BASED ON

Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Beyond the Horizon” by Eugene O’Neill.

LOCATION

LA MAMA Shares, 66 East 4th Street, New York NY

MUSIC BY

Nicolas Flagello

LIBRETTO BY

Nicolas Flagello and Walter Simmons

SUNG IN ENGLIGH

RUN TIME

Approximately 2 hours, includes a 30-minute intermission

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Saturday, September 14th 2024

This last dress rehearsal/performance is open to our Creative Tableaux, an educational outreach program participants only. No general admission. Details soon to be announced!

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CREATIVE TEAM

CHRISTIAN CAPOCACCIA | Conductor
IAN SILVERMAN | Director
TAYLOR FRIEL | Set Designer
STEFANOS KORONEOS | Costume Designer

CAST

JOHN ROBERT GREEN | Andrew Mayo
JOHN BELLEMER | Robert Mayo
SARA KENNEDY | Ruth Atkins
DANIEL KLEIN | James Mayo
MELINA JAHARIS | Kate Mayo
STEVEN KIRBY | Captain Dick Scott
CARLA LOPEZ SPEZIALE | Mrs. Atkins

SECOND CAST

HENRY HYUNSOON KIM** | Andrew Mayo
KATHLEEN ECHOLS** | Ruth Atkins
RICK AGSTER | Captain Dick Scott
HANA YIU | Mrs. Atkins

** Current Camerata Bardi International Academy participants

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ABOUT “BEYOND THE HORIZON” THE PLAY​

Eugene O’Neill’s seminal, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Beyond the Horizon, was written in 1918 but not produced or published until 1920, when it made its debut in New York. Beyond the Horizon was O’Neill’s first successful full-length play, and it signaled a change in American drama. Critics and audiences responded favorably to O’Neill’s dark, tragic vision, which contrasted sharply with the unrealistic, melodramatic plays of the day. The play drew heavily on O’Neill’s own experiences, including his tuberculosis and his sea voyages.

​ABOUT ” BEYOND THE HORIZON” BY NICOLAS FLAGELLO

The last of Flagello’s operas was Beyond the Horizon. The opera was based on a play by Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953), generally considered to be America’s greatest playwright. Beyond the Horizon was O’Neill’s first published play. The play was brought to the composer’s attention by Walter Simmons, a musicologist who has written extensively on American composers. Flagello worked on the opera for several years, finishing it in short score in 1983. Unfortunately, before he was able to complete the orchestration he developed a degenerative neurological condition that ended his creative life prematurely. After Flagello’s death at age 66, the composer Anthony Sbordoni undertook the orchestration of the work, leaving the work ready to perform.

​ABOUT NICOLAS FLAGELLO

Nicolas Flagello was born in New York City, into a family deeply immersed in music. His brother Ezio became one of the leading bassos of the Metropolitan Opera. Both his parents were avocational musicians, while his maternal grandfather was said to have studied with Verdi. For Nicolas music was a personal medium for emotional and spiritual expression, and this conviction underlay all his works. He began studying with the eminent composer of operas and songs, Vittorio Giannini (also the sibling of an operatic star, Dusolina Giannini), and the two remained close friends until the older man’s death. In recent years Flagello’s music has garnered enthusiastic advocacy, as many of his works have been performed and recorded.

Flagello’s previous operas have been well-received. When The Sisters (1958) was presented in New York City, the Herald-Tribune commented, “Flagello has the gift of writing gratefully for the voice, and his music has melodic sumptuousness. His orchestral texture is crystal-clear, and he knows how to underline dramatic events…first rate.” The following year he completed The Judgment of St. Francis, which was presented at the Cathedral of St. Francis, in Assisi. Musical America commented that the work’s “robust emotionalism is unflinching in its conviction, and its intensity is sustained by a sure sense of pacing, a natural flow of expressive melody integrated throughout the musical texture, and an ability to use voices, chorus, and orchestra to their maximum effect.” The critic for the New Yorker described it as “the most vigorous new opera I have come across in a long time…. [It displays] an unmistakable and totally unconfused talent for the operatic theatre.”

​ABOUT WALTER SIMMONS

Walter Gustave Simmons (b. New York, NY, 19 November 1946) is a musicologist, critic, and record producer. He is best known as a champion of 20^th-century composers—mostly American—who hewed to traditional musical values, rather than joining the avant-garde movements then in fashion. His writings appear in reference books, including the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, program notes for concerts and recordings, and in a variety of periodicals, most notably Fanfare, where he was a regular contributor for 35 years. He has been supervising editor of the Twentieth-Century Traditionalists series for Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, of which he wrote the first two volumes. He has produced first recordings of dozens of works by such composers as Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, Vittorio Giannini, Paul Creston, Nicolas Flagello, and Arnold Rosner.