2012 Grant Awards: Art Works

[ March 10, 2011 deadline ]

Artists Communities | Arts Education | Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies | Media Arts | Museums | Music | Musical Theater |
Opera | Presenting | Theater | Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Opera

American Opera Projects, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support the development and workshop production of Paul's Case by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Kathryn Walat. Based on the short story by Willa Cather, the 85 minute score featuring seven singers and a six-piece chamber orchestration will see two semi-staged workshops in Brooklyn and two in Princeton.

American Opera Projects, Inc. (Consortium)
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support workshop productions of the chamber opera The Weeping Camel by composer Huang Ruo and librettist Candice Mui-Ngam Chong. In collaboration with Symphony Space and Guangzhou Opera House, the opera will receive workshop presentations as part of the First Chance program, which is structured to allow for the participation of the audience in order to help the creators revise and adapt their work.

Anchorage Opera Company
Anchorage, AK
$11,500
To support Verdi's Macbeth, as part of the company's 50th anniversary season. Educational outreach, seminars, and public lectures highlighting the achievements of the composer will take place in public schools and community centers in the metropolitan area and throughout the state's south-central region, home to a significant indigenous population.

Beth Morrison Projects
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the world premiere of Song From The Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt by composer Missy Mazzoli in collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek and filmmaker Stephen Taylor. Culled from the journals of Swiss explorer Isabelle Eberhardt at the turn of the last century, the multimedia work explores Eastern and Western cultures, the elation of self-discovery, and the mystery of death.

Boston Lyric Opera Company, Inc.
Boston, MA
$22,500
To support the adaption and remounting of the comic opera The Inspector by composer John Musto and librettist Mark Campbell, including outreach activities. Based on the play The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol, this production will expand the physical and orchestral elements, working with the original creative team to make the work accessible for larger opera houses.

Central City Opera House Association
Denver, CO
$22,500
To support a new production of The Turn of the Screw by composer Benjamin Britten. Based on the novella by Henry James, the 20th-century English chamber opera--a suspenseful masterpiece containing a prologue and 16 scenes, each preceded by a variation on the twelve-note 'crew theme, the production will launch a season celebrating the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Chateauville Foundation
Great Falls, VA
$17,500
To support the fourth Castleton Festival, which takes place annually on a farm in rural Virginia and includes opera performances with orchestral accompaniment. The festival's mission to engage young artists will be met by the residency program that will allow 40 advanced voice students to live, study, and perform onsite during the festival.

Chicago Opera Theater
Chicago, IL
$25,000
To support Moscow, Cheryomushki by composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The production marks the first time a Shostakovich opera will be performed in Chicago in 25 years, and it will feature the U.S. premiere of the re-orchestrated score arranged by Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney.

Dallas Opera
Dallas, TX
$30,000
To support a new production of The Aspern Papers by composer and librettist Dominick Argento, based on the Henry James novella. The creative team will comprise director Tim Albery, lighting designer Thomas Hase, scenic designer Andrew Lieberman, costume designer Constance Hoffman, and will feature performers Susan Graham, Carol Vaness, and Nathan Gunn.

Fort Worth Opera Association, Inc.
Fort Worth, TX
$17,500
To support the production of Lysistrata by composer Mark Adamo. In keeping with the company's mission to produce a variety of work spanning the history and breadth of the art form, this production marks the company's continued effort to produce contemporary opera.

Houston Grand Opera Association, Inc.
Houston, TX
$20,000
To support year two of activities for East + West, a four-year program of chamber opera focused on Houston's Asian populations. Dedicated to art as a vehicle for cultural diplomacy and community building, the second year of the initiative will focus on the Iranian and Cambodian communities in Houston, exploring subjects such as the relationship between first- and second-generation immigrants, displacement of war refugees, storytelling traditions, and cultural inheritance.

Long Beach Opera
Long Beach, CA
$22,500
To support a new production of AINADAMAR by composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang. The 2006 Grammy Award-winning opera portrays the life of Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca.

Long Beach Opera (Consortium)
Long Beach, CA
$22,500
To support the double-bill: Oceana by Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov and the American premiere of The Paper Nautilius by Scottish composer Gavin Bryars. In partnership with the Aquarium of the Pacific, the company will transform the Great Hall of the Aquarium into an immersive performance venue allowing the production to complement the movements of the surrounding ocean life.

Los Angeles Opera Company (aka LA Opera)
Los Angeles, CA
$50,000
To support Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring as part of LA Opera's celebration of his centenary. The production will build on the efforts of the four-year Britten Celebration, which fulfills the company's mission of immersing audiences in the complete body of works of one composer.

Lyric Opera of Chicago
Chicago, IL
$50,000
To support A Streetcar Named Desire by composer Andre Previn. The new semi-staged production of the historically significant opera will feature soprano Renee Fleming as Blanche DuBois, a role written specifically for her.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Inc.
Kansas City, MO
$16,500
To support Nixon in China by composer John Adams. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the historic presidential visit, local partnerships with the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the University of Kansas will engage a larger audience of first-time attendees to the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Madison Opera, Inc.
Madison, WI
$15,000
To support a new production of Galileo Galilei by composer Philip Glass and librettists Mary Zimmerman and Arnold Weinstein. Key artistic personnel include stage director A. Scott Parry, artistic director John DeMain, soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine, baritone John Arnold, bass Dean Peterson, and conductor Kelly Kuo who will lead an 11-piece chamber ensemble.

Metropolitan Opera Association, Inc. (aka The Met)
New York, NY
$70,000
To support the world premiere of The Enchanted Island. Inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th-century, this new Baroque opera will combine music by George Frideric Handel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Antonio Vivaldi, and others, with characters and plot elements from two Shakespeare plays as the four mismatched lovers from A Midsummer Night's Dream are shipwrecked on an island where Prospero (David Daniels) and Sycorax (Joyce DiDonato) from The Tempest are embroiled in a supernatural battle.

Michigan Opera Theatre
Detroit, MI
$15,000
To support performances of Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. The production will feature a wordless flashback scene not part of the original classic opera in which the back-story of how Canio first met his wife will be revealed, thus adding another layer of depth to the story and further dramatizing the dichotomy between comedy and tragedy that plays throughout the opera.

Minnesota Opera
Minneapolis, MN
$20,000
To support a new production of Jules Massenet's Werther. This production will set the opera on the eve of the Industrial Age in the late 1800s rather than when Goethe set the story, during the Romantic Era, a century earlier.

Nashville Opera
Nashville, TN
$16,500
To support a new production of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West). The composer created the opera as an homage to the U.S., presenting the Gold Rush and the American West through the form of the verismo opera with characters drawn from everyday life.

North Carolina Opera
Raleigh, NC
$10,000
To support the production of Philip Glass's Les Enfants Terribles. The performance will align with the company's new commitment to present an annual mainstage production of a contemporary work and also will coincide with the composer's 75th birthday.

Opera Company of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
$40,000
To support the world premiere of Dark Sisters by composer Nico Muhly and librettist Stephen Karam. The work will feature singers Caitlin Lynch, Kevin Burdette, Jennifer Check, Eve Gigliotti, Jennifer Zetlan, Kristina Bachrach, and Margaret Lattimore, who will be conducted by Neal Goren, directed by Rebecca Taichman, and will perform on a set designed by Mark Grimmer and Leo Warner of 59 Productions.

Opera Orchestra of New York, Inc.
New York, NY
$12,500
To support a concert opera performance of Wagner's Rienzi. Activities include a Young Artist Showcase, open rehearsals, and lecture-demonstrations for students at Hunter Elementary, Hunter High School, and Hunter College.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (Consortium)
St. Louis, MO
$50,000
To support the premiere of The Two Sides of Love by jazz composer Terence Blanchard with libretto by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Michael Cristofer. In partnership with Jazz St. Louis, the organization will create and produce an innovative, 21st-century work that blends the American tradition of jazz with the dramatic and expressive capabilities of opera.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
St. Louis, MO
$40,000
To support the U.S. premiere of Alice in Wonderland by composer Unsuk Chin and librettist David Henry Hwang. The new production and reduced orchestration of the opera will be realized by a creative team that includes director James Robinson, fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi as costume designer, set designer Adrienne Lobel, and conductor Michael Christie.

Pittsburgh Opera, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
$22,500
To support Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. Presented on Pittsburgh Opera's mainstage for the first time in nearly 30 years, this opera will continue the company's exploration of Mozart's works, with a cast that features soprano Lisette Oropesa, bass Paolo Pecchioli, and tenors David Portillo and Joseph Gaines.

Portland Opera Association Inc. (aka Portland Opera)
Portland, OR
$17,500
To support Galileo Galilei by composer Philip Glass and librettists Mary Zimmerman and Arnold Weinstein. The production will serve as the centerpiece of a larger community initiative celebrating the work of Philip Glass and the intersection of art with science, that will culminate with a recording of the work and its first-ever commercial release.

Regents of the University of California at Berkeley (on behalf of Cal Performances)
Berkeley, CA
$75,000
To support performances of Einstein on the Beach by composer Philip Glass and librettist Robert Wilson. A two-week residency with the composer and librettist as well as numerous education and community programs will bring this significant work to the stage.

San Diego Opera Association (aka San Diego Opera)
San Diego, CA
$42,500
To support the new opera Moby Dick by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, based on the novel by Herman Melville. Director Leonard Foglia, designer Robert Brill, projection designer Elaine McCarthy, and lighting designer Donald Holder will be joined by a diverse cast in this co-commission with the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, State Opera of South Australia, and Calgary Opera.

San Francisco Opera Association (aka San Francisco Opera)
San Francisco, CA
$70,000
To support the premiere of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by composer and librettist Mark Adamo. Community outreach activities include panel discussions with the artists, biblical scholars, and authors allowing for questions and answers, lectures, films, and artwork displays about Mary Magdalene in the opera house lobby.

Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe, NM
$40,000
To support a new production of King Roger by composer Karol Szymanoski. The creative team will comprise director Stephen Wadsworth, scenic designer Thomas Lynch, lighting designer Duane Schuler, and conductor Evan Rogister as well as an international roster of singers including Mariusz Kwiecien, Erin Morley, William Burden, and Raymond Aceto.

Seattle Opera
Seattle, WA
$20,000
To support the new production of Orphee et Eurydice by composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. Educational events will include preview lectures, post-performance question-and-answer sessions, and the company's Experience Opera program, which allows students to experience in-class presentations and dress rehearsals for free.

Tulsa Opera, Inc.
Tulsa, OK
$16,500
To support Dead Man Walking by composer Jake Heggie. Due to the unique subject matter and its potential appeal to those not familiar with the art form, both pre- and post-performance surveys will gauge the level of engagement among audience members. Sister Helen Prejean also will participate in various lectures and panel discussions prior to the production.

Virginia Opera Association, Inc.
Norfolk, VA
$17,500
To support a production of Orfee by composer Philip Glass and early 20th-century librettist, Jean Cocteau. The creative team will include director Sam Helfrich and conductor Steven Jarvi who will be joined by baritone Matthew Worth, soprano Sara Jakubiak, soprano Heather Buck, tenor Jeffrey Lentz, and bass Christopher Temporelli.

Washington Concert Opera
Washington, DC
$10,000
To support a concert opera presentation of Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saens. The cast will include tenor Brandon Jovanovich (Samson), mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung (Delilah), and baritone Gordon Hawkins (High Priest).

Washington National Opera
Washington, DC
$45,000
To support a new production of Verdi's Nabucco. The creative team will comprise director Thaddeus Strassberger and music director Philippe Auguin, and will feature Italian baritone Franco Vassallo (King Nabucco) and Hungarian soprano Csilla Boross (Abigaille).

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