premiered works
DARKLING
Music by STEFAN WEISMAN
LIBRETTO BY ANNA RABINOWITZ, BASED ON HER BOOK
DARKLING
Spanning the decades from the 1930’s to the post-World War period, Darkling is a remarkable story – both poignant and humorous – of love, loss, calamity and hope. Past and present blur, characters are swept along by the great forces of history and lives are bowed and buffeted in this uniquely moving and captivating work. "Brave and sensitive" (The New York Times), Darkling uses opera, avant-garde theatre, vaudeville and cutting edge technology to create “an unlikely collaboration of Wagner, Sally Bowles and Steven Spielberg" (Time Out/New York). This dramatic tour-de-force views history not from a grand geo-political perspective but from the insightful, intimate outlook of a poet whose ordinary Polish-Jewish family is unexpectedly affected by extraordinary events of the Holocaust.
Purchase AOP’s 2011 Studio Recording CD of Darkling, produced by Albany Records
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CREATORS
Stefan Weisman
Composer
Anna Rabinowitz
Librettist
Information
Duration 75 minutes
Commission Darkling was commissioned, developed, and premiered by The American Opera Project
Premiere February 26th, 2006; East 13th Street Theater, New York, NY; Brian DeMaris, conductor; J. David Jackson, music director; Michael Comlish, stage director
Roles four singers (soprano / mezzo / tenor / baritone); seven actors
Instrumentation string quartet with optional piano
Publisher Staged performances of this work require licensing through the composer.
Additional website: http://www.darklingopera.com/
PRESS
“stretches the very definition of opera... an absorbing, visually striking adaptation of Anna Rabinowitz’s book-length poem, based on fragments of letters by a family sundered by the Holocaust.”
“captivating.... brave and sensitive... [Stefan Weisman’s] music is personal, moody and skillfully wrought.”
April 2012 - GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE
Opera CD review: DARKLING
February 2012 - JUILLIARD JOURNAL
Opera CD review: DARKLING
January 24, 2012 - NEW MUSIC BOX
Opera CD review: DARKLING
January 17, 2012 - ENCOREMAG
Opera video profile: DARKLING
January 16, 2012 - THEATERMANIA
Opera CD review: "January's Collectible CDs"
January 9, 2012 - NOUSPIQUE.COM
Opera CD review: DARKLING
December 23, 2011 - PAGE4MUSIC
Opera profile: "Podcast: Stefan Weisman"
December 11, 2011 - "TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE" (PBS RADIO)
Opera profile: "Literature of memory: Anna Rabinowitz on Darkling"
December 1, 2011 - OUR TOWN
Opera profile: "Making Art in the Dark"
November 24, 2011 - NY CLASSICAL MUSIC EXAMINER
Opera CD review: "'Darkling' CD offers intriguing take on the problem of memory"
November 17, 2011 - JEWISH TELEGRAPH UK
Opera profile: "Anna's epic poem inspired by pictures"
November 14, 2011 - TIME OUT NY
Opera CD review: "Album review: Stefan Weisman and Anna Rabinowitz, Darkling"
March 30, 2006 - OPERA TODAY
Opera review: DARKLING
March 30, 2006 - OPERA TODAY
Opera review: DARKLING
March 9, 2006 - TIME OUT NY
Opera review: DARKLING
March 2, 2006 - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Opera review: DARKLING
February 28, 2006 - NY SUN
Opera profile: DARKLING
February 27, 2006 - NIGHT AFTER NIGHT
Opera review: DARKLING
