This year’s Rhymes With Opera production is The Impossible She by Daniel Thomas Davis. This chamber opera is unique in that it features the saxophone as a character, including a somewhat virtuosic saxophone part ranging from baritone to tenor, alto, and ending on soprano saxophone. Needless to say, it’s been a blast to put together!
On Loneliness and Solitude – by Colin Read
May 10 – 18, 2019
124 Bank Street Theatre
124 Bank St, New York, NY
https://www.rhymeswithopera.org/impossible
Overview
Rhymes With Opera presented the world premiere of Daniel Thomas Davis’s opera The Impossible She at the 124 Bank Street Theatre. The opera dramatizes the relationship between two women who found each other in the midst of a complicated world – and especially a world where men in positions of power have told them, one way or another, that their minds and bodies have little value. One of these women is Eleanor Roosevelt, who is about to become First Lady of the United States. The other is Lorena Hickok (or Hick, as everyone seems to call her), a feisty journalist assigned to introduce Eleanor Roosevelt to the world.
Fantastically told through metaphysical poetry, fragments of newspaper accounts, intimate letters and Depression-era ballads, the opera retells these women’s stories as a classic love triangle – between Eleanor, Hick and a composite character known simply as The Outside World. Ultimately, the impossible love Eleanor and Hick share for this Outside World – an especially troubled world that desperately needs them – threatens to pull the two apart.
In addition to this one-act opera, Rhymes With Opera also presented the world premiere of Colin Read’s On Loneliness and Solitude. Both Read’s and Davis’s works were commissioned by Rhymes With Opera, specifically for our ensemble of singers.
This world-premiere mainstage production featured RWO founding ensemble members Elisabeth Halliday, Bonnie Lander and Robert Maril. Stage director Laine Rettmer (Rumpelstiltskin) and scenic designer Andrea Merkx returned to create this new production for the company.
