NEW OPERAS CHALLENGE AUDIENCES AND THEIR PRESENTERS
When Opera Parallèle’s creative team considered Anya17 by composer Adam Gorb after its premiere in England in 2012 and one run in Germany, they found two very good reasons to bring this to the Bay Area.
1. Anya17 is a gut-wrenching, real-life story of women caught and destroyed in the sex trade. These same tragedies are happening here in our wonderful city, but are largely invisible as we go about our busy lives. Here was a way to focus public attention on an urgent issue through a unique artistic vehicle.
2. Anya17 delivers the historically great operatic experience we want to bring to our audience with extraordinary contemporary music. “Gorb’s score is a marvel of boisterous inventiveness, albeit with a savage snap”, wrote the London Sunday Times critic in 2012. It explores the great operatic themes that make for the thrilling performances we all remember.
In the way that Berg conveyed Betrayal in Wozzeck, Puccini incarnated Evil in Tosca, Jake Heggie examined Justice in Dead Man Walking and Osvaldo Golijov portrayed Courage in the face of Death in Ainadamar, Gorb tells the story of Anya, a young woman coerced into modern slavery with the promise of a better life in the West.
The theme of BETRAYAL is represented by Anya’s falling in love with young Uri and being persuaded to follow him to the West where she thinks they will live happily ever after. But things don’t turn out quite as planned. Betrayed and abandoned, Anya’s desperate situation brings to mind the tragic fate of Myrtle in The Great Gatsby, which Opera Parallèle presented in 2012. Betrayal has played a pivotal role in opera since its earliest days with Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, through Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and Britten’s Billy Budd.
We’ll explore a new theme each week until show time. Stay tuned next for Evil, followed by Justice, and finally Courage. See how Anya17 portrays these themes and their historical roots in great operas of the past.
But the only way to find out the fate of Anya is to buy tickets. Today!