Tickets
Food and drink will be available
About the Show
The House Taken Over by composer Vasco Mendonça and librettist Sam Holcroft
An opera based on the 1946 short story by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar featuring a score by composer Vasco Mendonça. It tells the story of a brother and sister living together in their ancestral home which is being “taken over” by unknown entities. Directed by Artist-in-Residence R.B. Schlather, The House Taken Over starts in a realist manner, slowly introducing a scene in which natural laws are distorted within a unique 4-D set.
Vasco Mendoça, Composer
Etienne Siebens, Music Director
R.B. Schlather, Director
Rachel Calloway, “Sister”
Robert Mellon, “Brother”
JAX Messenger, Lighting Design
Terese Wadden, Costume Design
Anne Ford-Coates, Hair and Make Up Design
Kathleen Stakenas, Stage Manager
Nolan Robertson, Orchestra Coordinator and Co-Producer
Miriam Charney,Vocal Coach
Brian Daurelle, Rehearsal Pianist
Benjamin Grow, Music/Orchestra Prep Conductor
Nolan Robertson, Orchestra Coordinator and Co-Producer
Miriam Charney,Vocal Coach
Brian Daurelle, Rehearsal Pianist
Benjamin Grow, Music/Orchestra Prep Conductor
Commissioned by LOD muziektheater & Festival d’Aix en Provence
Opera programming at NS is supported in part by a generous gift from Alberto Cribiore.
With special thanks to the Rolex Institute
Other Fall Highlights
National Sawdust and Manhattan School of Music Present: The House Taken Over
October 8, 2016 - 8:00pm An opera based on the 1946 short story by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar featuring a score by composer Vasco Mendonça. It tells the story of a brother and sister living together in their ancestral home which is being "taken over" by unknown entities. Directed by Artist-in-Residence R.B. Schlather, The House Taken Over starts in a realist manner, slowly introducing a scene in which natural laws are distorted within a unique 4-D set.
YPC Presents: Transient Glory
November 4, 2016 - 7:00pm Transient Glory, the groundbreaking new music commissioning series created in 2001 by Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez for the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, returns with the world premieres of six new works, representing a wide range of perspectives and styles, by six distinguished composers: Mason Bates (Sirens), Michael Gordon (Great Trees of New York City), Joan La Barbara (A Murmuration for Chibok), YPC alumna Jessie Montgomery (Danse Africaine), Robert Xavier Rodriguez (A Surfeit of Similes), and Charles Wuorinen (Exsultet).
A ‘Winterreise’ for the 21st Century Showcase
December 14, 2016 - 7:00pm Original texts by Wilhelm Müller – just as Schubert used. New music by Dutch composer Boudewijn Tarenskeen (who received the most prestigious Dutch Composers’ Prize Matthijs Vermeulen Prijs in 2009)
National Sawdust and Manhattan School of Music Present: The House Taken Over
October 9, 2016 - 8:00pm An opera based on the 1946 short story by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar featuring a score by composer Vasco Mendonça. It tells the story of a brother and sister living together in their ancestral home which is being "taken over" by unknown entities. Directed by Artist-in-Residence R.B. Schlather, The House Taken Over starts in a realist manner, slowly introducing a scene in which natural laws are distorted within a unique 4-D set.
NYFOS Next: Christopher Cerrone & Friends
December 8, 2016 - 7:00pm Hailed as "a rising star" by The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 Samual Barber Rome Prize, Christopher Cerrone is a Brooklyn-based composer whose compositional voice is characterized by profoundly expressive lyricism, ringing clarity, and deep literary fluency. His opera Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino's classic novel was praised by The Los Angeles Times as "a delicate and beautiful opera...[which] could be, and should be, done anywhere."
NYFOS Next, the "invaluable contemporary-music series" (The New Yorker), offers today's song composers an opportunity to curate a program of their work alongside that of their peers, students, and mentors.
NYFOS Next, the "invaluable contemporary-music series" (The New Yorker), offers today's song composers an opportunity to curate a program of their work alongside that of their peers, students, and mentors.
Birdman Live Scoring
November 5, 2016 - 7:00pm Experience the explosive Oscar winning FILM BIRDMAN, accompanied LIVE by composer Antonio Sanchez with his Grammy Award winning score that provides the heartbeat of the film. The Oscar winner for Best Picture by maverick director Alejandro Inarritu stars Michael Keaton as a washed-up action star trying to reinvent his career as a credible actor and director on the Broadway stage. For this special performance, the film will be accompanied live by renowned jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez playing his electric, GRAMMY winning score.
Make Music New York: Ariodante Open Rehearsal
December 21, 2016 - 12:00pm Open Rehearsal of Handel’s Ariodante. Directed R.B. Schlather; Conducted by Geoffrey McDonald. Composed in 1734 by George Frideric Handel.
Sxip Shirey’s Hour of Charm
October 3, 2016 - 8:00pm An abundant night of music curated by NYC composer/sound artist Sxip Shirey featuring Basil Twist. Basil is a third generation puppeteer now living in New York. He is the sole American to graduate from the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, France.
NYFOS Next: Gabriela Lena Frank & Friends
November 2, 2016 - 7:00pm A native Californian of mixed Peruvian, Chinese, Lithuanian, and Jewish descent, Gabriela Lena Frank explores her multicultural heritage ardently through her compositions. Her pieces refract her studies of Latin American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework uniquely her own.
CCO Presents: Sweat by Juliet Palmer
October 26, 2016 - 8:00pm The Center for Contemporary Opera presents the world premiere ofSweat by the New Zealand-Canadian composer Juliet Palmer created with librettist Anna Chatterton. Sweat is a full-length a cappella opera composed for 5 singers and chorus. The opera is a kaleidoscope of characters and stories collected from factories around the world.
AdHoc Presents: Xylouris White
November 18, 2016 - 10:00pm When Xylouris White recorded their second album, this most intuitive and inquisitive of duos did what comes naturally to them: expanded their horizons. For George Xylouris, the Cretan lute player who partners here with the Dirty Three’s preternaturally fluent Australian drummer Jim White, one aim was to extend a core metaphor of their ruggedly visionary debut album, 2014’s Goats. “Like goats walking in the mountain” is Xylouris’ poetic analogy for their approach: “They may not know the place, but they can walk easily and take risks and feel comfortable. Really, the goats inspired us.”
Timo Andres & Yevgeny Kutik
October 19, 2016 - 7:00pm Acclaimed composer/pianist Timo Andres will be joined by celebrated violinist Yevgeny Kutik, giving the New York premiere of Andres’ Words Fail and the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s Arioso Doloroso/Estatico, both of which Kutik commissioned for his new album, Words Fail (Marquis, October 2016). These premieres will be featured alongside works by Nico Muhly, Mendelssohn, and Stravinsky, each continuing the theme of “songs without words.
