Tickets
Food and drink will be available
About the Show
National Sawdust and VIA Records are proud to celebrate the release of the original cast recording of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s critically acclaimed opera Dog Days.
For this special evening, cast-members Lauren Worsham, Cherry Duke, Marnie Breckenridge, and James Bobick are joined by pianist James Johnston and clarinettist Eileen Mack of Newspeak to perform excerpts from the opera, as well as two additional works also by Little: one a song inspired by Ellie Lee’s 2001 film version of Dog Days, the other a world premiere arrangement of a traditional English ballad central to the opera’s score and plot.
This special ticket price includes a copy of the Dog Days CD. The album is available now for digital download and streaming, but physical CDs will be available first to audience members on Oct 16.
“It’s only a matter of time before this riveting show is confirmed as a groundbreaking American classic.” —The New York Times
“…Powerful and unsettling…” —The New Yorker
“…David T. Little and Royce Vavrek, one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today.” —The Wall Street Journal
PROGRAM
After a Film by Ellie Lee from Songs of Love, Death, Friends, and Government (2004)
By David T. Little
Marnie Breckenridge
James Johnston, piano
Selections from Dog Days (2012)
By David T. Little and Royce Vavrek
Lauren Worsham, Marnie Breckenridge and James Bobick (Selections TBD)
James Johnston, piano
The Three Ravens (World Premiere)
Traditional, arr. David T. Little
Lauren Worsham, Cherry Duke, and Marnie Breckenridge
James Johnston, piano
BIOS
David T. Little and Royce Vavrek have been called “one of the most exciting composer-librettist teams working in opera today” (The Wall Street Journal). The New York Times featured their breakout opera Dog Days as a standout of recent decades, proclaiming, “Mr. Little is a theatrical composer of distinction and flair,” and Mr. Vavrek, “an exemplary creator of operatic prose.” Dog Days premiered at Peak Performances @ Montclair in 2012, co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects (BMP). Subsequent presentations by BMP were mounted at Fort Worth Opera and LA Opera in 2015, and as part of the 2016 Prototype Festival in New York City. Two new German productions followed in 2016, at Theater-Bielefeld and Theater Schwerin. In addition, their enduring collaboration has produced a one act comedy, Vinkensport, or the Finch Opera, an oratorio Am I Born, and the stand-alone songs Last Nightfall and archaeology. They are currently at work on an opera commissioned as part of the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program, as well as several unannounced projects. Their first grand opera, JFK, premiered in April 2016 at Fort Worth Opera, and was praised as “ravishing” and “triumphant” by Opera News, “absorbing” and “heartbreaking” by the Wall Street Journal, and ”haunting” and “rapturous” by the New York Times.
