Sister Carrie

Described by Opera News as “an important addition to the American operatic canon,” Sister Carrie takes as its themes the lure of money and social standing. Robert Aldridge’s inventive score is richly melodic and unapologetically tonal. Herschel Garfein’s libretto is based on Theodore Dreiser’s groundbreaking 1900 novel, which depicts a small-town girl’s tortuous path to fame and her lover’s abject descent into despair.

The Doors of Heaven

The Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds has rapidly become one of the world’s most performed choral composers. His ability to bring a dramatic text to life through textures that are lush yet permeated with a more stringent and angular aesthetic has ensured a steady steam of commissions from leading orchestras and choral forces. The four works here reflect an interest in the beauty of nature, religious faith and legend.

Missa Charles Darwin

This is what evolution sounds like: the genetic sequence of Platyspiza crassirostis (one of Darwin's Finches) translated into notes, subjected to genetic and musical processes, and set to texts by Charles Darwin, all placed within the format of the traditional mass. The result is American composer Gregory W. Brown's Missa Charles Darwin, a secular Mass using texts from Darwin's On the Origin of Species and other writings.

CARMEN & L'ARLÉSIENNE SUITES

Despite the scandal it created with first staged in 1875, Carmen has subsequently become one of the world’s most popular operas. The love affair at its heart shocked contemporary audiences but the music is imperishably vibrant and exciting.