Ricky Ian Gordon's new opera Morningstar premieres in Cincinnati

Morgan Smith (left) and Andrew Lovato (right)

The Cincinnati Opera is presenting its first world premiere in 50 years with Ricky Ian Gordon's Morningstar, which opens on June 30th and runs through July 19th. The cast features two barihunks familiar to readers of this site, Morgan Smith as Aaron Greenspan and Andrew Lovato as Harry Engel. The cast also includes Twyla Robinson as Becky, Elizabeth Pojanowski as Sadie, Elizabeth Zharoff as Esther, Jennifer Zetlan as Fanny and hunkentenor Andrew Bidlack as Irving Tashman.

The libretto was adapted from Sylvia Regan’s 1940 play about Russian Jewish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side in the early 20th century. The story revolves are eh 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire where 146 workers perished, most of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Gordon's grandmother, Rebecca Lieberman, who worked at the sweatshop survived because she was home sick the day of the fire.

Gordon teamed up with libbretis William M. Hoffman, who wrote the play As Is and the libretto for The Ghosts of Versailles to compose the piece for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. That effort failed to materialize, but the opera got a second chance in 2012, when Opera Fusion: New Works teamed up with the Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music to present the work at a workshop for unproduced contemporary operas.

Tickets and additional cast information is available online.