SF Opera Announces Three Commissions to American Composers

While acknowledging the very challenging economic times we live in, the San Francisco Opera has announced plans to commission three operas by American composers Christopher Theofanidis, Mark Adamo, and Jennifer Higdon. Theofanidis, working with librettist Donna DiNovelli, will create a work that deals with themes of heroism and the September 11, 2001 attacks. Its premiere is expected, appropriately, in September 2011. Adamo will write the music and libretto for The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, scheduled for June 2013. Higdon will team with librettist Gene Scheer to create her first full-length opera. A topic has not yet been announced, but it is slated to have its premiere in the fall of 2013. The San Francisco Opera also plans to present the Bay Area stage premieres of Nixon in China by John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman in the summer of 2012, and Moby-Dick by Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer (a co-commission with the opera companies of Dallas, San Diego, and Calgary) in the fall of 2012.—MS