Organization

Detroit Opera

Stage director

Yuval Sharon

Set designer

Moníka Essen

Lighting designer

Yuki Nakase Link

Singer

Jennifer Cresswell

Euroopera 3

Peter Rolfe Dauz

River Guard

Kisma Jordan

Robert Wesley Mason

Melanie Spector

John Etsell

Marina Stojanovska

Biba Bell

Celia Benvenutti

Chris Woolfolk

Euroopera 4

Susan Graham

Davóne Tines

Europeras III and IV

Detroit

United States

Gem Theatre

Europeras III and IV Cage

Public

Approved

This season’s site-specific operatic experience will be pioneering composer John Cage’s Europeras 3 & 4, which breaks apart European opera tradition and reassembles it as a collage. With pre-recorded music, live singers and pianists, stage actions determined through chance operations, and a digital Europeraclock taking the place of conductor, Cage’s unpredictable, entertaining light-and-soundscape will challenge your eyes and ears. “Cage created Europeras 3 & 4 entirely of recycled materials—arias that everyone is familiar with, classics from European repertoire,” says Sharon. “The only catch is that they’re all performed at the same time. Through chance operations, singers will perform arias that they select, while pianists play transcriptions of different operas, and phonographs are playing different recordings. The result is something new and original: an exhilarating, bewildering, wonderful work. There are many experiences happening simultaneously, more similar to an installation, or like when you came to the Michigan Theater to see Bliss in 2021—it does not have to adhere to our standard ideas of narrative or experience. It can be so many different things: a true collage of things we know and love.” Europeras 3 & 4 will be presented at Detroit’s historic Gem Theatre in March 2024. Casting for Europeras 3 & 4 will be announced later this spring.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew