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US Stage Premiere of Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest at Lincoln Center

Jun. 01, 2016

US Stage Premiere of Gerald Barry's <em>The Importance of Being Earnest</em> at Lincoln Center

Gerald Barry's ingenious opera setting of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest 
comes to New York in Ramin Gray's fabulously ridiculous production for the work's US stage premiere at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater on June 2, 3 and 4. The production is co-presented by Lincoln Center and CONTACT! at the NY Phil Biennial as part of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative.

The Importance of Being Earnest was commissioned by The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (Gustavo Dudamel, music director) and the Barbican Center, London. Since its concert premiere in Los Angeles in 2011 and its stage premiere at Opéra National de Lorraine in 2013, Earnest has thrilled audiences with its madcap charm and ingenious wit. Following its debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mark Swed wrote for the Los Angeles Times:

The world now has something rare: a new genuinely comic opera and maybe the most inventive Oscar Wilde opera since Richard Strauss’ “Salome” more than a century ago.

Tom Service hailed Earnest as “utterly irresistible…full of seismic musical surprises.” Barry’s comic masterpiece garnered the coveted RPS Award in 2013 for Large-Scale Composition and was nominated for a 2016 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Details on the US stage premiere can be found at lcgreatperformers.org.

For more information on Gerald Barry, please visit schott-music.com.

Gerald Barry
The Importance of Being Earnest (2009/2010)
opera in three acts
libretto (Eng) by the composer based on the play by Oscar Wilde
soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, bass-baritone, 2 basses; male chamber choir
1(pic).1(ca).1.bcl.2(2.cbsn)-2.2(1.Dtpt).1.1-timp.2perc-pno(cel).str
90’

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