The Awakening

Music @ Madewood is presenting a staged, work-in-progress of selected scenes from a new opera by American composer James Stapleton.

In 1899 the New Orleans literary world was shocked by Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the impressionistic chronicle of a young woman who turns from her husband to a seductive younger man, and finally into the welcoming arms of the waters off Grand Isle in a conclusion that is as dramatic today as it was more than a century ago.

Madewood Plantation House in Napoleonville
4250 Highway 308, Napoleonville, Louisiana
(between Thibodaux and Donaldsonville)
www.madewood.com

Saturday, May 15, 2010
12:00 PM: A Cajun lunch – $14.95
1:00 PM: Free Screenings of two films inspired by The Awakening and a discussion of the opera, with comments by the composer, in Madewood’s Rosedale Theatre
6:00 PM: The performance followed by a buffet dinner – General admission $89.50
($84.50 if purchased before April 15)

Robert Lyall, General and Artistic Director of the New Orleans Opera Association and musical director for the Madewood performance, is an enthusiastic supporter of the composer and this eagerly-anticipated opera:

“Kate Chopin’s beautiful novel had its origins in the late-nineteenth century culture that is so well represented by Madewood Plantation. The enjoyment of this new and evocative musical setting of an important literary work, one that has invited at least two film treatments, will certainly be enhanced by the authenticity, charm and mystique of Madewood.”

In 2003, in the early stages of composition, The Awakening was given a reading by New York City Opera.  New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini, wrote:

“The excerpt earned a genuine ovation and stirred the most discussion . . .with its lullingly rich chromatic harmony, lacy textures and shimmering orchestra effects . . . utterly authentic — a sensitive setting of an elusive story about a young wife and mother from Kentucky who has married into the new and somewhat confusing world of well-to-do French Creole society in New Orleans.”

FOR TICKETS CALL THE NEW ORLEANS OPERA BOX OFFICE
(504) 529-3000 starting March 25, 2010
For more information visit www.madewood.com

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