FY 2005 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Multidisciplinary | Museums | Music | Musical Theater
Opera | Presenting | Theater | Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

OPERA

Austin Lyric Opera
Austin, TX
$15,000
To support a production of Richard Strauss's Elektra and a symposium series in collaboration with area universities. The University of Texas Humanities Institute will host scholar- and artist-led discussions of the work.

Boston Academy of Music, Inc.
Boston, MA
$10,000
To support a new production of Robert Ward's opera The Crucible, performed at the Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston, and additional activities held at historical sites and schools surrounding the Greater Boston area. Opera Boston will partner with the Salem National Historical Park to create participatory workshops and outreach events.

Boston Baroque, Inc.
Cambridge, MA
$10,000
To support a production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste. The fully staged, period-style performances and a pre-performance lecture will be presented in the Cutler Majestic Theater.

Boston Early Music Festival, Inc.
Cambridge, MA
$20,000
To support the world premiere and fully staged performances of Johannes Mattheson's baroque opera Boris Goudenow, and pre-performance lectures by the artistic team. This "lost" opera will be the centerpiece of the 13th biennial festival theme, "Germany, Russia and the Baltic States: Music in the Maritime World of Northern Europe."

Boston Lyric Opera Company, Inc.
Boston, MA
$22,500
To support the East Coast premiere of The Little Prince, by composer Rachel Portman and librettist Nicholas Wright. The performances are targeted to audiences of all ages and backgrounds as well as first-time audiences.

Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre
Cedar Rapids, IA
$10,000
To support a new production of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Falstaff, designed by Scott Olinger, and related in-school performances performed by singers from the Young Artists Program. Performances will be held in January 2005 at the Theatre Cedar Rapids including a free presentation for students in Cedar Rapids High School humanities program.

Center for Contemporary Opera, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support productions of The Last True Words of Dutch Schultz by composer Eric Salzman and librettist Valeria Vasilevski and Mario and the Magician by composer Francis Thorne and librettist J.D. McClatchy. Prior to each production, an Opera Preview Program will feature the composers and key artists in a dialogue with the audience.

Central City Opera House Association
Denver, CO
$10,000
To support a new production of Benjamin Britten's Paul Bunyan. This is only the second production of this opera in the United States since its premiere in 1941.

Chicago Opera Theater
Chicago, IL
$10,000
To support a staged production of G.F. Handel's oratorio La Resurrezione, and corresponding Opera Insights program activities. Associated events will include a symposium at the Newberry Library, preview lectures by a local critic, and free, pre-performance lectures by scholar musicians.

Cincinnati Opera Association
Cincinnati, OH
$22,500
To support a production of Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner, with libretto by Toni Morrison. The work will honor the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati and will include orchestra, chorus (recruited from area African American churches), and a cast of eight principals.

Encompass Theatre Company, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support workshops for the development of a new opera, The Theory of Everything, by composer Lior Navok and librettist Nancy Rhodes. The creative team will rehearse and review the first-draft score materials to evaluate needs toward developing a full-scale production.

Florentine Opera Company, Inc.
Milwaukee, WI
$15,000
To support the commissioning and development of a new chamber opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom and librettist Arnold Weinstein. The new work will be based on Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer prize-winning play Idiot's Delight, a tragicomedy set in an Austrian resort in 1936.

Glimmerglass Opera, Inc.
Cooperstown, NY
$35,000
To support a production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucie de Lammermoor, the French version of his Italian masterpiece. The new edition, prepared by Jacques Chalmeau, will be directed by Lillian Groag and conducted by Beatrice Jona Affron, with set designs by John Conklin and costumes by Jess Goldstein.

Houston Grand Opera Association, Inc.
Houston, TX
$35,000
To support Discover Opera: Community Connections Initiative, Phase II. The multi-component project aims to educate and nurture new audiences.

Jarvis Conservatory
Napa, CA
$20,000
To support the 11th annual Zarzuela Festival and workshop to educate emerging professional singers about this Spanish operatic art form. The four-week workshop will educate as many as 25 singers and dancers through coaching, master classes, and technique training, and will culminate in five performances of El Barberillo de Lavapies by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, libretto by Luis Mariano de Larra.

Kentucky Opera Association, Inc.
Louisville, KY
$15,000
To support a production, premiere, and tour of The Happy Prince by composer Malcolm Williamson. The premiere performance of the professional puppet opera production will be held at the W.L. Lyons Brown Theater in Louisville.

Knoxville Opera Company
Knoxville, TN
$20,000
To support productions of Gaetano Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment and Robert Ward's one-act opera Roman Fever, double-billed with Gioacchino Rossini's chamber opera "Il cambiale di matrimonio." The productions will form the centerpiece of the Fourth Annual Rossini Festival in April 2005, a free Italian Street Fair in downtown Knoxville.

Los Angeles Opera Company
Los Angeles, CA
$65,000
To support the production of a newly commissioned opera by Elliot Goldenthal and co-librettist and director Julie Taymor titled Grendel: Transcendence of the Great Big Bad. Grendel is based on John Gardner's novel of the same name and is drawn from the 9th-century poem, Beowulf.

Lyric Opera Center for American Artists
Chicago, IL
$22,500
To support a comprehensive singer training and professional development program including activities such as artist residencies, vocal instruction, and master classes. The curriculum includes theatrical coaching, language classes, and guidance regarding the diverse stylistic elements of opera, musical theater, and the art song genre.

Lyric Opera of Chicago
Chicago, IL
$75,000
To support a new production of Sir Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage and the OperaReach program. Activities will include pre-performance lectures and youth education and community initiatives.

Madison Opera, Inc.
Madison, WI
$10,000
To support a production of Jake Heggie's opera The End of the Affair. Based on the Graham Greene novel, the opera will be adapted for performances in the newly opened Overture Hall.

Merola Opera Program
San Francisco, CA
$17,500
To support a professional training program for singers, apprentice coaches, and an apprentice stage director. Participants receive private coaching and attend master classes that serve as forums for intergenerational exchange between opera's veterans and newcomers.

Metropolitan Opera Association, Inc.
New York, NY
$100,000
To support the North American premiere of Franco Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac. The new production will be directed by Francesca Zambello; Placido Domingo will sing the title role of Cyrano.

Michigan Opera Theatre
Detroit, MI
$40,000
To support a production of Margaret Garner, a newly commissioned American opera by composer Richard Danielpour and librettist Toni Morrison. The three-act opera is based on the true story of a fugitive slave woman's quest for freedom.

Minnesota Opera Company
Minneapolis, MN
$25,000
To support a production of Gaetano Donizetti's Maria Padilla at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. This rarely performed bel canto opera also will be the focus of educational activities designed for high school and college singers and will offer an opportunity to link its themes to social studies, literature, and music classes.

Musical Traditions, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
$10,000
To support presentations of new music theater and chamber opera productions. The project includes Artistic Director Paul Dresher's seminal music theater work Slow Fire, a new music theater project by Rinde Eckert titled Horizon, and the premiere and touring of The Tyrant, Dresher's new chamber opera.

Nashville Opera Association
Nashville, TN
$15,000
To support the world premiere of a new opera based on Elmer Gantry, the Sinclair Lewis novel about a charismatic businessman turned preacher. The music combines a melange of arias, hymn tunes, chorus spirituals, operatic duets, and musical ensembles.

New Cleveland Opera Company
Cleveland, OH
$10,000
To support Opera for Everyone, an expansion of Cleveland Opera on Tour. The three-part project will increase the number of community participants by 25 percent and add outdoor presentations called Opera in the Park.

New York City Opera, Inc.
New York, NY
$60,000
To support a new production of Giacomo Puccini's La Faniculla del West. Outreach programs will include panel discussions with directors, designers, and performers, along with educational opportunities for adults and high school and middle school students.

Opera America, Inc.
Washington, DC
$20,000
To support a consortium project for the development of Web-based educational material related to Giuseppe Verdi's operas. In partnership with the Sarasota Opera, OPERA America will increase public access to a broad array of opera information by presenting the material on a public education web site, www.OperaWorld.com.

Opera America, Inc.
Washington, DC
$100,000
To support the continued provision of publication and online services to opera companies and artists. The national service organization for opera companies also plans to expand its membership services by introducing two new technical assistance programs.

Opera Association of Central Ohio
Columbus, OH
$10,000
To support a production of The Threepenny Opera, a work by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht which satirizes bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Also planned are events designed to educate the public about the cultural, historical, and political context of the work.

Opera Company, Inc.
El Paso, TX
$10,000
To support an educational outreach program including Opera on Wheels, Artists in the Schools, and Youth Night at the Opera. Activities will include mini-opera productions, classroom workshops, community recitals, and accessibility to mainstage productions for students in underserved areas of Texas, New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico.

Opera for the Young, Inc.
Madison, WI
$10,000
To support a multi-state tour of Giaocchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville, adapted for children by composer Jeffrey Sykes and Artistic Director Diane Garton Edie. The in-school presentations will reach children in kindergarten through sixth grades throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Opera North
Philadelphia, PA
$10,000
To support the continued development of Vanqui, a full-length opera about an enslaved African couple in the 1800s, by composer Leslie Burrs, with libretto by novelist John A. Williams. The opera's development will include rehearsal workshops and performances with a chamber orchestra.

Opera North
Lebanon, NH
$10,000
To support the Young Artist Program for singers. The professional development project will also provide opportunities for the singers to perform in supporting operatic roles, primary roles in family matinee productions (for roles they served as understudies), and community outreach activities.

Opera Omaha, Inc.
Omaha, NE
$15,000
To support a new production of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The production will feature free, public program activities, and Opera for Everyone, an outreach program for special constituencies. The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and Joslyn Art Museum will host related exhibitions and symposia about the production.

Opera Orchestra of New York, Inc.
New York, NY
$17,500
To support the Young Artists Program. Professional training activities will include coaching, showcases and readings at area venues, interaction with international opera singers, and performances with the orchestra, each centered on one of the Carnegie Hall productions.

Opera Pacific
Santa Ana, CA
$10,000
To support performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, Pirates of Penzance at the Pacific Amphitheatre. The project will be an extension of the annual Opera Under the Stars series, an effort to introduce opera to more people from the Southern California region.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
St. Louis, MO
$50,000
To support the American premiere of Jane Eyre, a contemporary opera by composer Michael Berkeley and librettist David Malouf. The two-act opera, based on Charlotte Bronte's novel, will be performed at Webster University's Loretto-Hilton Center.

Pittsburgh Opera, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
$40,000
To support productions of Charles Gounod's Faust and Beethoven's Fidelio. The two opera productions will offer a balance of tradition and innovation. Related activities include education and outreach programs and partnerships with a variety of organizations.

San Diego Opera Association
San Diego, CA
$25,000
To support a production of Vanessa, by composer Samuel Barber and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, including outreach activities. Relevant components will include a student dress rehearsal for youth from San Diego County and Tijuana, Mexico schools, opera preview lectures, and the artists' roundtable, where the public can meet the singers, conductor, and director.

San Francisco Opera Association
San Francisco, CA
$100,000
To support a production of Doctor Atomic, a work that examines the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The work is composed by John Adams, libretto by Alice Goodman, and stage directed by Peter Sellars. The world premiere and six other performances will take place at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in October 2005.

Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe, NM
$40,000
To support a production of composer Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. The work has been expanded to a full-length, 90-minute opera that tells the story of Margarita, an aging actress reminiscing about the life and death of her friend, Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca.

Seattle Opera
Seattle, WA
$50,000
To support a production of Daniel Catan's opera Florencia in the Amazons (sung in Spanish with English supertitles) and outreach activities. The project will include free preview talks, lectures, and radio broadcasts.

Tulsa Opera, Inc.
Tulsa, OK
$22,500
To support a production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, the company's first Russian opera mounted in 25 years. Various community outreach activities will be scheduled to coincide with the presentation, such as community previews in bookstores and churches, pre-curtain lectures, and school programs.

Utah Symphony & Opera
Salt Lake City, UT
$30,000
To support a consortium project for the development of a new opera by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korrie titled The Grapes of Wrath. Co-commissioned with the Minnesota Opera, the project will include a semi-staged public reading of excerpts and a 10-day workshop period followed by a semi-staged concert in June 2006.

Virginia Opera Association, Inc.
Norfolk, VA
$10,000
To support a consortium project to present Brundibar, a children's opera by Czech composer Hans Krasa and librettist Adolf Hoffmeister, both victims of the Holocaust. In February 2005, four performances of Brundibar will be presented at Richmond's Virginia Holocaust Museum, collaborator for the project.

Washington National Opera
Washington, DC
$25,000
To support the world premiere of Democracy by composer Scott Wheeler and librettist Romulus Linney, to be presented at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC. The two-act opera will feature artists from the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, George Washington University Singers, and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and production staff from the Apprentice and Intern Program.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
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Washington, DC 20506