IN Series Opera: The Return of Ulysses – Song of My Father
$45-$70 ($35 student, $30 veteran; Vietnam veterans free)
- Robert Mellon, baritone (Ulysses)
- Elizabeth Mondragon, mezzo-soprano (Penelope)
- Elijah McCormack, soprano (Telemaco)
- Aryssa Leigh Burrs, soprano
- Janna Critz, mezzo-soprano
- Oliver Mercer, tenor
- Kevin Short, bass-baritone
IN Series' lauded Monteverdi Trilogy continues with the second installation in the cycle. 2024 is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the start of official military action by the United States in Vietnam. It was a conflict that would change the face of America forever. The young souls that fought were wounded most acutely in ways that were invisible, and their return home was only the beginning of an epic struggle to live again.
Monteverdi's second opera sets the story of Trojan War hero Ulysses' traumatic homecoming from the epic The Odyssey. IN Series will bring this rarely heard masterpiece to life with an expansive work that incorporates a new English text crafted from interviews taken with Vietnam veterans, and the Thai contemporary dance company 18 Monkeys, bringing their unique mix of modern and traditional South-East Asian Kohn dance to the production. Monteverdi's score will be joined by newly commissioned arrangements of popular Vietnam era songs in the style of Monteverdi madrigals and the words of Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. An all star cast is led by Derek Chester and Elizabeth Mondragon (Zavala-Zavala) and performers from Orange Grove Dance, and is accompanied by a period instrumental ensemble from around the world. Memorial Day performances offer a moving and unique way to remember and honor the lives and living that was lost in those seas and jungles sixty years ago.
Runs May 11-27 at CulturalDC's Source Theatre, and May 31-June 2 at Baltimore Theatre Project.
About Robert Mellon, baritone (Ulysses)
About Elizabeth Mondragon, mezzo-soprano (Penelope)
About Elijah McCormack, soprano (Telemaco)
About Aryssa Leigh Burrs, soprano
About Janna Critz, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Janna Critz is a rising artist in the early music, operatic, and concert arena, and is acclaimed for having "summoned up sonorities that were rich, warm, dark, and comforting" (San Francisco Examiner) and for her "elegance of technique" and "vivid vocalism" (Baltimore Sun). With her specialization in Baroque repertoire, she has been recognized for her versatility of style and subtle nuance. She has already begun to establish her skill in Baroque performance practice. In January of 2014 she founded Bel pianto, a Baroque ensemble that presents Italian, French, and German vocal music from the early 17th- to mid-18th Centuries.
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Critz-Janna.htm