"Fortune's Children" dress rehearsal
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This is the dress rehearsal of Hartford Opera Theatre’s world premiere production of “Fortune’s Children,” an opera performed live over Zoom in October of 2020. Music and libretto by David Wolfson. Directed by Moira O’Sullivan. Alex: Darius Gilliard. Pat: Markel Reed. Chris: Thao Nguyen. Special thanks to Experience Bryon for dramaturgical consulting!
"Changing Fortunes" first performance
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This is the opening night premiere performance of “Changing Fortunes,” Episode 2 of “Fortune’s Children,” as presented by Hartford Opera Theatre in 2021. Music and libretto by David Wolfson. Directed by Moira O’Sullivan. Alex: Darius Gillard. Pat: Markel Reed. Chris: Thao Nguyen. Sharon: Jolie Rocke.
Fortune’s Children (a short opera) was written during the summer of 2020. It is about a family whose lives are upended by a pandemic, and was designed to be performed live on Zoom for an audience of meeting attendees by singers in different locations. Hartford Opera Theatre produced it that October, in what we think was the first use of Zoom as a platform for opera, and then commissioned a sequel, Changing Fortunes, which was presented the same way in February of 2021. The third episode, Family Fortunes, about the family’s first in-person reunion after the pandemic, was written to be performed onstage. I am actively seeking a production of the entire trilogy as one evening.