Opera Philadelphia's annual Fall Festival, O18, opens September 20, continuing Opera Philadelphia's mission of presenting new works that explore diverse voices and themes, along with more traditional productions, and this week's A Tempo (Saturday 9/15 at 7 pm) provides a preview of one of the festival's centerpieces, "Sky on Swings" by Lembit Beecher.
This year's 11-day festival features a production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Academy of Music and the premiere of "Glass Handel," an 'operatic art installation" by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo bringing together the music of George Frideric Handel and Philip Glass.
Sky on Swings, with a libretto by Hannah Moscovitch, features mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson. A Tempo host Rachel Katz sits down to speak with the singers and Beecher about the work and how it approaches this very relevant, modern-day story. The program also features comments by Opera Philadelphia General Director David Devan.
