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Project
NORA IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Music by Daniel Felsenfeld
Libretto by Will Eno
About Nora in the Great Outdoors
A one-act monodrama for soprano and chamber ensemble
Composers & the Voice alum Daniel Felsenfeld teams with award-winning playwright Will Eno (Middletown, THOM PAIN (based on nothing)) in this new monodrama that imagines the continuation of one the greatest plays of all time.
Using an icy climate crossed with an inexplicably fragile-yet-eruptive emotional state of mind as musical grist, Nora, In the Great Outdoors is a take on the ending of Ibsen's seminal "A Doll's House," especially its famous final stage direction, the first collaboration between composer Daniel Felsenfeld and playwright Will Eno. The monodrama takes over immediately where Ibsen leaves off, when the heroine abandons her family, her marriage her security, and perhaps the most famous slammed door in the history of drama.
Nora, In the Great Outdoors, is a monodrama for soprano and piano trio, an icy, brooding work in a sound world that toggles between delicate beauty and pulsing heat.
About the Creators
DANIEL FELSENFELD (composer)
Composer Daniel Felsenfeld received his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and went on to Boston’s New England Conservatory, where he received his doctorate in 2001. Recent commissions a 30 minute music theatre work for Sequitur; a resetting of David Bowie’s lyrics for Real Quiet with Theo Bleckmann and Petra Haden; The Poet’s Dream of Herself as a Young Girl for mezzo and piano trio to be performed at Stanford University by Amy Schneider and the Harmida Trio; and All Work and No Play, a work for piccolo and piano. His music can be found on the Endeavor and Koch imprints. Recent performances include: American Opera Projects, Jenny Lin at Bargemusic, Stephanie Mortimore at Carnegie Hall, the Syracuse Society for New Music, the Boston Modern Orchestra Projects’ Club Concert Series, Hartwell Dance Theatre, the Momenta Quartet, the Either/Or Festival, and the NewGallery Concert Series. His opera The Last of Manhattan was commissioned by (and premiered at) The Kitchen in New York City, and another of his operas, Summer and All it Brings, was chosen to be part of New York City Opera’s VOX 2004: Showcasing American Composers. Daniel is also the author of eight books and hundreds of articles. He teaches at City College and lives in Brooklyn.
Read the AOP Spotlight interview with Daniel Felsenfeld
WILL ENO (librettist)
Will lives in New York. His play THE FLU SEASON debuted at the Gate Theatre in London, and won the Oppenheimer Award for the best New York debut by an American playwright in 2004. His play THOM PAIN (based on nothing) won the major awards at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, ran for a year in New York, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His collection of short plays OH, THE HUMANITY and other good intentions was produced at the Flea Theater in 2007. His plays are published by Oberon Books, in London, and by TCG, DPS, and playscripts in the U.S. His play MIDDLETOWN premiered at the Vineyard Theatre in New York in 2010, and will appear at Steppenwolf in Chicago in 2011.
Media
AOP Presentations
October 2, 2011
Kaplan Penthouse, Lincoln Center
MUSIC DIRECTION: Keith Chambers
STAGE DIRECTION: Mary Birnbaum
PERFORMANCES BY: Kirsten Chambers (Nora), Mila Henry (piano), Rose Bellini (cello), Joshua Modney (violin)
May 9 & 12, 2011 - WORLD PREMIERE
May 9 - The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003
May 12 - South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY 11217
Concert reading of opera and panel discussion with artists
MUSIC DIRECTION: Mila Henry
PERFORMANCES BY: Caroline Worra, Mila Henry (piano), Rose Bellini (cello), Joshua Modney (violin)
STAGE DIRECTION: Mary Birnbaum
February 5, 2011
South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY 11217
Concert reading of opera and panel discussion with artists
MUSIC DIRECTION: Mila Henry
PERFORMANCES BY: Caroline Worra, Mila Henry (piano)
STAGE DIRECTION: Mary Birnbaum
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