American Opera Theater_season - David + Jonathas


Cast:

David Brian Cummings
Jonathas Rebecca Duren
Saul Jason Buckwalter
Joabel Craig Lemming
Achis Ferris Allen

Orchestra:

Ignoti Dei Orchestra conducted by Timothy Nelson
Virginia Tech Chamber Singers, directed by Brian Gendron

Artistic Team:

Stage Direction: Timothy Nelson
Music Direction: Timothy Nelson + Adam Pearl
Lighting & Production Design: Kel Millionie

Dates:

May 2-4 2008
Georgetown University, Davis Center
May 9-10 2008
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Opera House

The Work

AOT completes its 2007-2008 season with Charpentier’s remarkable 1688 opera David et Jonathan. This work, the largest in the AOT repertoire, is a breathtaking masterpiece of the French baroque and strikingly contemporary in its themes. Work-shopped in AOT’s 2005 young artist program, this production will be the first professional staging of the opera in the Americas. David et Jonathas explores the relationship between three timeless figures and probes the nature of man’s relationship with the universe. In profoundly beautiful music Charpentier creates a heartbreaking portrayal unlike any of its day. Of the 2005 workshop the Baltimore Sun said the opera “set to music of immense beauty, couldn’t be more straight-to-the-heart…as noble as anything by Wagner, as emotionally wrenching as anything by Puccini.” For this final production of the season, AOT is joined by the enlarged Ignoti Dei orchestra and chorus.


Possible through a grant from the Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation.