In December, ALT launches the new FRESHLY BREWED series. These informal monthly concerts will feature a light brunch with Resident Artist composers and librettists, and performances of excerpts from their works-in-progress. The first FRESHLY BREWED will take place at OPERA America (330 7th Avenue at 29th Street, 16th Floor) on Sunday, December, 12th at 1:00 PM. Tickets must be purchased in advance for $15 and include brunch and the concert. Tickets are available online from www.smarttix.com or by calling (212) 868-4444. Casting for December's FRESHLY BREWED, and additional concerts for the winter and spring of 2011, will be announced later this fall.
ABOUT AMERICAN LYRIC THEATER
American Lyric Theater (ALT) was founded by Lawrence Edelson in 2005 to build a new body of operatic repertoire for new audiences by nurturing composers and librettists, developing sustainable artistic collaborations, and contributing new works to the national canon. ALT is not an opera company by any traditional definition. Many opera companies commission and perform new works; but ALT is the only company in the United States that offers extensive, full time mentorship for emerging operatic writers. While the traditional company model focuses on producing a season, ALT's programs focus on serving the needs of composers and librettists, developing new works, and collaborating with larger producing companies to help usher those works into the repertoire.
In 2006, ALT commissioned its first main stage work: THE GOLDEN TICKET, a new opera based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by American composer Peter Ash. After Ash and his librettist partner, Donald Sturrock, began independent development of this opera, ALT commissioned its completion with Felicity Dahl, and provided a supportive mentorship environment for three years. Under a new collaborative producing model, ALT developed a partnership with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to present the world premiere of THE GOLDEN TICKET, which took place in June 2010 to tremendous critical and audience acclaim. The European Premiere of THE GOLDEN TICKET will take place this October at Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera, and discussions are currently underway for additional presentations of the opera at multiple cities in the United States. In 2009, ALT initiated a second main stage commission, THE POE PROJECT: a trilogy of one-act operas inspired by the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe being written by six Resident Artists from ALT's Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP). Since launching the CLDP in 2007, ALT has provided intensive personalized mentorship to 17 gifted emerging artists. Currently, ALT is developing two additional full-length operas, and welcomes 8 new Resident Artists to the CLDP in the 2010-11 season.
The Composer Librettist Development Program is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The ASCAP Foundation - Joseph and Rosalie Meyer Fund and The Dorothy Loudon Foundation. THE POE PROJECT was commissioned by ALT with assistance from the New York State Council on the Arts.
For more information, visit www.altnyc.org
