Co-conceived by Opera Company Managing Director David B. Devan and Art Sanctuary Founder and Executive Director Lorene Cary, Hip H'Opera highlights the talents of young artists from Art Sanctuary's North Stars after-school program; the New Freedom Theatre's Performing Arts Training Program; and singers from the Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Porgy and Bess, for an innovative experience that celebrates the urban experience within a classical music setting.
The new program fuses the hip-hop poems of the North Stars with the music of classically-trained area composers Jay Fluellen, Diane Monroe, Rolando Morales-Matos, and Monnette Sudler. Ten North Stars students wrote hip-hop style poems for this project on themes ranging from family and friends, to experiences in their neighborhoods. The composers met for a private reading, choosing poems to set based upon this inspiration. The poems were then scored for voice, piano, string quartet, and percussion.
The songs will be performed by the gifted young artists of New Freedom Theatre's Performing Arts Training Program, and by Porgy and Bess cast members soprano Julie-Ann Whitely, tenor Don LeRoy Morales, mezzo-soprano Allison Sanders, and bass-baritone DeAndre Simmons. Also included in the line-up of soloists is soprano Evelyn Santiago-Schultz.
"The Opera Company of Philadelphia is honored to work with our partners at Art Sanctuary and New Freedom Theatre in developing this unique yet vital community program,"Â shared OCP Managing Director David B. Devan. "The opportunity to develop meaningful synergies between opera, hip-hop and cultural literacy activities, and to develop them in a way that speaks to students in our community, is ultimately at the heart of the project."Â
Art Sanctuary Founder and celebrated author Lorene Cary said, "What hip hop and opera have in common is the primacy of the voice, a delight in pushing to human limits the possibilities of the voice and the breath; that and a delight in the inherent musical qualities of language. They're made for each other."Â
New Freedom Theatre Producing Artistic Director Walter Dallas - who is currently making his operatic directorial debut with Porgy and Bess - agreed, sharing, "Hip H'Opera is an exciting and special project, and I am so pleased that Freedom students and staff are involved. I hope to see future collaborations arise from this genesis."Â
The inaugural run of Hip H'Opera culminates on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at Art Sanctuary's home the Church of the Advocate, 18th and Diamond Streets in Philadelphia. Performances include a free student matinee at 10:00 AM and an evening performance at 7:30 PM which is open to the public. Tickets to the evening performance are $5.00. -- www.operaphilly.com
Posted February 7th, 2007 by ruzik_tuzik
