit of his anatomical discoveries requires a steady flow of cadavers.

Opera Colorado
The Scarlet Letter
Composer Lori Laitman
Librettist David Mason
$13,000

Opera Colorado has asked Lori Laitman to write a reduced one-act, one-hour version of the full-length opera for educational and touring performances. In preparation for the touring performances, Opera Colorado plans to present two semi-staged readings of the work at unexpected locations in the Denver Metro Area. The readings will focus on testing the effectiveness of the one-hour work and to allow composer Lori Laitman to make adjustments to the score prior to the tour.

Opera Memphis
Ghosts of Crosstown
Composer Kamran Ince, et al. and Voices of the South
$27,000

The grant will be used to commission and workshop a collection of short operas under the title Ghosts of Crosstown. These site-specific pieces will center on the Sears Crosstown building — an exquisite Art Deco building, which opened in Memphis in 1927. Sears Crosstown was a vibrant shopping center for more than 50 years, but it fell into disuse in 1993. Today, a group of dedicated residents are resurrecting this vacant space as a mixed-use "vertical urban village." Opera Memphis will commission original compositions to perform in conjunction with this effort.

Opera Parallèle (San Francisco, CA)
Gesualdo, Prince of Madness
Composer Dante De Silva
Librettist Mitchell Morris
$16,000

The work is to be a two-act opera titled Castle Gesualdo that will examine the “flexible” nature of justice through the figure of Carlo Gesualdo, a 16th-century composer accused of murder who escaped prosecution because of his noble status. Gesualdo, a daring composer of his time (1566-1613), will lend his chromatic language to the fabric of the new score. Lute, theorbo and a female chorus will blend with modern instruments in the orchestra. The grant will support the completion and revisions of the piano-vocal score and a public interactive reading session in June 2013.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
27
Composer Ricky Ian Gordon
Librettist Michale Korie
$27,000

The grant will support the commission and the production of musical materials for 27, which tells the story of the time Gertrude Stein spent in Paris between World Wars I and II. The opera’s title — 27 — reflects the address of her famous Parisian salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus. The opera will be written in two short acts and accompanied by a chamber-sized orchestra. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe will perform the role of Gertrude Stein.

George Cederquist, director
Marianna Csaszar, set and costume designer
Sarah Hughey, lighting designer

Silent Night (Kevin Puts/Mark Campbell)

Stephanie Havey, director
Patrick Rizzotti, set designer
Megan Spatz, costume designer
Brandon Mitchell, lighting designer

Elmer Gantry (Robert Aldridge/Herschel Garfein)

Walker Lewis, director
David Meyer, set designer
Grace Trimble, costume designer

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht)

Mo Zhou, director
Tim Brown, set designer
Lisa Loen, costume designer
Yi Zhao, lighting designer

Susannah (Carlisle Floyd):