American Opera Projects

A touring version of Darkling was first commissioned in November 2006 by the Friends of Freie Universität Berlin for a benefit performance at the German Consulate in New York City. This touring version was further refined for performance in Germany and Poland in June 2007.

This version of Darkling retains all of the original music performed by string quartet, but reduces the number of actors and staging. The production is enhanced by the original projections and recorded audio soundscapes intercut with footage from the world premiere production.

The creation of the touring version allows Darkling to be adapted to almost any performance space or presentation hall worldwide as the show prepares for future productions.

AOP Presentations

June 9-11, 2007
Premiere of touring concert version
Adapted and Directed by Michael Comlish
Music Director: Brian DeMaris
Performers: Hai-Ting Chinn, Jon Garrison, Mark Uhlemann, Tonna Miller, Carol Monda, Elzbieta Czyzewska, Anna Rabinowitz
Piano: Ben McQuade

June 9, 2007 - 8 PM
in assoc. w/ Friends of Freie Universität Berlin
Max Kade Auditorium
Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin, Germany

June 11, 2007 - 8 PM
Aleksander Fredro Theatre
Gniezno, Poland

The Berlin performance celebrated the establishment of a Center for Jewish Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and the opening of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s first international Visual History archive. Initiated by filmmaker Steven Spielberg, the archive contains nearly 52,000 testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, the largest in the world. The 9 June production also took place as part of the annual German festival Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften (Long Night of the Sciences) that attracts 70,000 people each year. The DARKLING presentation serveed as an exhibition displaying an intersection in science and art where new technologies have facilitated the creation of an engrossing new kind of multi-media driven theater.

Elzbieta Czyzewska DARKLING next performed at the Aleksander Fredro Theatre on 11 June in Gniezno, Poland. Named after the renowned Polish comic playwright from the Napoleon era, the Aleksander Fredro Theatre is one of the most important cultural institutions in Poland. Located in Gniezno (the cradle of the Polish nation and the first capital of the country) the theater has showcased Polish playwrights and performers since its inception in the mid-1900’s.

Polish film star Elzbieta Czyzewska (right) returned to the Polish theater as part of DARKLING’s seven-person ensemble of singers and actors. In 1968 Ms. Czyzewska was exiled from Poland and emigrated to The United States. In May of 2005 The Polish Film Festival (NY) honored her with a retrospective of her work in Polish cinema.

May 12, 2007 - 8 PM
Preview of touring concert version
and other new works presented by On the Edge
New York City Opera's VOX 2007
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University
566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square Park South)