10 new program books in my collection

I have recently acquired the program books for the following performances :

- Michel van der Aa, After Life, Lyon, March 18, 2010
The opera was first performed in Amsterdam on June 2, 2006, and I have the program book for the new version first performed in Amsterdam on September 28, 2009.
It is a 113 pages book, with the complete bilingual libretto (English / French).
- Robert Aldridge, Sister Carrie, Milwaukee, October 7, 2016
It is a 52 pages brochure. The opera was recorded and published by Naxos.
- Ricky Ian Gordon, The House Without a Christmas Tree, Houston, November 30, 2017.
It is a 64 pages brochure.

- Hans Werner Henze, L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, Lyon, June 24, 2005
The opera was first performed in Salzburg on August 12, 2003. I have the program book for the world première, the DVD recording (EuroArts) as well as the two scores published by Chester Music (vocal score and full score).
It is a 158 pages book, with the complete bilingual libretto (German / French).
- Toshio Hosokawa, Hanjo, Lyon, March 5, 2008
The opera was first performed in Aix-en-Provence on July 8, 2004.
It is a 87 pages book, with the complete bilingual libretto (English / French) and a separate 12 pages booklet with cast and biographies.
- Helmut Oehring, Kunst muss (zu weit gehen) oder der Engel schwieg, Köln, December 9, 2017.
It is a 64 pages book.

- Rachel J. Peters, Rootabaga Country, Sarasota, November 11, 2017.
It is a 80 pages book published for the 2017 Fall Season of Sarasota Opera.
- Kevin Puts, Elizabeth Cree, Philadelphia, September 14, 2017.
It is a 132 pages book for the Festival O17, including also complete cast for two other new operas : The Wake World by David Hertzberg (September 17, 2017) and We Shall Not Be Moved by Daniel Bernard Roumain (September 16, 2017).

- Andres Reukauf, König Drosselbart, Hagen, November 12, 2017.
It is a 16 pages booklet.
- Kaija Saariaho, Only the Sound Remains, Paris, January 23, 2018
The opera was first performed in Amsterdam on March 15, 2016. I have the Blu Ray recording of the Dutch production.
It is a 120 pages book, the the complete bilingual libretto (English / French).

I now have 516 program books for contemporary operas. I have scanned all the covers and uploaded them to this flickr folder.

New programme books for contemporary operas

I have recently received the programme books for the three following performances :

- Jake Heggie : Three Decembers, Milwaukee (Florentine Opera), March 11, 2016 ;
- Bright Sheng : Dream of the Red Chamber, San Franciso, September 10, 2016 ;
- Oscar Strasnoy : Comeback, Berlin (Staatsoper im Schiller Theater), September 30, 2016.

The first one is a 30 pages brochure. It contains :

- complete cast and crew ;
- synopsis ;
- About the Composer ;
- William Florescu : Director's Note ;
- biography of the librettist Gene Scheer ;
- biography of the stage director William Florescu ;
- biography of the conductor Joseph Rescigno ;
- artist biographies, all with color headshots.

The second is a 86 pages magazine. It contains :

- Ken Smith : Dreamweavers - An all-star creative team transports an epic Chinese novel to the operatic stage ;
- Synopsis, personnel, orchestra setting and family tree ;
- complete cast and crew ;
- Ann Waltner : Red Chamber Refelctions ;
- Stephen Roddy : Delving Deeper into 'Dream of the Red Chamber' ;
- Artist profiles with balck and white headshots.

The last one is a poster folded into a 16 pages leaflet. It contains :

- complete cast ;
- biography of Emil Jannings, a character of the opera and first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor ;
- biography of Tilla Durieux, another character of the opera, an Austrian actress ;
- Roman Reeger : Eben war ich noch der Mittelpunkt und jetzt ?

This programme is entirely in German. The scanned covers of all programme books for contemporary operas I have in my collection can be viewed in this flickr folder.

Today : world première of Robert Aldridge's 'Sister Carrie' in Milwaukee

Today, the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee presents the world première performance of Robert Aldridge's new opera, Sister Carrie, with a libretto by Herschel Garfein after Theodore Dreiser's novel.

It is Aldridge's second opera after Elmer Gantry (Nashville, 2007).

The opera unveils the tortuous path to fame for a small town girl, as America industrialized and large segments of the rural populace flooded into an urban sea of humanity. (reproduced from the Florentine Opera website)

The cast includes mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala (Carie), baritone Keith Phares (Hurstwood), soprano Alisa Jordheim (Lola) and tenor Matt Morgan (Drouet). William Boggs conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Florentine Opera Chorus. William Florescu directs.

A recording of Elmer Gantry, produced in Milwaukee has been released by Naxos. It is announced that this new opera will also be recorded.

Received in the mail this morning : 'Elmer Gantry' (Aldridge) and 'Wuthering Heights' (Floyd) from Milwaukee

This Wednesday morning, I have received two program books published by Florentine Opera in Milwaukee for the following operas :

- Robert Aldridge : Elmer Gantry, first performance on March 13th, 2015 ;
- Carlisle Floyd : Wuthering Heights, first performance on January 9th, 2015.

Program books are 50 and 38 pages brochures.

The first contains :

- Revival - Elmer Gantry returns ! by Leann Davis Alspaugh ;
- The Bully Pulpit - Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry, by Leann Davis Alspaugh ;
- the complete cast ;
- the detailed synopsis ;
- detailed biographies of the composer, the librettist Herschel Garfein, the director Frank Kelley and the conductor Christopher Larkin ;
- biographies of the singers (all biographies with headshots).

This opera was already performed there in March 2010 and a recording has been released by Naxos in its American Opera Classics collection :

The second contains :

- the complete cast ;
- synopsis ;
- detailed biographies of the composer, the conductor Joseph Mechavich ;
- biographies of the singers (all biographies with headshots).

Scanned covers of all program books I have in my collection are in this flickr folder.