As part of its Composer Workshop Series and in conjunction with the 2015 Festival of Faiths, Kentucky Opera presents a new work by American composer Daron Hagen and librettist Barbara Grecki. A Woman in Morocco will be staged in the Victor Jory Theatre at Actor's Theatre of Louisville this Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. While the weekend performances are sold out, tickets are still available for the opening on Tuesday.
Based on Grecki's play, A Woman in Morocco is a two-act opera, which tells a story that is to be found all too frequently in today's headlines. Hagen's opera confronts the tragedy of human trafficking, sexual violence, and the plight of women in countries around the globe who still struggle for basic freedoms. The story follows the path of a naive young American reporter, Lizzy Holmes, who goes to Morocco to write about the status of women. Becoming involved with the shady inhabitants of her hotel, she discovers the insidious world of those who deal in buying and selling young girls for profit. Hampered by her own seduction into relationships she doesn't fully understand and sinking into drug addiction, Lizzy becomes a victim herself.
Hagen has written eight operas, as well as chamber and orchestral music. He is also a pianist, stage director, librettist, and conductor, as well as the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowships. Hagen's score has been described as "shimmering" and "lyrically rich" by Austin360.com. The opera is in English and will probably appeal to fans of musical theater as well as classic opera.
Tickets are available for Tuesday, May 12 at 8 p.m. as the Festival of Faiths kicks off (May 12-17). Call the Actor's Theatre box office at 502-584-4500 or purchase tickets online ($30).
Listen to one of the arias, "Love Comes With a Knife," in the video below, as well as some commentary from composer Daron Hagen.
