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Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project Present the East Coast Premiere of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman's Awakenings

Feb. 15, 2023

On February 25, Odyssey Opera in partnership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), led by conductor Gil Rose, presents the East Coast premiere of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman's opera, Awakenings at the Huntington Avenue Theatre in Boston. The production stars Jarett Porter as Dr. Oliver Sacks and features a cast of outstanding singers.


Susanna Phillips and Adrienne Danrich perform “I Do Not Need Much Sleep” from
Opera Theatre St. Louis's June 2022 production of Awakenings.

Awakenings is based on Dr. Oliver Sacks’s acclaimed 1973 book, which relates his astonishing work with victims of the great sleeping-sickness pandemic of 1916-1927, Encephalitis Lethargica. Although millions died during the pandemic, many thousands lived on to be left “frozen,” like living statues, often locked away in hospital wards, forgotten and “asleep.” In the late 1960s, Sacks recognized that real lives were trapped inside these forlorn bodies. By experimenting with the wonder drug L-DOPA used to treat Parkinson’s, he began to bring these patients back into being—real people who had lost decades of their lives.

The opera was given its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, conducted by Roberto Kalb and directed by James Robinson, and ran from June 5-24, 2022 at the Loretto-Hilton Center in Saint Louis. Susan Elliott of Musical America noted, "Whether relevant to the tragedies of today or those of the last century, it is a story of the human condition, of re-awakenings and the consequences of them, of life’s mixed blessings, and, mostly, of love...[Awakenings is] as well-crafted musically as it is compassionate."

Read: "How We Met: Oliver Sacks and Tobias Picker" (Independent, September 26, 2010)

 
Tobias Picker and Dr. Oliver Sacks (2010)
Photo: Anna Schori

Click here to read an engaging article about Awakenings, Dr. Oliver Sacks, and the opera's creators, Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman, by Joshua Barone for The New York Times.

To learn more about Tobias Picker, visit: schott-music.com.

Tobias Picker
Awakenings (2019)
an opera in two acts
libretto (Eng) by Aryeh Lev Stollman

Dr. Oliver Sacks, mid-30’s, a neurologist – Baritone
Dr. Podsnap, mid-50’s, medical director of Beth Abraham – Bass
Mr. Rodriguez, early 30’s, nurse – Light Tenor
Rose R., early 60’s, patient in Beth Abraham – Soprano
Miriam H., mid-50’s, patient in Beth Abraham – Contralto 
Leonard Lev, mid40’s, patient in Beth Abraham – Tenor
Iris Lev, 70, Leonard’s mother – Mezzo-soprano

Chorus - SATB (12) comprising patients, hospital 
administrators and staff & incidental characters

2(2.pic).2.2(2.bcl).2-4.2.2.1-timp-hp.pno(cel)-str
100'

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