Review: Marble City Opera’s Haunting ‘dwb (Driving While Black)’

Marble City Opera’s latest production is ‘dwb (driving while black)’, a one-act opera that dives headlong into the inherently intensifying anxiety faced by Black families as children approach driving age and face the intersection of modern mobility and the horrors of profiling and racist policing. With music by Susan Kander and a libretto by Roberta Gumbel, the 45 minute work features three performer/musicians: Mother (soprano Allison Sanders), Cellist (Cremaine Booker), and Percussion (David Verin). ‘dwb’ is directed by Ivan Griffin, who previously directed MCO’s The Christmas Spider.

Marble City Opera Announces Upcoming 2024-25 Season

While not quite a teenager, Marble City Opera has done a lot of living as Knoxville’s chamber opera company. This next season, 2024-25 will be the company’s twelfth since it first trod the boards in 2013. Designed with a mixture…

Review: Marble City Opera Breaks New Ground with ‘The Doctor and the Devils’

The occasion of a new opera making its world premiere carries not only an elevated interest for opera-goers, but also an elevated excitement. That was certainly the case last weekend as Marble City Opera premiered The Doctor and the Devils, a work it had commissioned from Knoxville composer Jason Overall.

Marble City Opera Announces Change in Venue and Date for ‘IL TABARRO’

Sometimes it just happens. Due to a last minute conflict at the original venue, the first of two performances of Puccini’s Il Tabarro, originally scheduled for Saturday, June 22, will now be  performed on Friday, June 21, 2024 at the…

World Premiere: Marble City Opera Offers Jason Overall’s ‘The Doctor and the Devils’

The Doctor and the Devils, featuring a libretto adapted by Overall from an unproduced screenplay by Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas, will receive its World Premiere in two performances on June 6 and 8 at the Old City Performing Arts Center.

Marble City Opera Announces Frank Murphy as Managing Director

Marble City Opera began life in 2013 and in those 11 years has crossed numerous thresholds that have defined its emergence, growth, and evolution as Knoxville’s chamber opera company. Not all thresholds, though, come with smiles and laughter. In November,…

Review: A Poignant Beginning for ‘The Christmas Spider’ via Marble City Opera

BY ALAN SHERROD   If one were to start counting stories, plays, television, and films that relate to, or take place at, Christmas-time, one might assume that every possible twist on the subject matter has been exhausted. Not only are…

Saturday — Marble City Opera Premieres ‘The Christmas Spider’

There will be two MCO performances of The Christmas Spider on Saturday, January 6, at St John’s Cathedral in Downtown Knoxville — 2:30 PM and 5:00 PM.

Most Read ARTS KNOXVILLE Stories of 2023

If one was looking for a definite sign that the peripheral effects of the pandemic had at last faded away, 2023 was an almost perfect answer. Readership of articles on Arts Knoxville grew some 20% over 2022, paralleling the increase…

Marble City Opera Reveals Its 11th Season of Operas

Although it wasn’t really a secret—opera-goers and supporters had known for a while—Marble City Opera has officially announced its next season of productions plus a number of add-on concerts for 2023-2024. Like in the past, that new season contains new…

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