PERGOLESI!

El Museo del Barrio
New York City, NY
Thursday, May 11, 2023, 7:00pm

CAST & CREW

*Mesko and Blondeel (Stabat Mater), de Priest (Servante Maitresse)

in the salons of versailles

El Museo del Barrio
New York, NY
Wednesday, May 10 2023, 7 pm

CAST & CREW

OPERA LAFAYETTE PRESENTS

THE ERA OF MADAME DE POMPADOUR
NEW YORK GALA PERFORMANCE AND DINNER

GALA CHAIR
BARBARA TOBER

HONORING
HENRY TIMMS
PRESIDENT & CEO OF LINCOLN CENTER

SPECIAL GUESTS
H.R.H. PRINCESS CHANTAL DE FRANCE &
THE BARON FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DE SAMBUCY DE SORGUE

MACHINE DAZZLE

This event is part of Opera Lafayette’s Second Annual New York City Baroque Festival.

This performance is part of Opera Lafayette’s Second Annual New York City Baroque Music Festival. Tickets can be purchased for this performance alone, as part of the Gala, or the full festival which includes three performances from May 9 to 11, 2023. More information about the Festival can be found here.

Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro

El Museo del Barrio
New York, NY
Tuesday, May 9 2023, 6:30 pm

CAST & CREW

The productions will feature dance Seán Curran Company (choreographer Seán Curran) and New York Baroque Dance Company (choreographer Catherine Turocy).

Emmanuelle de Negri, soprano, and Maxime Melnik, tenor (U.S. debut) will star in the title roles and be joined by Doug Williams, Gwendoline Blondeel, and Patrick Kilbride. 

Avi Stein will conduct and Nick Olcott will return to Opera Lafayette to direct.

Don’t miss your chance to meet the artists and scholars behind this year’s Opera Lafayette New York Baroque Music Festival! They will engage in a stimulating conversation about the making of the three upcoming productions featured in this year’s festival, all exploring the theme of The Era of Madame de Pompadour. See full list of artists below the break.

The Roundtable will be hosted at the French Institute Alliance Française (FI:AF) in NY with coffee and pastries starting at 10:00am and the discussion beginning at 10:30am.

FI:AF Skyroom:  22 E 60th Street #1077, New York, NY 10022

*This event is free to the public but registration is requested.

If you have any questions, please contact our office at JaceChambers@Operalafayette.org

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Mathias Auclair, Scholar
Callum Blackmore, Scholar
Sylvie Bouissou, Scholar
Emmanuel de Negri, Artist
Julia Doe, Scholar
Rebecca Harris-Warrick, Scholar
Maxime Melnik, Artist
Nick Olcott, Director
Naomi Steele, Artist
(Pictured above left to right.)

New Musical Discoveries from the Era of Madame Pompadour (1745-1764)

Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson Building, Room 119

The Library of Congress in collaboration with Opera Lafayette present French and American scholars involved with the rediscovery, completion and premieres of two significant 18th-century Opéra-ballets: Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Io and Pierre de la Garde’s Léandre et Héro. The panelists will discuss issues regarding research and editing for performance editions of operas from this period, and examine the role of great national libraries in acquiring and preserving artifacts of cultural patrimony. 

Speakers:

• Susan H. Vita, chief, Music Division, Library of Congress

• Mathias Auclair, director, Music Department, Bibliothèque Nationale de France

• Sylvie Bouissou, director of research, National Center of Scientific Research (CHRS)

• Ryan Brown, artistic director and founder, Opera Lafayette

Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theater
Tuesday, May 3, 2023, 7:30 pm

CAST & CREW

The productions will feature dance Seán Curran Company (choreographer Seán Curran) and New York Baroque Dance Company (choreographer Catherine Turocy).

Emmanuelle de Negri, soprano, and Maxime Melnik, tenor (U.S. debut) will star in the title roles and be joined by Doug Williams, Gwendoline Blondeel, and Patrick Kilbride. 

Avi Stein will conduct and Nick Olcott will return to Opera Lafayette to direct.

Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theater
Tuesday, May 2 2023, 7:30 pm

Post-Show Reception

Immediately following the performance there will be a Post-Show Reception across the street at The Watergate Hotel. Tickets are $35 and includes specialty drinks and passed hors d'oeuvres. Purchase tickets here.

CAST & CREW

The productions will feature dance Seán Curran Company (choreographer Seán Curran) and New York Baroque Dance Company (choreographer Catherine Turocy).

Emmanuelle de Negri, soprano, and Maxime Melnik, tenor (U.S. debut) will star in the title roles and be joined by Doug Williams, Gwendoline Blondeel, and Patrick Kilbride. 

Avi Stein will conduct and Nick Olcott will return to Opera Lafayette to direct.

Nature Spirits in Rameau’s Io!

 Saturday, April 8th @ Tregaron Conservancy
3100 Macomb St NW, Washington, DC 20008
11:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

Join Opera Lafayette for this exciting musical experience in nature at Tregaron Conservancy, a beautiful natural setting in the Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Our guest artists including Simone Brown (Soprano), Sarah Laughland (Dancer/Singer/Actress/Choreographer), and Lori D’Orazio (Dancer), will lead us on an adventure through the music and dance that is featured in Io, an opera by the 18th century French composer Rameau. We will make our very own masks to help us act out the different characters from the performance!

Opera Starts with Oh! takes place right after Tregaron Conservancy’s Annual Easter Egg Hunt! Take part in both events and double your fun! Here is the link to register for the egg hunt. Space is limited so be sure to reserve your spot soon!

For the last installment of our Opéra-ballet Salon Series (more below), this session will discuss how Dance was an essential part of all French operas of the 18th century. Rebecca Harris-Warrick and Hedy Law will discuss what the inclusion of dancing meant to these operas, the multiple ways in which it functioned within a primarily vocal environment, and how the emergence of pantomime offered a new paradigm, both aesthetic and intellectual, to French conceptions of choreographed movement.

ABOUT THE FULL SALON SERIES

In preparation for our performance of Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro (coming to Washington, DC May 2 & 3, 2023 and NY on May 9, 2023), Opera Lafayette and guest scholars will be hosting a Salon Series for three weeks in March, on Wednesdays the 1st, 15th, and 29th at 6 PM EST.  Join us as we delve further into the Rococo influences of Madame de Pompadour, who is the inspiration for our 2023 musical season (get tickets). Each session of this Salon Series will feature a unique look into our upcoming production.

An Evening with Machine Dazzle, Meredith Martin, Jonathan Woody, Avi Stein, and Oliver Mercer         

Moderated by Ryan Brown, founder and artistic director of Opera Lafayette

FIAF and Opera Lafayette present a musical evening delving into the striking parallels between the classic extravagance of French Rococo style and the over-the-top aesthetic of Queer Maximalism.

Join costume designer Machine Dazzle, art historian Meredith Martin, musicians Jonathan Woody, Avi Stein, and Oliver Mercer, along with moderator Ryan Brown, founder and artistic director of Opera Lafayette, for music and lively conversation. The topic of contemporary resonance will be debated, while musicians perform excerpts from Opera Lafayette’s upcoming spring production of Rameau’s comedy ballet Io, premiering in New York at the Museo del Barrio on May 9.

Please note that the event has been moved from the FIAF Skyroom to FIAF Florence Gould Hall.

Ticket Information

FIAF Members: $25
Non-Members: $30
Students with ID: $25

Venue

FIAF Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street,
New York, NY 10022

Photo on left above: Taylor Mac in a work by Machine Dazzle created for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Photo by Little Fang courtesy of Pomegranate Arts)

Join Lead Teaching Artist Julia Bengtsson (New York Baroque Dance Company Dancer), for this in-person session of Opera Starts with Oh! 

Come with us as we explore the famous French composer and the musical work of Io that was left unfinished, and will be debuted for the first time with Opera Lafayette in May in New York City and Washington, DC (tickets on sale now)!

We’ll dive into the music with professional singer, instrumentalist, actor, and director Paul Shipper, learning more about what it means to be a musician and expressing emotions through sound. Soprano and voice teacher Erinn Sensenig will take us on a journey into the arias of Rameau’s Io, offering everyone a chance to try out their own opera singing IN A REAL THEATER (see what it looks like below)! You’ll also get to create your very own costume piece to continue the fun at home. We can’t wait to see you there!

Part of our Opéra-ballet Salon Series (more below), this session focuses on a discussion of the Rococo and its afterlives in the twenty-first century, including work by contemporary artists who have engaged directly with this artistic mode in a variety of media. It will also feature a conversation with Rameau’s costume designer, Machine Dazzle, hailed as a “theatrical genius” (The New Yorker), and “renowned, multifaceted artist” (Vogue).

ABOUT THE FULL SALON SERIES

In preparation for our performance of Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro (coming to Washington, DC May 2 & 3, 2023 and NY on May 9, 2023), Opera Lafayette and guest scholars will be hosting a Salon Series for three weeks in March, on Wednesdays the 1st, 15th, and 29th at 6 PM EST.  Join us as we delve further into the Rococo influences of Madame de Pompadour, who is the inspiration for our 2023 musical season (get tickets). Each session of this Salon Series will feature a unique look into our upcoming production.

Part of our Opéra-ballet Salon Series (more below), this session features a discussion about the Rococo as an eighteenth-century mode that encompassed the visual arts, material culture, fashion and music, providing context for Rameau’s Opéra-ballets, and include some discussion of the culture of the opera-comique, the ballet, and its generative qualities.

ABOUT THE FULL SALON SERIES

In preparation for our performance of Opéra-ballet: Rameau’s Io and de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro (coming to Washington, DC May 2 & 3, 2023 and NY on May 9, 2023), Opera Lafayette and guest scholars will be hosting a Salon Series for three weeks in March, on Wednesdays the 1st, 15th, and 29th at 6 PM EST.  Join us as we delve further into the Rococo influences of Madame de Pompadour, who is the inspiration for our 2023 musical season (get tickets). Each session of this Salon Series will feature a unique look into our upcoming production.

Photo in Header: Fabiola Jean-Louis, Marie Antoinette Is Dead, From the Rewriting History series, Archival pigment print, unframed, 24in x 31in, © image: Artist Website.

PERGOLESI!

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Terrace Theater
Washington, DC
Thursday, February 2, 2023, 7:30pm
Pre-Concert Lecture, 6:30- 7pm in the theater

post-show reception

CAST & CREW

*Mesko and Blondeel (Stabat Mater), de Priest (Servante Maitresse)

Opera Lafayette is presenting not the well-known, original version of La serva padrona but a relative rarity: a translation of this comedy, La servante maîtresse, which enjoyed tremendous success in theaters across eighteenth-century France. In this session, performers and members of the production team discuss their approaches to Pergolesi’s music, and their experiences bringing this Enlightenment-era adaptation to the modern stage.

*Please note that you only need one registration per household/device.

Join Lead Teaching Artist Sarah Laughland, for this in-person session of Opera Starts with Oh! We’ll explore the famous Italian composer and artist Giovanni Pergolesi and his musical works, especially his popular comedy La Servante maîtresse and his beloved Stabat Mater.

In a fun, age-appropriate way, we’ll dive into the music of La Servante maîtresse and Stabat Mater together with Violinist and Music Educator Dr. Christopher Ciampoli, and learn more about what it’s like to be a musician.

Actor and Theater Educator Kathryn Zoerb will take us on a journey into the world of Commedia dell’Arte, learning all about acting in Italy during Pergolesi’s time. We’ll even create our own characters!

At the end of the session, each child will have also created and be able to take home their very own costume piece, so they can continue the fun at home! We can’t wait to see you there!

Pergolesi’s comic intermezzo, La serva padrona, was one of the most popular operas of the eighteenth century. Premiered in Naples in 1733, the work was met with audience acclaim—and tremendous critical controversy—after performances in Paris, Versailles, and Fontainebleau in the early 1750s. The imported Italian style incited a dispute known as the querelle des bouffons (or “war of the comic actors”), pitting partisans of modern, ultramontane comedy against defenders of the traditional and eminently “French” genre of courtly tragedy. This talk offers an introduction to the French opera wars of the 1750s—and Madame de Pompadour’s role within them—exploring both developments in musical aesthetics and the political ramifications of these shifts. 

Concert Spirituel aux Caraïbes 

With music composed by Gossec, Dalayrac, Pergolesi, and more. 

Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC 10029

Pedro Memelsdorff, a musician scholar whose recent research has focused on music in the French colonies in the Caribbean during the 18th century, conceives and leads a program highlighting French music performed there between 1760 and 1790.  The musical life of the colonies involved enslaved, formerly enslaved, and free peoples, and Memelsdorff’s program addresses the extraordinarily complicated dynamics between the musical culture of imperial France and the people of the Caribbean.  Well-known French composers from the 18th century and newly rediscovered works are represented in this orchestral concert with vocal soloists and ensemble. 

Concert Spirituel aux Caraïbes 

With music composed by Gossec, Dalayrac, Pergolesi, and more 

Museo del Barrio
1230 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10029

Pedro Memelsdorff, a musician scholar whose recent research has focused on music in the French colonies in the Caribbean during the 18th century, conceives and leads a program highlighting French music performed there between 1760 and 1790.  The musical life of the colonies involved enslaved, formerly enslaved, and free peoples, and Memelsdorff’s program addresses the extraordinarily complicated dynamics between the musical culture of imperial France and the people of the Caribbean.  Well-known French composers from the 18th century and newly rediscovered works are represented in this orchestral concert with vocal soloists and ensemble. 

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11

Le Salon de Musique de Marie Antoinette
(The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette)
Concert & Gala Dinner
New York City

Wednesday, June 8
7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street
New York City

Please join us for a celebration of…

Opera Lafayette's inaugural New York Festival,
The Era of Marie Antoinette, Rediscovered. 

The evening will commence at El Museo del Barrio with Opera Lafayette’s presentation of Le Salon de Musique de Marie Antoinette (The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette). A gala dinner will immediately follow the concert at a private club to which transportation will be provided.

The gala will honor Emily K. Rafferty, President Emerita of The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  and feature a post-dinner performance by internationally-renowned bass Nathan Berg.

ABOUT THE CONCERT
Le Salon de Musique de Marie Antoinette
(The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette)

As the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette had an extraordinary education in music and dance. After marrying the French Dauphin in 1770 and becoming Queen of France in 1774, she became a patron of contemporary composers and performed frequently in her own salon as a harpist. This program brings the listener into her salon at Versailles to hear airs and chamber works of Gluck, the Caribbean-born Chevalier de Saint Georges, and Phillip Hinner, a survivor of the ill-fated colony Kourou in Guinea, among others.

Cast
Sophia Burgos, soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Jacob Ashworth, violin
Charles Brink, flute 
Sandrine Chatron, harp

Ticket Levels

Please select from the following ticket levels. Any questions, please call (212) 634-9388 or email operalafayette@operalafayette.org.

If you’d like to purchase a New York City subscription and tickets to Le Salon de Musique de Marie Antoinette (The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette) Concert & Gala Dinner, please contact our Box Office directly at (212) 634-9388 or email operalafayette@operalafayette.org.

Platinum Concert & Dinner Table for 10 - $15,000 ($11,150 tax deductible)

• 10 Orchestra Center Concert Tickets

• Dinner for 10 at a private club

• VIP Transportation from El Museo del Barrio to a private club

• 10 Tickets to a French Consulate Reception

• 10 tickets to the Roundtable Discussion on The Era of Marie Antoinette, Rediscovered – Friday, June 10th

Gold Concert & Dinner Table for 10 - $7,500 ($3,900 tax deductible)

• 10 Orchestra Front Concert Tickets

• Dinner for 10 at a private club

• Transportation from El Museo del Barrio to a private club

• 2 Tickets to a French Consulate Reception

• 10 tickets to the Roundtable Discussion on The Era of Marie Antoinette, Rediscovered – Friday, June 10th

Individual Platinum Concert & Dinner Ticket $1,500 ($1,115 tax deductible)

• Orchestra Center Concert Ticket

• Dinner at a private club

• VIP Transportation from El Museo del Barrio to a private club

• Ticket to a French Consulate Reception

• Ticket to the Roundtable Discussion on The Era of Marie Antoinette, Rediscovered – Friday, June 10th

Gold Level Concert & Dinner Ticket $750 ($390 tax deductible)

• Orchestra Front Concert Ticket

• Dinner at a private club

• Transportation from El Museo del Barrio to a private club

• Ticket to the Roundtable Discussion on The Era of Marie Antoinette, Rediscovered – Friday, June 10th

If you’d like to purchase a New York City subscription and tickets to Le Salon de Musique de Marie Antoinette (The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette) Concert & Gala Dinner please contact our Box Office directly at (212) 634-9388 or email operalafayette@operalafayette.org.

The Musical Salon of Marie Antoinette 

Evening sung in French with English surtitles 

El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029

As the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie-Antoinette had an extraordinary education in music and dance. After marrying the French Dauphin in 1770 and becoming Queen of France in 1774, she became a patron of contemporary composers and performed frequently in her own salon as a harpist. This program brings the listener into her salon at Versailles to hear airs and chamber works of Gluck, the Caribbean born Chevalier de Saint Georges, and Phillip Hinner, a survivor of the ill-fated colony Kourou in Guinea, among others.  

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11

Gretry’s Silvain

A fully-staged production of this 1770 work, set in the New World. 

Museo del Barrio
1230 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10029

Silvain, (1770), was both a favorite of Marie Antoinette in France and the first opera performed in New Orleans in 1796.  Surprisingly, the opera’s story of family conflict and reconciliation also upheld the rights of peasants to use land owned by the nobles.   

In the early 19th century, French entrepreneurs moved to the American southwest and acquired vast tracts of land from the Mexican government. They guaranteed the peasants who settled these lands the same privileges as those at the center of the drama in Grétry and Marmontel’s opera. Conflicts around these rights in the United States have continued to the present day, and this story’s resonance in the New World has inspired Opera Lafayette’s setting of this modern premiere of Silvain.

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11

Gretry’s Silvain

A fully-staged production of this 1770 work, set in the New World. 

Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC 10029

Silvain, (1770), was both a favorite of Marie Antoinette in France and the first opera performed in New Orleans in 1796.  Surprisingly, the opera’s story of family conflict and reconciliation also upheld the rights of peasants to use land owned by the nobles.   

In the early 19th century, French entrepreneurs moved to the American southwest and acquired vast tracts of land from the Mexican government. They guaranteed the peasants who settled these lands the same privileges as those at the center of the drama in Grétry and Marmontel’s opera. Conflicts around these rights in the United States have continued to the present day, and this story’s resonance in the New World has inspired Opera Lafayette’s setting of this modern premiere of Silvain.

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11

Gretry’s Silvain

A fully-staged production of this 1770 work, set in the New World. 

Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC 10029

Silvain, (1770), was both a favorite of Marie Antoinette in France and the first opera performed in New Orleans in 1796.  Surprisingly, the opera’s story of family conflict and reconciliation also upheld the rights of peasants to use land owned by the nobles.   

In the early 19th century, French entrepreneurs moved to the American southwest and acquired vast tracts of land from the Mexican government. They guaranteed the peasants who settled these lands the same privileges as those at the center of the drama in Grétry and Marmontel’s opera. Conflicts around these rights in the United States have continued to the present day, and this story’s resonance in the New World has inspired Opera Lafayette’s setting of this modern premiere of Silvain.

This event is part of Opera Lafayette’s New Mexico Residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico.

GRÉTRY’S SILVAIN
THURSDAY MAY 26, 2022, 7 PM MT
(6 PM. PRE-CONCERT DISCUSSION)
TAOS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
133 PASEO DEL PUEBLO NORTE
TAOS, NEW MEXCO

In the early 19th century, French entrepreneurs moved to the American southwest and acquired vast tracts of land from the Mexican government. They guaranteed the peasants who settled these lands the same privileges as those at the center of the drama in Grétry and Marmontel’s opera. Conflicts around these rights in the United States have continued to the present day, and this story’s resonance in the New World has inspired Opera Lafayette’s setting of this modern premiere of Silvain. Learn more about the production here.

Join us for a pre-concert discussion with Sylvia Rodriguez, Maria Mondragon Valdez, Mr. Brown, Ms. Hernández Velasco, and Ms. Michaels at 6 p.m. GMT.

Attendance is free to the public, but reservations are recommended. Donations to The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico are encouraged.

This event is part of Opera Lafayette’s New Mexico Residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico.

SCREENING OF TITIXE
AN AWARD-WINNING FILM BY MEXICAN FILMMAKER
TANIA HERNÁNDEZ VELASCO
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 7 P.M. GMT
TAOS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
133 PASEO DEL PUEBLO NORTE
TAOS, NEW MEXCO

A mourning tree, dancing sprouts, ghosts, stories and forgotten seeds. This is a Mexican family’s very last attempt to cultivate their land.The last peasant of a family has died and with him, all wisdom to till the soil has been lost. Without experience, his daughter and granddaughter will attempt a last traditional harvest to try to convince Grandma, the widow of the peasant, to keep their plot of land. Together they will uncover the leftovers (locally known as the titixe) of this man and his world: a mourning tree, dancing sprouts, the language of clouds, ghosts, stories and the endless menace of losing the crops to a tempest. This is an intimate mosaic of the last harvest of a Mexican family, in a country that has forsaken its rural origins.

Attendance is free to the public, but reservations are recommended. Donations to Rio Grande Farm Park are encouraged.  

INDIGENOUS STYLE & CLAIMS OF THE COMMON LANDS
GUESTS SILVAIN COSTUME DESIGNER PATRICIA MICHAELS & TAOS PUEBLO MEMBER

Wednesday, May 25, 6 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. MT
VIRTUAL

Patricia Michaels, a Taos Pueblo native, and the costume designer for our production of Silvain, “took on the project of designing in part to incorporate a part of New Mexico culture she has been eager to explore through fashion. Informing her designs for the opera is the art of Spanish colonial New Mexico, ranging from carved and painted woodworking of santero artists (makers of religious imagery) to wool and cotton techniques of colcha embroidery, offering a contemporary interpretation of life and fashion during the state’s territorial period” (Hyperallergic). Joining her will be another member of the Taos Pueblo who will speak about Blue Lake and the Blanca Peak acquisitions and the culture, policies, and reclamation of common lands by Indigenous peoples. 

LAND RIGHTS OF TODAY
GUEST SCHOLAR MARIA MONDRAGON-VALDEZ & MEXICAN FILMMAKER / SILVAIN STAGE DIRECTOR TANIA HERNÁNDEZ VELASCO

Wednesday, May 18, 6 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. MT
VIRTUAL

Maria Mondragon-Valdez (a multi-generation resident of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant) talks to artists in the opera project about the specific ongoing land rights issues between the people of San Luis and the private owners of the Sangre de Cristo land grant, and relate it to the drama in our opera. Joining her will be Tania Hernández Velasco, known for her international, award-winning film, Titixe (2018), that will be screened May 26th at the Taos Center for the Arts (learn more).  This film follows the last harvest her family attempted before having to let go of their small piece of land, continuing the discussion of land taken from the indigenous. Silvain is her first exploration as an opera stage director, where she approaches social themes and visual motifs that dwell in her cinematic work.

SILVAIN IN 18TH CENTURY FRANCE 
GUEST SCHOLARS JUDITH MILLER & SYLVIA RODRIGUEZ 

Wednesday, May 11, 6 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m MT
VIRTUAL

Judith Miller (Emory University) joins Sylvia Rodriguez (Taos, UNM) to introduce land rights issues involving common lands first in late 18th century France (the original setting of the opera) and then during the European colonization of the southwest (the context of our updated setting of the opera).