COMING TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU…
“DREAM WITHIN A DREAM is an original twelve-part series of weird, short, experimental “opera scenas” based upon the pandemic dreams of Lisa Lipton, realized by multiple composers, and filmed at Portland’s historic Polaris Hall as well as other environs…”
Episodes 1-3 features new music by composers Nicholas Emerson, Lisa Neher, and Justin Ralls with many more composers and collaborators yet to be announced! Featuring performances by Camille Sherman (soprano), Sequoia (piano), Lisa Lipton (Clarinet), C. Richard Moore (Ondes Martenot) and more to be announced.
DAMIEN GETER WORLD PREMIERE
VOTE! Get out, get active!
ABOVE: OTO ART / ACTIVISM, Featuring composer Michael Lanci’s response to the 2016 election, setting 19th Century protest song texts. “Stolen Crown” from “Songs for Joe Hill,” as part of OTO’s 2019 production This Land Sings at the Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland, Oregon.
OPERA THEATER OREGON presents
Invisible: A Virtual Songspiel
THANK YOU ALL FOR OUR FIRST SUCCESSFUL LIVE STREAM PERFORMANCE AND SUCCESSFUL COMMISSION AND PREMIERE OF DAMIEN GETER’S NEW WORK, INVISIBLE!
October 31, 2020 / 7:30 p.m. live stream from Polaris Hall
Join OTO for a program featuring the world premiere of Damien Geter’s Invisible, adapted from the prologue of Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, which lyrically interrogates themes of racism and identity for African Americans.
This unique “virtual songspiel” at Portland’s intimate Polaris Hall begins with Franz Schubert’s “Shepherd on the Rock,” journeys through time and space with some of the first and last songs of Amy Beach and Stephen Foster, and closes with the premiere performance of Invisible by special guest, Portland’s own Onry. Program will also feature a special performance of Onry’s original song, Living in the Light.
Look forward to performances by Jocelyn Claire Thomas, Camille Sherman, Adrian Rosales-Casilas, Lisa Lipton, Logan Thane Brown, with Sequoia accompanying on piano and arrangements by Artistic Director, Justin Ralls. With guest appearance by jazz pianist George Colligan.
“Imagine if Franz Schubert, Stephen Foster, Amy Beach, Damien Geter and Onry all found themselves in Havisham’s parlor from Great Expectations, presenting their music in a Twilight Zone-esque salon of music, poetry, and a dreamlike reflection of past, present, and future on what will surely be the most surreal Hallows’ Eve in recent memory. We hope to give an intimate, cathartic experience – interrogating nostalgia and promoting innovation – and asserting that music has a place in times of upheaval.”
– Justin Ralls, Artistic Director
We are excited to announce a forthcoming collaboration with stage direction by Kate Bergstrom and experimental lighting collaboration with Open Show in the creation of a music video Invisible , featuring Damien Geter and Onry.
October 31, 2020
7:30 p.m. live stream from Polaris Hall
Tickets: CLICK HERE
Sliding scale donation: $10-20
Duration: ca. 50 min.
CLIMATE OF GUILT: Admissions and Extinction (2020)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, our planned performances of Admissions by Michael Lanci, and Song of the Most Beautiful Bird of the Forest by Justin Ralls have been indefinitely postponed. We are still committed to performing these works – stay tuned for future developments of our Climate of Guilt project.
We acknowledge the ancestral land upon which we live and make our art: “The Portland Metro area rests on traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River creating communities and summer encampments to harvest and use the plentiful natural resources of the area” (Portland Indian Leaders Roundtable, 2018). Opera Theater Oregon acknowledges and thanks the original caretakers of these ancestral lands.