Set pieces include a little girl's swing, a bed that becomes a coffin, and a doll's house that opens up as the family's altar. The Seattle production also marked the opera debut of director Bartlett Sher, then the Artistic Director of Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. Beneath the veneer of the prim and proper Mannon family are seething passions of bitterness, infidelity, incest, and even murder. Registration or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. An adaptation of plays by Eugene O’Neill, the opera resets the events of Aeschylus’s Oresteia in New England in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, with Agamemnon transformed into a Union general returning from battle. Originally presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, the opera was simplified and streamlined as its composer matured. OP3308. An adaptation of plays by Eugene O’Neill, the opera resets the events of Aeschylus’s Oresteia in New England in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, with Agamemnon transformed into a Union general returning from battle. Chicago Lyric sets and costumes, rental available; Seattle and New York City Operas, 2003-2004 new co-production sets and costumes rental available. Need help? Copyright 2020 Norbeck,Peters & Ford, LLC. Find The Metropolitan Opera on Facebook (opens new window), Find The Metropolitan Opera on Twitter (opens new window), Find The Metropolitan Opera on Instagram (opens new window). Kevin Langan sounded a bit strained in the short and exhausting role of Ezra, the head of the Mannon family. [World Premiere Cast, plus Collier's & Lear's Met Opera debut roles; Based on the play cycle by Eugene O'Neill, this mythic tale is set in Massachusetts shortly after the Civil War. percussion**:with some doubling and, depending on space and budget and some instrument duplication, the part can be performed by 3/4 players. production notes: 8 Characters (plus Supernumeraries), 4 Stage sets: facade of Mannon house, bedroom, parlor with adjoining study, upper and lower decks of Brant's ship, 1998. MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA (Marvin David Levy), Live Performance, 1 April, 1967, w.Mehta Cond. Find past issues, features, reviews, recording and more. Originally presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, the opera was simplified and streamlined as its composer matured. Orin vows to avenge his father's death. John Macurdy and Marie Collier are General Ezra Manon and his wife Christine, alongside John Reardon and Evelyn Lear as their children, Orin and Lavinia. Please download one of our supported browsers. Newbury embraced the savagely beautiful music and libretto, creating a riveting spectacle and controlling the movement, spacing and body language of all singers with musical precision, as in the murder of Christine's lover, Adam Brant, and the postmortem, Salome-like kiss he receives from Lavinia. Other samplers acceptable, but pre-programmed disk, providing cues in consecutive order to facilitate players' immediate accessibility to one cue after another w/o having to search for the patch number, is available only for the Kurzweil. His wife Christine has been having an affair with Adam Bryant. Ezra Mannon returns from the Civil War. Copyright © 2020 parterre box. Streaming and discussion begin at 2:00 PM. The opera's Florida Grand Opera premiere, the first production of Susan T. Danis's tenure as FGO's general director and CEO, was staged by Kevin Newbury, who confirmed his status as a fine American opera director. Music Text. Lavinia, Ezra's daughter, hates her mother and knows about the affair. Diana Damrau and Joseph Calleja Live in Concert. When Ezra and Christine are alone that night, she exposes her affair, hoping Ezra will have a heart attack. Keith Phares was striking as Lavinia's brother Orin, who unravels mentally in the wake of his father's murder. Flanigan also sang the opera in Chicago and New York. Rayanne Dupuis was Lavinia, repeating the role she first sang at Seattle in 2003. Levy, Marvin David. Levy made further revisions for a staging of the opera by Bartlett Sher that was a coproduction of Seattle Opera (2003) and New York City Opera (2004), changing the original three-act structure to two acts and adding a new finale. Leonard Bernstein called Marvin David Levy's opera ‘a tremendous achievement, a remarkable work’….this opera received a 25-minute standing ovation on its opening night at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967.] Seattle Opera premiered the final revision of MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, the opera by Marvin David Levy to a libretto by Henry W. Butler based on Eugene O’Neill’s ORESTEIA-inspired plays, in 2003. NOTE: This work requires additional technological components and/or amplification. The Seattle performances starred the one and only Lauren Flanigan as Christine, the mother in western literature’s most messed-up family. Personalities, Cabaret, Broadway, Jazz, Dance, etc. Orin, Lavinia's brother, returns home from war, and Lavinia draws Orin aside and tells him about the poison. Seattle Opera premiered the final revision of MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, the opera by Marvin David Levy to a libretto by Henry W. Butler based on Eugene O’Neill’s ORESTEIA-inspired plays, in 2003. Originally presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, the opera was simplified and streamlined as its composer matured. Her soprano remains in full control of the high, wide-ranging tessitura. Explore our 450 operas, music theatre works, operettas and musicals, from popular classics to the latest contemporary operas. Met Opera Ensemble; Marie Collier, Evelyn Lear, Sherrill Milnes, John Reardon, John Macurdy, etc. Performed by The Chicago Lyric Opera , October 1998, director Liviu Ciulei . Mourning Becomes Electra Lauren Flanigan and Rayanne Dupuis star in this 2013 revival of Marvin David Levy 's tragic opera. Duration: 150 minutes. Gergiev; Kampe, Skorokhodov, Nikitin, Selig, Bicket; Rae, DiDonato, Lindsey, Davies, Rose. Mourning Becomes Electra, Eugene O'Neill's 1931 trilogy of plays, transfers the action of the fall of the house of Atreus from the sun-scorched earth of Mycenae to the green coldness of post-Civil War New England in 1865, setting the story of a multi-generational family curse among a group of Yankee men and women born to live with guilt and punishment. His final and most famous opera, Mourning Becomes Electra, has long been marked as both the turning point and the allegory of his career.