In Saturday’s (6/27) Seattle Times, Blythe Lawrence reports, “Seattle Opera has been awarded a $500,000 grant for ‘Amelia,’ a new American opera scheduled to debut in Seattle next year, the Opera announced Friday. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funding will allow ‘Amelia’ to be produced by two other production companies following its May 2010 debut at Seattle Opera, assuring that the opera will be seen in more cities. ‘Amelia,’ based on a story by opera director Stephen Wadsworth, follows a mother-to-be still mourning the death of her Navy pilot father, killed in Vietnam in the ‘60s. The story, spanning three decades, unfolds in both the U.S. and Vietnam. ‘Amelia’ features a score by New York composer Daron Aric Hagen, who made a special trip to Seattle this week to deliver the completed work to Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins. Poet Gardner McFall wrote the libretto.” The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences has also pledged $300,000 and will serve as production sponsor for the opera.
Posted June 30, 2009
