Center City Opera Theater to Premiere Danse Russe by Paul Moravec
On April 28-30, 2011 Center City Opera Theater will premiere Danse Russe at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. Danse Russe is a new one-act, vaudeville-style opera, with music by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Paul Moravec, based on an original libretto created by Wall Street Journal drama critic and biographer Terry Teachout. Danse Russe tells the story of the creation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring through the eyes of its creators; Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Monteux, and of course, Stravinsky.
This new opera is being paired with the Philadelphia premieres of Stravinsky’s short chamber opera Renard (The Fox) and his ballet Ragtime. Center City Opera Theater will collaborate with award-winning Orchestra 2001 and the Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers (KYLD), a nationally recognized contemporary dance company based in Philadelphia.
The first libretto reading was held in June 7, 2010. The first music workshop of Danse Russe was held Saturday, November 6th at the Ethical Society of Philadelphia as part of National Opera Week. Two staged workshops of Danse Russe were held on January 15th in Wilmington, Delaware and on January 16th in Philadelphia, 2011. The world premiere is scheduled for April 28-30, 2011 as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA).
Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has composed over one hundred orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film, and electro-acoustic compositions. His music has been described as “tuneful, ebullient and wonderfully energetic” (San Francisco Chronicle), “riveting and fascinating” (NPR), and “assured, virtuosic” (Wall Street Journal). Among Paul Moravec’s numerous awards are the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome, a Fellowship in Music Composition from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, a Camargo Foundation Residency Fellowship, two fellowships from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, as well as many commissions. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University, he has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Hunter College, and is currently University Professor at Adelphi University.