American Opera Projects

AOP conductor covers Met Opera's concert in Prospect Park

AOP conductor J. David Jackson (Darkling, Marina: A Captive Spirit) was the cover conductor for the Metropolitan Opera's concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn that drew a crowd of 50,000 on the evening of June 20. The concert featured the soprano Angela Gheorghiu and the tenor Roberto Alagna performing famous opera arias and duets.

J. David Jackson (left, with AOP Board Mamber John Buscarello) at the Metropolitan Opera's summer concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

AOP presents its own park concert in Brooklyn

On Saturday, June 21, AOP held its own summer concert in a Brooklyn Park one day after the Metropolitan Opera's presentation. A crowd of less than 50,000 was on hand in Fort Greene Park to watch AOP and friends performing all new opera arias and duets as part of the free festival Make Music NY.

AOP performed songs from this year's C&V composers (left, top) based on the writings of Brooklyn's own Walt Whitman in between presentations from Opera on Tap, Collective Opera Company (left, bottom), and Rhymes With Opera. Greg Trupiano, head of the Walt Whitman Project, introduced each of the songs with information about their source poems, including one poem that was written only a block away from where the performance was held.

The show was also held earlier in the day at Lincoln Square in Manhattan.

Alvin Singleton receives grant to develop new work with AOP

AOP is proud to annouce that Meet the Composer

has awarded AOP and composer Alvin Singleton a "Creative Connections" grant for Singleton's participation in the development and outreach of a newly commissioned work. The work, a dramatic oratorio to be for chamber orchestra and chorus with a commissioned text by author Patricia Hampl, is about the 100 year-old Prison Ship Martyr's Monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. The commission has been paid by

The Fort Greene Park Conservancy, with funds raised through a consortium of organizations, city, state and private donations.

AOP will partner with these organizations to develop the work, building national and community awareness about the subject in advance of the November 2008 rededication of the Monument.