the mannes opera presents kurt weill's street scene

Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 pm, Gerald W. Lynch Theater

NEW YORK, April 18, 2019 – The College of Performing Arts at The New School is proud to present a Mannes Opera production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene.

Considered by Weill himself to be an "American opera" - a synthesis of European opera and American musical theater - Street Scene combines a rigorous operatic style with a distinctively American story. As a meditation on how communities shift and tear as they accommodate new worldviews, it’s a remarkably modern and prescient piece - sometimes painfully so. Set against our home, New York City, and with a cast that embraces diversity, difference, immigration, and identity, it is impossible to experience Street Scene without seeing ourselves in the characters, with all of their glorious triumphs, hidden desires, and learned prejudices.

Under the leadership of new Managing Artistic Director Emma Griffin, the Mannes Opera is deeply invested in exposing students to work that will challenge them musically, intellectually and artistically. Furthering a broad vision of what opera can be, the program challenges its young artists to sing extraordinary music and build richly detailed performances, preparing them to thrive within a 21st-century operatic landscape that is exploding with new forms and content.  

Music by Kurt Weill
Lyrics by Langston Hughes
Book by Elmer Rice, based on his Pulitzer-prize winning play

Friday, May 3, 7:30 pm & Saturday, May 4, 7:30 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater

Music director: Leslie Stifelman
Stage director: Chloe Treat

Members of the media must RSVP with Will Wilbur
Tickets are available here

The New School’s College of Performing Arts (CoPA), formed in the fall of 2015, brings together Mannes School of Music, the iconic 100-year-old conservatory; the legendary New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the innovative and ground-breaking School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture of excellence, the College of Performing Arts creates opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, innovative education, and world-class performances. As part of the formation of The College, Mannes has moved into the newly renovated Arnhold Hall in Greenwich Village, a state-of-the-art facility designed especially for the performing arts. Also housed in Arnhold Hall are The School of Jazz and the School of Drama’s BFA program. As a part of The New School, students and faculty across the College of Performing Arts experience a supportive and rigorous environment with enhanced opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design, to the social sciences, to public policy and advocacy, and more. CoPA has over 900 degree and diploma seeking students, including a variety of programs at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Now in its second century as a dynamic musical center, Mannes School of Music is a standard bearer for innovative artistry, dedicated to developing citizen artists who engage their communities and the world through music. Through its undergraduate, graduate, professional studies, and preparatory programs, Mannes offers a curriculum as imaginative as it is rigorous, taught by a world-class faculty and visiting artists. As part of The New School’s College of Performing Arts, together with the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and the School of Drama, Mannes makes its home on The New School’s Greenwich Village campus in a state-of-the-art facility at the newly renovated Arnhold Hall.

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Media Contacts:

Will Wilbur,
The New School
212.229.5667x3990
[email protected]

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