Although only a week has passed since Marble City Opera wrapped up its 2021-22 season with an intensely memorable production of The Copper Queen, the company is wasting no time in announcing its tenth season of works for 2022-23. MCO has selected three distinctively different works dealing with a range of contemporary subject matter: Heartbreak Express in October, The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace in March, and the contemporary classic Susannah by Carlisle Floyd next June.
Heartbreak Express
Music by George Lam – Libretto by John Clum
October 20-22, 2022
Based in part on the documentary film For The Love of Dolly, the opera relates the story of four fans of Dolly Parton waiting to meet their idol for the first time, but each with different motivations and expectations.
The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace
Music by Kamala Sankaram – Libretto by Rob Handel
March 16-18, 2023
Commissioned by Opera Ithaca, this 2019 work follows Ada, Countess of Lovelace and Lord Byron’s daughter, who has been asked to help Charles Babbage with his work on the Difference Engine.
Susannah
Music and Libretto by Carlisle Floyd
June 8-10, 2023
In line with Marble City Opera’s use of alternative and historically appropriate venues, Susannah will be performed at Marble Springs State Historic Site, a site in south Knox County that was the home of John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, from 1790-1815.
Touching on both folk melodies and traditional classical music, Floyd’s Susannah premiered in February, 1955, at Florida State University. Subsequently, it has become one of the most-performed American operas. It tells the story of a beautiful Tennessee girl who innocently incites the lust of her church Elders, leading to her denouncement as a sinner.
