Opera Philadelphia and New York’s Apollo Theater are teaming up again
The partnership in its last round yielded two works that went on to be performed internationally.
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Opera Philadelphia and the Apollo Theater announced on Wednesday that they have rekindled a partnership to develop new operatic works. Few details were available on the initiative, which picks up on the joint venture that brought Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and We Shall Not Be Moved to the stages of both companies.
No commissioned composers have yet been announced for this round of the partnership, said opera company spokesperson Frank Luzi. No dates for the first performances were announced, either.
The Apollo and Opera Philadelphia “will share resources, ideas, infrastructure and talent through joint research, artist residencies, workshops, and artistic planning, in both Philadelphia and New York,” says a statement from the companies.
We Shall Not Be Moved premiered in September 2017 at the Wilma Theater as part of the O17 festival and, co-commissioned and co-produced with the Apollo, opened at the New York theater the next month. With music by Daniel Bernard Roumain and a libretto by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, it explores ghosts — sometimes literally — of the 1985 Philadelphia police bombing of the MOVE collective in West Philadelphia that set off a fire, killing 11 people and destroying 62 rowhouses.
Charlie Parker’s Yardbird by composer/saxophonist Daniel Schnyder and librettist Bridgette A. Wimberly premiered at the Perelman Theater in 2015 and starred tenor Lawrence Brownlee as the eponymous legendary jazz artist.
Both works have been performed by other opera companies nationally and internationally since their premieres.
Opera Philadelphia’s Apollo partnership is one of the company’s signature projects under general director and president David B. Devan, whose tenure with the opera company is slated to end May 31.