| Dynamic Duo: Composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Mark Campbell in Hampton Roads for the “Rappahannock County” workshop. They’re shown inside the Harrison Opera House at the July 29, 2010 preview. Photo credit: Virginia Opera |
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On July 29th, my husband and I had the privilege of an invitation to the Harrison Opera House in downtown Norfolk to get a sneak peek at the workshop for “Rappahannock County,” touted as a theatrical song cycle about the Civil War. It’ll debut here in Hampton Roads in April 2011.
We heard a majority of the songs and could follow along with the lyrics provided to us. It’s in English, and it was fantastic! I know they don’t call it opera, but it was my kind of “opera.” The African American parts (and songs) were the best and most poignant. Spoiler alert: the “pie” lady was a hoot just imagining her poisoning those damn Yankees!
I look forward to seeing the final product during the Virginia Arts Festival in the spring. The production is a real tribute to the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War with a story relevant to everyone; contraband was even mentioned in one song and made me think of Fort Monroe. It was also an honor to meet Dr. Ed Ayers, President of the University of Richmond, who is creative consultant and one of the stars of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ BackStory.
by Missy Schmidt, Communication Manager for the Hampton Roads Partnership
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From an interview by Teresa Annas for The Virginian-Pilot:
“I knew I wanted to set it in Virginia,” said Mark Campbell, who wrote the lyrics. “Virginia suffered the most and was the most conflicted about seceding” from the United States.
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From the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas in Austin, Virginia Arts Festival and Virginia Opera, the Co-Commissioners of “Rappahannock County”:
In conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, a new musical work by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Mark Campbell will have its world premiere performances beginning April 12, 2011 the same day that Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in 1861.
Rappahannock County will premiere during the Virginia Arts Festival, offering multiple public performances as well as student matinees in the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, Virginia from April 12-17, 2011. This will be followed by performances in Richmond at the Modlin Center, September 9-16, and at the Texas Performing Arts in Austin, September 18-25.
Rappahannock County is a fictional song cycle inspired by diaries, letters, and personal accounts during the period of the Civil War, and explores the war’s impact, from secession to defeat, on a community of Virginians—black and white, rich and poor, soldiers, nurses, widows, and survivors. The production is a multi-media event, enhanced by projections of Civil War photography, illustrations, documents, and other moving visuals and features five principal singers performing more than 30 roles, backed by an ensemble of 15 musicians.
What is a “song cycle”? The work consists of a series of songs. Each song tells a story, but the whole piece is not a single, coherent narrative like that found in a classic musical or opera.
About the Creative Team
Composer Ricky Ian Gordon is equally at home writing for the concert hall, opera, dance, theater and film, and his songs and song cycles have been performed, as well as recorded, by many internationally acclaimed singers. As part of The American Songbook Series, the composer’s Bright Eyed Joy: The Music of Ricky Ian Gordon was presented at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 2001. The New York Times wrote, “If the music of Ricky Ian Gordon has to be defined by a single quality, it would be the bursting effervescence infusing songs that blithely blur the lines between art song and the high-end Broadway music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim…It’s caviar for a world gorging on pizza.”
In 2005, Gordon’s song cycle Orpheus & Euridice won the OBIE Award after it’s Lincoln Center premiere. Writing in New York Magazine Peter G. Davis offered this assessment: “Both Gordon’s text and music are couched in an accessible idiom of disarming lyrical directness, a cleverly disguised faux naiveté that always resolves dissonant situations with grace and a sure sense of dramatic effect – the mark of a born theater composer.” Mr. Gordon and librettist Michael Korie’s The Grapes of Wrath, based on the Steinbeck novel, premiered at Minnesota Opera in February, 2007, and has had subsequent productions at Utah and Pittsburgh Operas. Commenting in the Los Angeles Times, critic Mark Swed wrote, “The greatest glory of the opera is Gordon’s ability to musically flesh out the entire 11-member Joad clan… Each has a distinct musical style. Each is sympathetic.
Gordon’s other great achievement is to merge Broadway and opera…and it is greatly enhanced by his firm control over ensembles and his sheer love for the operatic voice.Gordon and Korie, through sheer conviction, and Minnesota Opera, through a brilliant production and cast, have found the timeless and timely essence of Steinbeck’s epic.” Gordon’s recent work, “Green Sneakers,” was hailed “A Masterpiece” in Opera Today, after it’s premiere at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.
Mark Campbell’s career as a librettist and lyricist has successfully bridged the worlds of both opera and musical theatre. Since 2004, four of his commissioned operas received enthusiastic premieres: Volpone (Wolf Trap Foundation for the Arts, 2004 and 2007, music by John Musto); Later the Same Evening (National Gallery of Art/University of Maryland, 2007, music by Musto), Bastianello/Lucrezia (New York Festival of Song, 2008, music by Musto and William Bolcom.
As a lyricist, Mark penned all of the lyrics for Songs from an Unmade Bed, a theatrical song cycle with music by 18 composers, which was produced by New York Theatre Workshop in 2005. Other productions for which he has written lyrics include: The Audience (The Transport Group), Splendora (Bay Street Theatre, American Place Theatre), Akin (Music-Theatre Group at LaMama, music by Richard Peaslee), Ring Around the Rosie (Music-Theatre Group) and Light Shall Lift Them (Harvey Theatre, Brooklyn Next Wave Festival).
Mark’s awards include: First recipient of the Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricist, two Richard Rodgers Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, an National Endowment for the Arts grant, 3 Drama Desk Award nominations, a Rockefeller Foundation Award, a Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award and a Grammy nomination.
Serving as creative advisor to the production is Edward L. Ayers, president of the University of Richmond. A historian of the American South, Ayers has written and edited ten books. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492.
About the Co-Commissioners
The Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond features state-of-the-art performance venues, galleries, studios and classrooms. Called “a work of art itself” by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the $22.5 million, 165,000 square foot facility is home to the departments of music, art and art history, and theatre and dance. Many of the events presented at the Modlin Center feature an academic component designed specifically for Richmond students. These activities, all of which are free and open to the public, include master classes and lecture demonstrations, as well as pre-concert and pre-exhibition lectures. In 2009, a work by Steve Reich, commissioned and premiered at the Modlin Center, won the Pulitzer Prize for music.
Since opening its doors in 1981, the Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin has evolved into one of the leading university-based arts presenters in the country. Texas Performing Arts presents, produces and commissions international performances otherwise unavailable locally to the Central Texas community. Driven by a commitment to the educational mission of the University of Texas, Texas Performing Arts works with faculty and staff experts across the university, to provide context and content for the works we produce and present and lead the ongoing conversation about how arts and culture can help transform the life and work of the community in which we live.
Since 1997, the Virginia Arts Festival has brought great artists from around the world to the cities and communities of Southeastern Virginia, making this historic, recreation-rich region a center for culture and the arts. The Festival is committed to presenting, commissioning, and creating the best of the performing arts, and to making the region a cultural destination for travelers from across the country and around the world. In 2010, the 14th annual Virginia Arts Festival will present the exclusive United States performances of Britain’s acclaimed Birmingham Royal Ballet; a spectacular new staging of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass; an all-new Virginia International Tattoo featuring hundreds of performers from seven countries; plus riveting modern dance and contemporary ballet, colorful performance traditions from around the world, and concerts reflecting an array of musical styles, from classical artists to bluegrass, jazz, rock and more.
Under the artistic leadership of Maestro Peter Mark, the Virginia Opera is known and respected nationwide for the identification and presentation of the finest young artists, for the musical and dramatic integrity of its productions, and for the ingenuity and variety of its education and outreach programs. The company produces 32 main stage performances in three markets, reaching nearly 50,000 attendees in Hampton Roads, Central Virginia and Northern Virginia. In March of 1994, by unanimous vote of the Virginia General Assembly, Virginia Opera was named The Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth of Virginia in recognition of the organization’s contribution to the Commonwealth, and to the world of opera.
For more information, contact:
Jennifer Chambers,Virginia Arts Festival,(757) 282-2820,jchambers@vafest.org
The International Economic Development Council (
“We recognize Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development for providing successful strategies to promote new paradigms in economic development in this period of global recovery,” said William Best, IEDC chair. “Our awards honor organizations and individuals for their efforts in creating positive change in communities. The Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development is showing that they are at the forefront of the economic development profession and are using innovative and effective practices that can be replicated in other communities.”
TEDxNASA – What Matters Next – Brings a Cross Section of Top Speakers to an Exciting Event in Newport News
In 2009, TEDxNASA’s overriding theme was “Space to Create.” Last year’s speakers ranged from renowned author Mitch Album and creativity expert Gregg Fraley to Virginia Beach neuroscientist Paul Aravich and Virginia Tech robotics professor Dennis Hong.
As the speakers began, I was blown away. We heard talks about creativity and about the brain. Jazz musicians played. We saw videos from other TED events about breakthroughs in clean water and a woman’s recounting of her experience of having a stroke. Lectures on robotics were followed by a talk about hunches. A guitarist/comedian performed and then an expert on Mars showed us the latest developments from NASA. The event concluded with Mitch Album speaking on his journey of faith.
