IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME: FRENCH CHAMBER WORKS FROM RAMEAU TO ROUSSEL - LAETITIA GRIMALDI AND STEPHANIE HOUTZEEL, WITH AMMEIL BUSHAKEVITZ, PIANO

This recital reunites soprano Laetitia Grimaldi and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel, who respectively performed Proserpina and Titano, King of Spain, who eloped with Proserpina, in Opera Lafayette’s modern premiere of Jommelli’s Cerere Placata. Recorded in the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin, this program will showcase the French Baroque and its influence on Romanticism in France. Flutist Charles Brink, a member of Opera Lafayette’s Orchestra, will make a guest appearance.

LAMENTATION TO LIBERATION. JONATHAN WOODY AND REGINALD MOBLEY, WITH YULIA VAN DOREN, AARON SHEEHAN, AND OTHER GUESTS

This program includes solos, duets, and ensembles from the 17th-century Italian repertoire, and will feature Nigra Sum Sed Formosa: A Fantasia on Microaggressions. Composed by bass baritone Jonathan Woody with text compiled by countertenor Reggie Mobley, this new work combines a contemporary topic with the aesthetics of a renaissance motet. Performers include Woody and Mobley, along with sopranos Yulia van Doren and Michele Kennedy, tenor Aaron Sheehan, organist Dongsok Shin, and viola da gambist Patricia Neely.

Staged outside in front of an historic Blacksmith Shop and Barn in Mancos, Colorado, Opera Lafayette’s adaptation of Philidor’s The Blacksmith was performed and filmed in October 2020 in front of a live audience. Presented in partnership with Mancos Creative District, this modern premiere adapted and translated from an 18th-century French opéra comique composed by François-André Danican Philidor in 1761 to the late 19th-century American West, met standing ovations and rave reviews.