LYSISTRATA
Music and libretto by Mark Adamo
Dates/Times/Location:
May 26 and June 3, 2012
Bass Performance Hall
Acclaimed American composer Mark Adamo, whose opera Little Women has enjoyed over 75
productions worldwide (including Fort Worth), has created in Lysistrata an opera that is “at once
provocative, hilarious, bawdy and tender” (Houston Chronicle). Based on Aristophanes’ work, this
“fantastical riff on the ancient Greek play” (The New York Times) satirizes humanity’s endless legacy of
war, not only war between nations, but the war of the sexes. The opera expands on the original premise
(a group of Athenian and Spartan women are tired of the constant warring between their cities, so they
band together and refuse to have sex with their men until peace is declared), but despite the comic
backdrop, the “brittle antiwar satire becomes a sumptuous love story, poised between comedy and
heartbreak,” (New Yorker).
Metroplex favorite and Texas native soprano Ava Pine (Julius Caesar, 2011) takes on the title
role, and her lover Nico, the Athenian solder, is sung by tenor Scott Scully (Angels in America, 2008).
Mezzo-soprano Meaghan Dieter+ (The Mikado, 2011) is Kleonike, the leader of the Athenian women,
while her Spartan counterpart, Lampito, is sung by mezzo-soprano Alissa Anderson^ (Cinderella, 2009).
Lampito’s husband Leonidas is the Spartan general, sung by bass-baritone Seth Mease Carico (Before
Night Falls, 2010). The Athenian couple Myrrhine and Kinesias are sung by soprano Ashley Kerr^ (Don
Giovanni, 2010) and baritone Michael Mayes (Dead Man Walking, 2009).
Music Director Joe Illick conducts, and the production is directed by FWOpera favorite David
Gately, who is well-known to Fort Worth audiences for directing contemporary opera (Before Night Falls,
2010; Angels in America, 2008; Little Women, 2005) as well as the classics (Julius Caesar, 2011;
Cinderella, 2009; and Lucia di Lammermoor, 2008; among others).
For further information contact:
Joy Partain
Fort Worth Opera
817-288-1218
joy@fwopera.org
Laura Grant
Grant Communications
212-600-0649
laura@grant-communications.com
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