Announcing the PermaDeath workshop at NEC
Dear Friends of White Snake Projects:
I can’t believe we’re embarking on the music workshop of Dan Visconti’s PermaDeath at NEC under the creative leadership of Josh Major, our featured artist in this post. It seems like we just closed the run of REV. 23! Here’s a short clip of some of the highlights from our recent production:
During the next few months leading up to the world premiere of PermaDeath, we’d like to take you behind the scenes to meet some of our partners who are essential to bringing this new work to the stage. Presenting new opera requires an extended period of development, something that operas already in the repertory don’t need. The only way a small startup like WSP can afford to make and present one original opera a year is because of our partnerships with area colleges. The faculty and students are the greatest untapped talent pool and we’re lucky to have their support.
One of the fundamental developmental phases is the music workshop. Composers and librettists use this workshop to listen to how the music and words connect with each other, evaluate its dramaturgical arc, and solicit feedback and suggestions for how to make the piece more effective. After the workshop, the team revises the libretto and music in the next iteration of the piano-vocal and the composer then orchestrates the score.
Josh Major, head of Opera Studies at NEC, has been our workshop partner for Ouroboros Trilogy (Gilgamesh and Naga), for REV. 23 and now, for PermaDeath which will premiere in Fall 2018. Please come to the PermaDeath music reading by NEC students on December 3 at 3pm.
See you soon,
Cerise