West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers" creating media buzz

Cellist Kathyrn Bates Williams and Barihunk Jesse Blumberg (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

The West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers" has created quite a media buzz before its one-night only performance tonight at Fort Mason's Southside Theater in San Francisco. The Jewish Weekly, Bay Area Reporter and San Francisco Chronicle all named it as one of their top theater picks for the week.

The Advocate ran a lengthy interview with Ricky Ian Gordon today, who wrote the mini-opera as a way of dealing with the loss of his lover Jeffrey Grossi to AIDS in 1996. Gordon told the Advocate, "The world is so different now than it was when Jeffery died in 1996. Young people today missed seeing what it was really like at the height of the AIDS crisis so for them they think it’s OK because you just get to take a few pills all the time. Today, HIV is romanticized in a way because you get to be like that character in Rent, but young people need to know that there’s nothing romantic about it."

You can read the entire interview HERE.

Jesse Blumberg and the Del Sol Quartet (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

The San Francisco Examiner hailed Gordon as a natural successor to Stephen Sondheim along with Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel and John Michael LaChiusa. You can read the entire article HERE. San Francisco's KDFC radio also aired an interview with the composer.

Green Sneakers, which is broken into nineteen songs and runs about 80 minutes, is being directed by one of operas most exciting young talents John de los Santos. The theatrical song cycle was written for Baritone, String Quartet, and Empty Chair, with a libretto by the composer. It premiered on July 15, 2008 in Vail, Colorado and has had a number of subsequent performances since, mostly with Blumberg. Remarkably, it had never been performed in the two cities most impacted by AIDS - New York City and San Francisco. This performance and an upcoming show at Lincoln Center on April 6th finally bring this important piece to the audiences most touched by the epidemic. 

Jesse Blumberg in rehearsal for Green Sneakers in San Francisco (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

Tickets for the February 19th performance are available at the Fort Mason website. Tickets for the New York show are part of the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center and available HERE.

A complete photo album from the San Francisco rehearsals is available HERE. 

Kelly Markgraf performs Brahms, Schumann & Telemann

Kelly Markgraf

Barihunk Kelly Markgraf will be joined by soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and tenor Matthew Plenk for an evening of music dedicated to affairs of the heart. The program with the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center will feature music by Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, and Berg.

Markgraf will perform Schumann's Selected Lieder for Baritone and Piano and Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzer for Four Voices and Piano, Four Hands, Op. 52 (1868–69). Visit the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center website for tickets and additional information.

Daniel Teadt

Markgraf returns to New York City Opera this season after his huge success in Don Giovanni to perform the pivotal role of Pluto in Telemann's Orpheus opposite fellow barihunk Daniel Teadt in the title role.

Anya Matanovic and Kelly Markgraf sing the Act III opening duet from Le Nozze di Figaro
at a dress rehearsal with Kentucky Opera:

UPDATE: We have a feeling that Kelly Markgraf has a few friends out there. After our post we received a few emails letting us know about other performances that he's involved with. The first is Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" with the Hawaii Opera Theater (HOT - we love the acronym).  The American barihunk will be performing the role of Malatesta from Feb 10 through Valentine's Day. Click HERE for tickets or additional information.

Markgraf will also be performing Masetto opposite barihunks Keith Miller and Ryan McKinney with the New York Philharmonic on June 29 and 30. Click HERE for additional information.

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