15758: RE: 15703: Bell: Toussaint opera in Boston

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John T. Longo <jtlongo@yahoo.com>

"Toussaint Before the Spirits" is being presented as part of the Opera
Unlimited Festival, in Boston, MA, on June 7th and 10th.  Here is the
link to the Festival site about the show including a link to buy tickets
($19-$30).:

http://www.operaunlimited.org/opera_toussaint.htm


Here is a blurb about it from 5/30/03 Boston Phoenix, an alternative
weekly paper in Boston, MA:

Opera Unlimited's second world premiere will be Toussaint Before the
Spirits, by BMOP composer-in-residence Elena Ruehr. Based on two novels
by Madison Smartt Bell, the opera describes the final days of Toussaint
L'Ouverture, who led Haiti's struggle for independence in the late 18th
century before being betrayed into captivity by Napoleon. Ruehr has said
that she chose Toussaint not only because of her interest in the story
but because she wanted to create the role of a " larger-than-life tragic
male hero " for baritone Stephen Salters. Sharing the bill is A Full
Moon in March, in which John Harbison adapts Yeats's play about a
swineherd who tries to win a queen's heart and is beheaded in the
process with his customary lyricism and probing harmony. Dates for these
two are June 7 and 10; Gil Rose conducts.


John Longo
(401) 272-2177