A recipient of a 2016 National Opera Center Discovery grant

ARTEMISIA is an opera of passion, betrayal and art in 17th century Italy

With libretto by Ginger Strand

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/arts/music/fall-classical-calendar.html

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Artemisia, about the life the great baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, will receive five performances this year, three in New York and two in San Francisco

 

The performances by Trinity Wall Street, as part of their Time's Arrow Festival in February and March, directed by the world renowned opera director Christopher Alden, were featured in the New York Times Fall Preview.

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Artemisia, an by Laura Schwendinger with Libretto by Ginger Strand, is an opera of passion, betrayal and art in 17th century Italy based upon the life of famed female Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 –c.1656)

ARTEMISIA, an opera Paul Chihara calls “a masterpiece!”

The World Premiere of Orchestral version with Trinity NOVUS,
New York Times- Link to New York Times review
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/arts/music/classical-music-youtube.html

“Like Caravaggio before her, the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi knew how to build scenes of taut drama with far-from-idealized figures crammed into a constricted pictorial space and bathed in harsh light. The composer Laura Schwendinger and the librettist Ginger Strand achieve something similar in their potently claustrophobic opera “Artemisia,” which received its staged premiere at Trinity Wall Street’s St. Paul’s Chapel on Thursday (and repeats on Saturday).
Gentileschi’s life story could provide fodder for many hours of music drama. The daughter of a painter, she was raped by her teacher when she was a teenager. At a court trial, her assailant was convicted, but only after she had been subjected to torture to verify her testimony. She went on to attract the attention of Cosimo II de’ Medici, befriended Galileo Galilei and worked in London at the invitation of King Charles I.
‘Artemisia’ lasts just 80 minutes, but fits in big themes set to music of quivering intensity. The story of the rape is there, blended with Gentileschi’s unbearably compassionate painting of the biblical character Susanna, who was ogled and shamed in her bath. But larger questions of idea and form,image and projection, sight and gaze also find nuanced and intelligent treatment.”

—Corinna da Fonesca da-Wollheim

With world renown director Christopher Alden- director & Lidiya Yankovskaya- conductor, Time’s Arrow festival, Featuring MET Artists Augusta Caso, Richard Troxell, and Heather Buck, Christopher Burchett and Oliver Mercer

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From San Francisco Classical Voice,
"Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Proves That Great Opera Needn’t Be Grand"
World premiere of Chamber Version by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, June 3, 2019

    -"Laura Schwendinger's Artemisia, on the other hand, is sumptuous on every level...
Schwendinger’s score is striking. Often, it’s the little things, like the intoning of ‘Susanna’: the stressed syllable rising before the terminal fall, a nagging presence grudgingly accepted. Or the resolutions of the diminished fourths in Tommaso’s aria, a breathtaking piece of worry and longing...Most memorably, the music underscores Artemisia’s deteriorating vision. Tender, high-pitched glimmers shift so as to be out of reach. The shadows are flat-sounding chords: impressionistic, but with a distinctly contemporary sensibility.” - By Rebecca Wishnia;
Link to review https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/left-coast-chamber-ensemble/left-coast-chamber-ensemble-proves-that-great-opera-neednt-be

In OperaWire
--“Artemesia” is a good match for Dorothea. More of a tale, with multiple scenes, Schwendinger’s score and Ginger Strand’s story not only casts its spell but awakens us again to the continuing conflict of men, women and art that has pervaded western history...The music challenges. The texture is rich. The variety of instrumentation stimulates and complements the complex issues alive in the script. Flute/piccolo, accurate and incisive, piano and percussion extending and developing motifs, harp and strings, provides a musical brocade that is excellent sister to the story, excellent transmitter of the story. Both reveal the complexity and do not hold back from riveting us to it.”; Link to review
https://operawire.com/left-coast-chamber-ensemble-2019-review-dorothea-and-artemesia/


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MARCH 2019, Trinity Wall Street NOVUS

NY in orchestra premiere, Time's Arrow Festival with Christopher Alden

March 7/ 9, 2019

Time’s Arrow Festival

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA VERSION

Oliver Mercer – Agostino Tassi/Elder 1
Christopher Burchett – Cosimo di Medici/Elder 2
Brian Giebler – Tomasso/Occulist
NOVUS NY; Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor;

Christopher Alden, stage director

Excerpts from NY and SF productions

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Interview on KDFC Radio, SF
https://www.kdfc.com/2019/05/artemesia-from-left-coast-chamber-ensemble/
 

Other links in the press

 

Broadway World
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Trinity-Church-Wall-Streets-Times-Arrow-Festival-to-Focus-on-Female-Artists-20190213

Classical Source

http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_news.php?id=6904

SF Classical Voice

https://www.sfcv.org/event/left-coast-chamber-ensemble/dorothea-and-artemisia-0

21 Media Group

https://21cmediagroup.com/2019/02/13/trinity-church-wall-streets-times-arrow-festival-march-5-9-features-laura-schwendingers-opera-artemisia-and-handels-oratorio-susanna-plus-early-music-by-barbara/

I Care if you Listen

https://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2019/03/this-week-concerts-in-new-york-march-4-2019-march-10-2019/

Broadway World about Artemisia

https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Laura-Schwendingers-Opera-ARTEMISIA-to-Make-New-York-Premiere-at-St-Pauls-Chapel-20170106

Isthmus, Madison

https://isthmus.com/music/laura-elise-schwendinger-artemisia-opera-in-nyc/

Wisconsin Gazette

https://www.wisconsingazette.com/entertainment/classical/uw-madison-professor-pens-a-new-opera-about-a-neglected/article_efece4bc-46f6-5bb9-8700-80c211b09b88.html

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Preview

Trinity’s Time’s Arrow festival, taking place this season from March 5-9, is conceived as a unique combination of Baroque and contemporary works united by a common theme. Continuing its commitment to amplifying the voices of female artists and exploring sensitive contemporary themes, this year’s Time’s Arrow festival juxtaposes old and new stories of the biblical figure Susanna. The festival includes Handel’s Susanna, as Trinity continues its long-term presentation of the composer’s oratorios, and the new opera Artemisia, fully staged by director Christopher Alden. Artemisia tells the story of the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who portrayed herself as Susanna in her famous painting Susanna and the Elders. The opera was composed by Laura Schwendinger to a libretto by Ginger Strand and will be conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya.

 

https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/music-arts/2018-2019/times-arrow

 

Time's Arrow | Trinity Church

www.trinitywallstreet.org

Continuing our commitment to amplifying the voices of female artists across multiple mediums, this year’s Time’s Arrow festival juxtaposes old and new stories of the biblical figure Susanna.

 

https://21cmediagroup.com/2018/09/24/trinity-church-wall-streets-midday-concert-series-turns-50-season-includes-world-premieres-of-trinity-commissions-expanded-concert-programs-performances-around-the-country/

 

https://centerforcontemporaryopera.org/2018-2019-season/artemisia/

 

The first of these performances took place Nov. 3 at Symphony Space, Thalia Theater-- New York by the Center for Contemporary Opera in piano reduction, with an all star cast featuring Augusta Caso, mezzo soprano as Artemisia Gentileschi, and Sara Jobin conducting. Hailed by the LA Times as “mysteriously smoldering…a name to remember,” mezzo-soprano Augusta Caso is becoming known for her “silken…beguiling mezzo” and “fine subtle acting” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle). This past season, Augusta made her makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as a Flowermaiden in Wagner’s Parsifal under the baton of Maestro Nézet-Séguin.

 

Then in March, the award winning Trinity Wall Street Novus presented a fully staged production of Artemisia with orchestra. Trinity’s Time’s Arrow festival, March 5-9, was conceived as a unique combination of Baroque and contemporary works united by a common theme. Continuing its commitment to amplifying the voices of female artists and exploring sensitive contemporary themes, this year’s Time’s Arrow festival juxtaposes old and new stories of the biblical figure Susanna. The festival includes Handel’s Susanna, as Trinity continues its long-term presentation of the composer’s oratorios, and the new opera Artemisia, fully staged by director Christopher Alden. Artemisia tells the story of the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who portrayed herself as Susanna in her famous painting Susanna and the Elders. The opera was composed by Laura Schwendinger to a libretto by Ginger Strand and will be conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya.

 

In June the award winning Left Coast Ensemble presented the fully staged chamber music version of Artemisia. Focusing on the art and milieu of Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi and Depression Era photographer Dorothea Lange, in two chamber operas with projected images that come to life. Laura Schwendinger’s new opera tackles Gentileschi’s struggles and triumphs as she battles inequality and reveals hidden stories.

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Left Coast Chamber Ensemble

WORLD PREMIERE (in chamber version)

SAN FRANCISCO
Z Space
450 Florida St, San Francisco
Saturday, June 1, 2019, 7:30 PM
Sunday, June 2, 2019, 2:00 PM

http://www.leftcoastensemble.org/dorothea-artemisia/

https://www.sfcv.org/music-news/left-coast-doubles-down-on-the-old-new-model

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Featuring:

Artemisia: Bethany Coffland
Tomasso: Kyle Stegall
Susanna: Marnie Breckenridge
Abra/Tuzia: Nikki Einfeld
 

With Artists Anna Presler, violin

Leighton Fong, cello
Nikki Einfeld, soprano

Marnie Breckenridge, soprano

Matilda Hofman, conductor

Complete cast and players will be announced shortly

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http://www.leftcoastensemble.org/dorothea-artemisia/

 

Dorothea and Artemisia — Left Coast Chamber Ensemble

www.leftcoastensemble.org

Christopher Stark From the Field WORLD PREMIERE. Laura Schwendinger Artemisia WORLD PREMIERE. We focus on the art and milieu of Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi and Depression Era photographer Dorothea Lange, in two chamber operas with projected images that come to life.

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