Opera Contestants in Workshops.Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO)-produced opera received its world premiere in New York City in March 2011, and moves next to the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary.
The Armel Opera Competition and Festival 2011 at the Szeged National Theater, taking place
6-15 of October, presents the European premiere of Michael Dellaira's new opera
The Secret Agent on October 14th, with competition winners Nicolas Rigas and
Adrienn Miksch in the lead roles of Winnie and Verloc.
The libretto was written by J. D. MCCLATCHY based on the novel The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
Michael Dellaira's ACA Composer Page
Michael Dellaira is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Center for Contemporary Opera. Holding
advanced degrees in both Philosophy and Music Composition, his music
exploits the qualities of both speech and song, and encompasses genres from folk music to voice synthesis on computers. About
Dellaira, who is widely praised for his haunting harmonies,
eloquence and sensitivity and flair for vocal writing the noted
American critic and composer Eric Salzman has said: He has created a
personal musical language that combines the harmonic vocabulary and
rhythmic interest of rock music with the technical rigor of the best
modern classical music. It is the combination
and synthesis of these seemingly contradictory elements which gives
surface tension and excitement, and deeper value to Dellairas music. Born in Schenectady, New York
in 1949, Dellaira was educated in the U.S. at Georgetown and Princeton
Universities, in Germany at the Universitt zu Kln, and in Italy at
LAccademia di Santa Cecilia and LAccademia Chigiana. His primary
teachers were Milton Babbitt, Goffredo Petrassi and Franco Donatoni. In addition, he had two residencies at The Composers Conference, where he studied with Roger Sessions and Mario Davidovsky. His numerous awards include First Prize for his monodrama Maud
from the Society of Composers, an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, a Fulbright
Fellowship, grants from the Ford and Mellon Foundations, the New Jersey Arts Council, Cary Trust, the American Composers Forum and American Music Center. His last opera Chri (after the novel by Colette) was a finalist for the 2006 Richard Rodgers Award in Musical Theater.