Back in New York after performing with the @nationalsawdust Ensemble in the premiere of @paolaprestini very moving and transformative opera “Sensorium Ex” as part of the @csensesfest in Omaha! An opera that dreams in possibility, giving voice & a platform to a community largely unheard in today’s performing arts. One of the most nurturing experiences. 🫰 that it will travel to a space near you soon. #opera #newopera #paolaprestini #sensoriumex #omaha #nationalsawdust #fadolín #fadolín

#blithespirit recording has resumed today!
Charles is well on his way to being done and Dr. Bradman is complete! (Probably for the best with the faces that Simon is pulling…)
#opera #demorecording #noëlcoward #noelcoward #adaptation #britishmusic #newopera

Getting ready for NewMusicGathering as possibly the only non-composer/non-performer librettist/lyricist thinking I need one of these:

[Image is of actor Nathan Fillion in the TV show Castle wearing a bulletproof vest reading "WRITER" across the chest instead of "POLICE."

#NewMusicGathering #NewMusic #CreativeWriting #WritingLife #LIbrettist #Lyricist #NewOpera

Ouch. https://www.vulture.com/article/opera-review-champion-terence-blanchard-met.html #Opera #NewOpera #Met

Met premieres Blanchard’s `Champion,′ an `opera in jazz’ https://apnews.com/article/terence-blanchard-opera-champion-met-a907e1d82a6f1df370426b5a98aa5982 #Opera #NewMusic #NewOpera #TheMetDoesSomethingRightForOnce #MetOpera #Music #Jazz

Any of my #music folks here going in-person to #NewMusicGathering in Portland in June? I am feeling very ambivalent about going, even though my opera with Lisa Neher, Sense of Self, will be performed live. The organizers do not seem to be committed to #accessibilty, #masking, #Covid safety, reasonable schedules, and other things, so I am worried. I am committed to supporting & attending only conferences that have strong online participation goals and planning, so... Thoughts appreciated. #NewMusic #NewOpera #Opera

I love Vaughan Williams, I do, but I want a woman composer to make a new #opera out of Riders to the Sea. It's so much about motherhood and--as my brilliant friend Becky Steinberger puts it--the matriarchal space. #NewOpera #NewMusic

@petrnuska Oh, this looks wonderful! Lisa Neher and I gave a presentation last year at the International Alliance for Women in Music on creating hope punk opera. #NewOpera #Opera #NewMusic #Hopepunk

This is kind of a sub-post, but there ARE ALREADY lots of NEW comic operas out there. I'm tired of the "where are the new comic operas?" narrative. One is my micro-opera with Lisa Neher, *Woman Waits with Sword*written for Margaret O'Connell. It's funny AND about a smart, clever woman. (Watch here: https://www.lisanehermusic.com/woman-waits-with-sword.html). And there are plenty others: Thom K. Miller and Griffin Candey's Sweets by Kate; Elizabeth Cree by Puts and Campbell; Stephen Eddins and Michael O'Brien's Why I Live at the PO; more. Finally, opera companies repeatedly commission serious or tragic opera far more often than comic or hopepunk/feel-good works. Commission us, and we will write! #Opera #NewOpera #NewMusic

“Black opera enters a golden age
Artists debut new works while scholars like Naomi André rediscover pieces long hidden in segregation’s shadows.” https://thewell.unc.edu/2023/02/06/black-opera-enters-a-golden-age/?fbclid=IwAR1_9Krbgxh-CLsTN0cPZjW7prXpbKWQd6pHd1Vqzs5-Ulere0h61U8MIJ0 #Opera #NewOpera #BlackOpera

Soprano Julia Bullock’s Opera Star Rises https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-01-27/commentary-julia-bullock-soprano-profile-opera #Opera #NewOpera #MeetOpera #NewMusic

Coming late 2023 - our #demorecording of Paul Corfield Godfrey’s new adaptation of the #noelcoward #farce #blithespirit!

Introducing our wonderful cast who are taking on this brilliant piece!

www.volanteopera.wales/recording

#noëlcoward #britishmusic #opera #composer #operasingersofinstagram #composers #operasinger #composersofinstagram #musiccomposer #britishmusician #britishmusicians #newmusic #classicalmusic #demorecordings #Composers #Opera #21stcenturymusic #comicopera #comedy #newopera

This Wednesday, Jan 25, come hear my new opera with composer Jessica Rudman, *Neither Created Nor Destroyed*. Tickets are free! but you do need to register Show 1, 12:)) pm Eastern: https://events.temple.edu/beyond-the-notes-enaensemble-presents-the-celestial. Show 2, 5:00 pm Eastern: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/enaensemble-serial-opera-at-the-free-library-january-edition-tickets-506663272487 #MeetOpera #NewOpera #Opera #NewMusic

Today I was back at #HochschulefürMusik #Karlsruhe to give a talk about my opera #TURING! #newopera #worldpremiere #ProfStephanMösch #StaatstheaterNürnberg

Where am I and what am I doing in January? All the details here: https://buttondown.email/KLeonardPhD/archive/january/
#NewOpera #MeetOpera #NewMusic #CreativeWriting #WritingWorkshops #Poetry #TeachingPoetry #TeachingWriting

My cat ‘helping’. (I am adapting this novel into a libretto.) ID: Black and white cat resting his heads on the books I need including ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ by #MadeleineThien #caturday #libretto #catsofmastodon #kinglouiecat #newopera

I’ve got two new operas to start of 2023!

*Waters Rising*, with music by Tim Hinck, Chattanooga Theater Center, Jan 10. https://bit.ly/3uv0hj8

*Neither Created Nor Destroyed*, with music by Jessica Rudman, Parkway Central Library, Philadelphia, Jan 25. https://www.enaensemble.org/

Follow me here for updates: https://kendraprestonleonard.hcommons.org/

#NewOpera #MeetOpera #LibrettistLife #Libretti

A snippet from the #Protectress #libretto. Arethusa sings:

I’m making a cleansing paste:
fennel and clay from Thebes,
filings from an old coin of Athens,
an eyelash from Hélène Cixous,
tears from the enslaved women
of Troy.
Blood from each of you gorgons,
an olive,
and pumice.

#NewOpera #MeetOpera #Mythology #Medusa #Myth #Classics

Why are both #operas being performed at the #OperaAmerica conference by male composers & librettists? You talk representation and then don’t include women composers or librettists? What kind of representation is that? I’m tired of #Manels. #NewOpera #MeetOpera #ManelWatch

Today I’m working on the #libretto of Protectress, adapted from my novella of the same name, about #Medusa confronting rape culture in the 21st c. Composer Jessica Rudman and I can’t wait to bring this to the stage! (Get the novella at https://www.unsolicitedpress.com/store/p349/protectress.html?utm_source=pocket_saves) #NewOpera #MeetOpera #Opera #Medusa #Mythology #MeToo