Steven Stucky | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

July 29, 2015 • 6:59 am Comments Off on A Double-Bill in Aspen

A Double-Bill in Aspen

The Aspen Music Festival is giving the first fully staged performances of two one-act operas tomorrow: a fascinating double bill of The Classical Style (Steven Stucky’s debut opera to a libretto by Jeremy Denk) and The Cows of Apollo (the work of Christopher Theofanidis and playwright William Hoffman, the librettist for The Ghosts of Versailles). Aspen’s Music Director Robert Spano conducts the productions, which are being staged by Edward Berkeley.

My essay introducing the two operas can be found here.

Filed under: Aspen Music Festival, Christopher Theofanidis, essay, new opera, Steven Stucky

July 22, 2015 • 5:18 am Comments Off on A Gorgeous Chamber Music Première in Seattle

A Gorgeous Chamber Music Première in Seattle

Steven Stucky; photo
(c) 2005 Hoebermann Studio

Along with its mix of well-known and unusual repertoire, the Seattle Chamber Music Society annually commissions a brand-new work for its Summer Festival. Monday evening’s programme unveiled the selection for 2015: Cantus by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky, who has gained prominence primarily as an instrumental and choral composer. (His first opera – a brilliantly witty yet at the same time touching one-act buffa to Jeremy Denk’s libretto improbably “dramatising” Charles Rosen’s The Classical Style – will receive its full stage première next week at the Aspen Festival.)

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Filed under: American music, Brahms, chamber music, commissions, Mendelssohn, review, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Steven Stucky