Odyssey Opera

Odyssey Opera is an opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 2013 by Gil Rose,[1] it typically begins its season with a concert performance of a large, rarely heard opera in the fall, continuing the season with fully staged renditions of early, classical, and contemporary opera.[2] The company is known for performing "offbeat, neglected repertoire, with a special nod to those never, or rarely, performed in Boston"[3] and New England.

Productions

Inaugural season

The company's inaugural season in 2013 was launched with a concert performance of Rienzi, an opera from early in Wagner's career (but seldom performed today),[4] followed by the "ambitious, satisfying trifecta"[5] of Mascagni's Zanetto, Verdi's Un giorno di regno,[6] and Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna.[3]

Later productions

In 2014, its season opened with the Boston premiere of Korngold's "grandly gorgeous, melancholy masterpiece,"[5] Die tote Stadt, in a production praised for its "precision, force, and tone chemistry";.[7][8] The company also put on two one-act, one-singer operas by Dominick Argento (Miss Havisham's Wedding Night and A Water Bird Talk),[9] as well as Tobias Picker's children's opera Fantastic Mr. Fox, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's story, which was produced in collaboration with Boston Modern Orchestra Project.[10] It completed the 2014/15 season with The British Invasion, a festival of nine British operas: Vaughn Williams's Sir John in Love, Sullivan's The Zoo, Walton's The Bear, Thomas Adès Powder her Face, Britten's Phaedra, Bennet's Ophelia, Berkely's Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila, Weir's King Harald's Saga and Maxwell-Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King.[11]

Its 2015/16 season began with the "enthusiastically cheered"[12] Boston premiere of Massenet's Le Cid at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall.[13][14] It presented The Fisherman and His Wife as part of the Gunther Schuller Memorial Concert the following November.

References
  1. Edgers, G. (2013-07-19). "New troupe will try to fulfill defunct Opera Boston's goals". Boston Globe. More than a year after the stunning collapse of Opera Boston, a new company is set to emerge ... Gil Rose, Opera Boston's artistic director, will be the general and artistic director.
  2. Rosenberg, Marion (2013-09-12). "Boston Opera? It's Wicked Good, Says Odyssey Opera Founder". WQXR-FM: New York's Classical Music Station. Retrieved 2015-10-16. Ideally, every September I'd like to do something like Rienzi: a large concert opera that nobody in Boston could stage. Then we'd turn to staged operas but on a more intimate scale and in a festival format: three or four titles presented over the course of several weeks in May or June, representing a cross-section of styles, from early music to contemporary.
  3. Weininger, David (2014-04-11). "Odyssey opera unveils 2014 season". Boston Globe.
  4. Shea, Andrea (2013-09-13). "With A Bold Choice, Boston Upstart Steps Into The Risky Opera Business". 90.9 WBUR-FM: Boston's NPR News Station. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  5. Smith, Steve (2014-09-21). "An agile newcomer tests uncharted waters". Boston Globe. Retrieved 16 October 2015. Just over a year later, the upstart organization has notched further triumphs: an ambitious, satisfying trifecta of underexposed Italian operas by Verdi, Mascagni, and Wolf-Ferrari, fully staged in June, and a triumphal concert rendition of Korngold's grandly gorgeous, melancholy masterpiece, "Die Tote Stadt," presented to rapturous response at a sold-out Jordan Hall earlier this month.
  6. Mao, Angelo (2014-06-12). "Odyssey Opera's polished Verdi comedy fit for a king". Boston Classical Review. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  7. Wright, David (2014-09-14). "Odyssey Opera glows in belated Boston premiere of Korngold's "Die tote Stadt"". Boston Classical Review. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-16. Rose's and the orchestra's rendering of this brilliant score was a model of precision, force, and tone chemistry.
  8. Schwartz, Lloyd (2015-09-14). "Welcome Back, Odyssey Opera: Massenet's 'Le Cid' In Concert At Jordan Hall". 90.9 WBUR-FM: Boston's NPR News Station. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-16. Two years ago, Rose inaugurated Odyssey Opera with Wagner's early epic 'Rienzi.' Last year it was Korngold's gorgeous romance 'Die tote Stadt' ('The Dead City'). That performance justifiably sold out. And this year's rarity is a major work by the French composer Jules Massenet, 'Le Cid.'
  9. Powers, Keith (2014-11-19). "Odyssey Opera Spends 'Miss Havisham's Wedding Night' With Dominick Argento". 90.9 WBUR-FM: Boston's NPR News Station. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  10. Ehrlich, John (March–April 2015). "Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr Fox at Odyssey Opera". American Record Guide. 78 (2): 7.
  11. "Gil Rose and Odyssey Opera's "British Invasion"". 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  12. Ledbetter, Steven (2013-09-21). "Machismo and Passion in Grand Opera Style". The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-16.
  13. Wright, David (2015-09-19). "Odyssey Opera goes long and large with Massenet's "Le Cid"". Boston Classical Review. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-15. Conductor Gil Rose was something of a Cid himself on the podium Friday, marshaling his large forces in the seemingly-endless series of crashing climaxes typical of this genre.
  14. Eichler, Jeremy (2015-09-21). "A local premiere for Massenet's 'El Cid'". Boston Globe. Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
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