American composer Gregory Spears chats with Evans about his rise into the opera world and two of his most notable works: Fellow Travelers, which Cincinnati Opera premiered in 2016, and Castor and Patience, which Cincinnati Opera will premiere during its 2021 Summer Festival. Listen in to hear about Spears’s musical origins, inspirations, and how he goes about writing for opera.
Show notes
The American Opera Project is an opera company in Brooklyn, New York dedicated to developing new operatic and musical theatre works.
Fugues are a musical composition technique in which a melody is blended with other melodies, usually in complex ways. German Baroque composer J.S. Bach is notable for having written many collections of fugues.
Early in his life, Spears studied music theory and composition with prolific American composer and educator Adolphus Hailstork.
Pietà (Pity) is a statue by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti currently housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.
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Charles Jarden was the former General Director of The American Opera Project.
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Plainchant (sometimes called “Gregorian chant”) is a liturgical musical style used historically in the Western Church (and now mainly in the Catholic Church) for singing texts to a congregation. In this style, the text is sung on one unaccompanied melody.
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Joan Panetti is a pianist, composer, and Professor of Music at the Yale School of Music.
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Arthur Russell was an American avant-garde cellist and composer.
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