New York City Opera's "The Garden of Finzi-Continis" preview

New York City Opera (under the direction of Michael Capasso, General Director) will present a preview of its latest world premiere of a new American opera, Ricky Ian Gordon's THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, a co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, Dominick Balletta, Executive Director) on Friday, January 14, 2022 at 6pm at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. Tatev Baroyan and Jeremy Brauner will sing pieces from the show, accompanied by Kathryn Olander. Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael Capasso and Michael Korie will speak about the production. Due to the evolving public health situation, the in-person performance is invitation-only, but it will also be live-streamed simultaneously on stanzeitaliane.it and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHxVo04jaL0.

With a libretto by Michael Korie, based on Giorgio Bassani's 1962 novel, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS is set on the eve of World War II and tells the story of an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, who believe they will be immune to the changes happening around them. As they make a gracious haven for themselves in their garden, walling out the unpleasantness of the world outside, Italy forms its alliance with Germany and begins to enforce anti-Semitic racial laws. But the Finzi-Continis discover too late that no one is immune, no one is untouchable. The production will open on Thursday, January 27 at Edmond J. Safra Hall in the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Sung in English. Tickets for this limited engagement, which will play eight performances only through Sunday, February 6, are available at NYTF.org or by calling the box office at 855-449-4658. For additional information call 212-655-7653. 

ABOUT THE ITALAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE IN NEW YORK

The Italian Cultural Institute in New York was founded in 1961 by the Italian Government. Its mission is to promote Italian languages and cultures in the United States. Under the guidance of its trustees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its advisory board, and its staff, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York fosters cultural exchanges between Italy and the U.S. in a variety of areas, from the arts to the humanities, to science, and technology. Central to the Italian Cultural Institute's activity is its collaboration with the most prominent academic and cultural Institutions of the East Coast. The scientific exchanges, the organization of, and support to, visual arts exhibitions, the grants for translation and publication of Italian books, inspire and nourish the Institute's initiatives. In particular, they focus on the relation between memory and innovation, identity and indentities in Italian civilization. The Italian Cultural Institute of New York, therefore, provides an "open window" on main cultural and social aspects of past and current Italy.

ABOUT NEW YORK CITY OPERA

Since its founding in 1943 by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as "The People's Opera," New York City Opera (NYCO) has been a critical part of the city's cultural life. During its history, New York City Opera launched the careers of dozens of major artists and presented engaging productions of both mainstream and unusual operas alongside commissions and regional premieres. The result was a uniquely American opera company of international stature. For more than seven decades, New York City Opera has maintained a distinct identity, adhering to its unique mission: affordable ticket prices, a devotion to American works, English-language performances, the promotion of up-and-coming American singers, and seasons of accessible, vibrant and compelling productions intended to introduce new audiences to the art form. Stars who launched their careers at New York City Opera include Plácido Domingo, Catherine Malfitano, Sherrill Milnes, Samuel Ramey, Beverly Sills, Tatiana Troyanos, Carol Vaness, and Shirley Verrett, among dozens of other great artists. New York City Opera has a long history of inclusion and diversity. It was the first major opera company to feature African American singers in leading roles (Todd Duncan as Tonio in Pagliacci, 1945; Camilla Williams in the title role in Madama Butterfly, 1946); the first to produce a new work by an African-American composer (William Grant Still, Troubled Island, 1949); and the first to have an African-American conductor lead its orchestra (Everett Lee, 1955). A revitalized City Opera re-opened in January 2016 with Tosca, the opera that originally launched the company in 1944. Outstanding productions during the four years since then include: the world premieres of Iain Bell and Mark Campbell's Stonewall, which NYCO commissioned and developed, legendary director Harold Prince's new production of Bernstein's Candide; Puccini's beloved La Fanciulla del West; and the New York premiere of Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas — the first in its Ópera en Español series. Subsequent Ópera en Español productions include the New York premiere of the world's first mariachi opera, José "Pepe" Martinez's Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Literes's Los Elementos, and Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires. In addition to the world premiere of Stonewall, the productions in NYCO's Pride Initiative, which produces an LGBTQ-themed work each June during Pride Month, include the New York premiere of Péter Eötvös's Angels in America and the American premiere of Charles Wuorinen's Brokeback Mountain. New York City Opera has presented such talents as Anna Caterina Antonacci and Aprile Millo in concert, as well as its own 75th Anniversary Concert in Bryant Park, one in a series of the many concerts and staged productions that it presents each year as part of the Park's summer performance series. City Opera's acclaimed summer series in Bryant Park brings free performances to thousands of New Yorkers and visitors every year.

New York City Opera continues its legacy with main stage performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater and with revitalized outreach and education programs at venues throughout the city, designed to welcome and inspire a new generation of opera audiences. City Opera's acclaimed summer series in Bryant Park brings free performances to thousands of New Yorkers and visitors every year.

New York City Opera: 

http://www.nycopera.com

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facebook.com/NewYorkCityOpera

Twitter: @nycityopera

ABOUT THE NATIONAL YIDDISH THEATRE FOLKSBIENE

Now celebrating its 107th season, Tony Award-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) is the longest consecutively producing theatre in the U.S. and the world's oldest continuously operating Yiddish theatre company. NYTF, which presented the award-winning Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey, to sold out audiences before it moved to Off-Broadway uptown, is in residence at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek and Executive Director Dominick Balletta, NYTF is dedicated to creating a living legacy through the arts, connecting generations and bridging communities. NYTF aims to bring history to life by reviving and restoring lost and forgotten work, commissioning new work, and adapting pre-existing work for the 21st Century. Serving a diverse audience comprised of performing arts patrons, cultural enthusiasts, Yiddish-language aficionados, and the general public, the company presents plays, musicals, concerts, lectures, interactive educational workshops, and community-building activities in English and Yiddish, with English and Russian supertitles accompanying performances. NYTF provides access to a century-old cultural legacy and inspires the imaginations of the next generation to contribute to this valuable body of work. Learn more at http://www.nytf.org.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE – A LIVING MEMORIAL TO THE HOLOCAUST

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York's contribution to the global responsibility to never forget. The Museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The third largest Holocaust museum in the world and the second largest in North America, the Museum of Jewish Heritage anchors the southernmost tip of Manhattan, completing the cultural and educational landscape it shares with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The Museum of Jewish Heritage maintains a collection of more than 40,000 artifacts, photographs, documentary films, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms, a 375-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a resource center for educators, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. The Museum is the home of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit mjhnyc.org.