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Recent Press Releases
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Boston-A noted area composer's work hits the hardboards of the nation's most prestigious performing arts center in May. Boston-based Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series performs Brian Hulse's composition "The Game," a short opera for three singers and piano, based on a Jack London short story, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on May 23, at 6 p.m. The performance is part of the center's Millennium Stage Series, which broadcasts live music performances via the Internet from the center's foyer every evening at 6 p.m. Intermezzo will also perform "The Letter," another commission by Brian Hulse, written for soprano, baritone, and piano, based on a short story by Edith Wharton. "The Game," originally a novella written by Jack London, tells the story of an underground boxer in the early 1900s who arranges one last fight prior to getting married. His fiancé reluctantly agrees to watch him fight, but the bout ends tragically. Hulse, a professor of music at Wellesley College, chose to adapt the work on the recommendation of Harvard literature professor John Stauffer. "London's work is well suited for an operatic treatment because of the way he portrayed characters through their speech," Hulse says. The dramatic verse of the text is "a real goldmine for opera settings," he says. Hulse has arranged music for several choral ensembles nationwide. "The Game" is one of three commissions composed for Intermezzo over the last two seasons. Other composition credits include the soundtrack for the independent film "Couch Encounter," and music for HBO's popular serial drama, "The Sopranos." Boston audiences won't have to wait for the Kennedy Center webcast to see "The Game." Intermezzo performs the composition on Sunday, May 16, 4 p.m., at the David Friend Recital Hall located in the Berklee College of Music's Genko Uchido Building, 921 Boylston St., Boston, MA. Also on the bill on May 16 is "The Boor," a short opera by American composer Dominick Argento, based on a play by Anton Chekov. This comic opera is the story of a mourning widower and her neighbor who are mutually attracted to each other, despite a quarrel over a debt owed to the neighbor by the widower's deceased husband. Tickets for the May 16 performance are $15 and are available at the door. For more information go to Intermezzo's website at www.intermezzo-opera.org To view the May 23 Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Series performance, go to www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium # # # Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series is a chamber opera company based in Boston, MA. Founded in 2003 by Boston resident John Whittlesey, Intermezzo was born out of a vision to produce contemporary chamber operas and bring new and exciting works to the musical life of New England. Chamber opera merges the musical and dramatic flavor of grand opera with the immediacy of art song, performed on a smaller, more intimate scale. All works are performed in English. Brian Hulse is a composer based in Wellesley, MA. Hulse holds a Ph.D. in composition from Harvard. Hulse's work has been performed by Speculum Musicae, Empyrean Ensemble, Duo 46, Strung Out Trio, 20th Century Unlimited, Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series, Wellesley Composers Conference, Harvard Group for New Music, Fromm Players, Canyonlands Ensemble, the Harvard Glee Club, and the Wellesley College Choir, among many others. Hulse is the 2004 Composer-in-Residence for Intermezzo.
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