Kevin Puts and Mark Campell’s third opera collaboration, Elizabeth Cree, opened Opera Philadelphia’s 017 season, a bold festival of new works in the first few weeks of their season. Hailed as “stunning” by Schmopera, “grisly and brilliant” by TheaterJones, and “bracing” by OperaNews, it seems destined to many more productions by opera companies throughout.
Set in London in the 1880s, this highly suspenseful and theatrical opera interweaves several narratives: the trial of the titular heroine for the poisoning of her husband; a series of brutal murders committed by a Jack the Ripper-style killer; the spirited world of an English music hall; and, finally, some “guest appearances” by luminaries from the Victorian Age. Elizabeth Cree is a work that combines the factual with the fictive and the historical with the imaginary
Elizabeth Cree is ca. 90 minutes long, scored for a chamber orchestra:
Flute (Piccolo
Oboe
Clarinet (Eb Clarinet)
Bassoon (Contrabassoon)
Horn
Trumpet
Bass Trombone
Percussion (2)
Piano/Synthesizer
Harp
Strings
The next production will be at Chicago Opera Theater in February 2018.