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Premiere

Strouse Opera Debuts
strouse opera debuts
EAST: Members of Eastman Opera Theatre perform Strouse’s 1985 opera Nightingale (Photo by Gelfand-Piper Photography).
strouse opera debuts
WEST: Strouse’s new work, The Future of the American Musical Theater, was presented as a companion to NightingalePhoto by Gelfand-Piper Photography).

East met West last fall as Eastman School alumnus Charles Strouse, one of Broadway’s most prolific composers, launched Eastman Opera Theatre’s season with a double-bill opera that included the premiere of his latest work.

Strouse’s new work, The Future of the American Musical Theater, was presented and performed as a companion piece to the composer’s 1985 opera Nightingale. Together, the two were billed as East and West: one set in China, the other in Florida.

“They are both myths: one having to do with a great Emperor and his victory over death, and the other with American ‘royalty’ and their victory over the Broadway stage,” says the award-winning composer.

The four performances featured two alternating casts of Eastman voice students directed by Steven Daigle, dramatic director for Eastman Opera Theatre. Strouse’s new score—arranged for orchestra by Jairo Duarte-Lopez, an Eastman graduate student, and Michaela Eremiasova—was played by a special Eastman student orchestra under the direction of Benton Hess, the troupe’s music director.

Perhaps best known for his smash hit musicals Annie and Bye Bye Birdie, as well as a multitude of memorable scores for television, cinema, and the concert stage, Strouse graduated from Eastman in 1947.