I am thrilled and excited to announce that OperAvant has agreed to produce my newly completed opera, The Bird Lady, in a pre-production concert on October 31, 2021. The preview concert will showcase Act I of the opera along side a production of Act I of Guiseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, both works to be presented in a piano-reduction format with full cast.

The Bird Lady (libretto by Germaine Shames), a two-act chamber opera with a cast of three and small chorus, was written over a period of three-plus years from 2017 to 2021, culminating in a presentation of a portion of the final act in a Salon meeting of the New York Composers Circle in May 2021. It was then that Tamara Cashour, owner and manager of OperAvant, approached me to inquire about producing the opera, which she felt was pertinent to our times and held personal meaning for herself.

Cashour contracted Carrie Wesolowski to direct the production, and Kevin Scott as the conductor. The cast includes Christina Kay, soprano, as Annabelle, Thomas Walters, tenor, as Marcus, and Chris Fistonich, baritone, as Percy. The chorus includes Jaclyn Randazzo, soprano; Richard Francis Orbach, counter-tenor; Perri Sussman, mezzo-soprano; and Andrew Boisvert, baritone. Xiyu Deng will be handling the piano duties, while Stephanie Proulx will perform on flute.

The performance will be held on October 31, 3:00 PM, in Marc A. Scorca Hall of the National Opera Center, 330 7th Ave, 7th Floor, New York, NY. Further details about the performance will be announced soon. For more details about the opera, the music, and the libretto, please click HERE.