Gotham Chamber Opera
in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, and in association with American Repertory Theater

January 19 - 28, 2010
The Hayden Planetarium Rose Center for Earth and Space American Museum of Natural History
West 81st Street, NYC

Read press reviews of this production.

credits

Conductor Neal Goren
Director Diane Paulus
Video and Production Design Philip Bussmann
Costume Design Anka Lupes
Hair and Makeup Design Hagen Linss
Associate Director Andrew Eggert

CAST
Clarice Hanan Alattar
Flaminia Albina Shagimuratova
Lisetta Rachel Calloway
Ecclitico Nicholas Coppolo
Cecco Matthew Tuell
Ernesto Timothy Kuhn
Buonafede Marco Nisticò

conductor's notes

In the days before easy travel, operas were often set in what would have been exotic locales for their audiences: the Arab world (Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, Verdi’s Nabucco), the East (Bizet’s Pearl Fishers, Puccini’s Turandot, Delibes’ Lakme), and even the United States (Puccini’s La fanciulla del West). But nothing compares to the bizarrerie of setting an opera on the moon, as Haydn did in Il mondo della luna. The idea is so twisted I found it irresistible on first sight.

When I delved further into the work, I was delighted to discover that this setting had inspired Haydn to write some of his most varied and stupendous music. If you’re looking for a super-virtuosic show-stopping soprano aria, there is nothing in the entire repertoire that surpasses Flaminia’s Ragion nell’alma siede; if dreamy pathos is more to your taste, Clarice’s Quanta gente che sospira has never been outdone; and if you’re a fan of brilliant ensembles, the second-act finale of Il mondo is clearly the prototype for big sections of both the glorious fourth-act finale of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and the first-act finale of Don Giovanni – and loses nothing in the comparison. This is not only the best of Haydn, this is the best of music. It is no secret, however, that there is a great deal of chaff among the wheat of Il mondo della luna. Were there not, the piece would be in the standard repertory of every opera house today. So you will be pleased to know that the director Diane Paulus, her associate Andrew Eggert, and I have cut out the chaff, leaving you the very choicest bits.

But where to stage such an amazing work? As I was pondering this question, I happened to take my nephew to the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. I soon realized there was no venue more suitable (or more audacious) for an opera largely set on the moon than the Hayden, where we could incorporate segments of the planetarium’s amazing star shows into our production, thereby enabling our audience to make the trip to the moon along with Haydn’s protagonists.

When I floated the idea by Diane, who is the artistic director of the American Repertory Theater in Boston, the rightness of the concept made her practically giddy. I next proposed the idea to Ellen Futter, the president of the museum, who thought the concept intriguing. That was in November of 2007, and after a two-year gestation period that included acoustical tests and feasibility studies, Gotham Chamber Opera brings you Il mondo della luna in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History and the American Repertory Theater. It has been a journey nearly as unprecedented as the one Haydn set to music in 1777.

— Neal Goren

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