“Emily” Opera

Event: Emily, a chamber opera about Emily Dickinson
Where: First Parish Unitarian Universalsit of Medfield, 26 North St., Medfield, MA 02052
When: Friday, October 19 & Saturday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.
Doors open at @ 7:00 p.m. for hors d’oeuvres and dessert, curtain at 7:30 p.m.
Length: Approximately 90 minutes plus an intermission.
How Much: $20/general admission, $15/seniors & students
CONTACT: To order tickets online, go to www.ticketstage.com/FPMEDFIELD. By e-mail: [email protected]

MA Composer’s Original Opera to Be Presented at First Parish Medfield

First Parish of Medfield is pleased to announce that composer Eva Conley Kendrick’s chamber opera Emily will be performed in concert at the historic church on October 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. Kendrick, who has been the Director of Music at First Parish Medfield since 2006, is also a performer and music educator who runs the Eva Kendrick Voice Studio in Medfield.

Sponsored by the First Parish Medfield Church Worship & Music Committee, the concert opens with a collection of show tunes and art songs and is followed by a one-hour concert performance of Emily. Based on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, Emily, which blends opera and the lyrical simplicity of traditional American folk music, is a fitting choice for Medfield—Dickinson was a contemporary of Medfield composer Lowell Mason.

As both composer and librettist, Kendrick has interwoven actual events and people from Dickinson’s life with fictional characters. The opera explores the enigmatic Amherst poet’s psyche and suggests how the people in her life might have understood her through their interpretations of her poems. Emily Dickinson poems incorporated in the opera include “Of Bronze and Blaze—“, “If you were coming in the fall,” and “I like a look of agony.”

The cast includes singers familiar to the Medfield area as well as professional soloists. Medfield participants include husband and wife John and Becca Kornet in the two leading roles as Emily Dickinson and her fictitious friend. Both Kornets received degrees in Vocal Performance from Dartmouth College and perform regularly with Back Bay Chorale as choral members and soloists. Other Medfield residents include Fritz Fleischmann as Edward Dickinson, Meg Fisher as Lavinia Dickinson and Roger Travis. Sarah Kathleen Dunn, a Boston area vocalist, will portray Mabel Loomis Todd, the mistress of Emily’s brother Austin. Kim Kasper, a Walpole resident who sings regularly at the Episcopal Church of Medfield and performs with Riverside Theatre Works, will portray Susan Dickinson, Emily’s best friend.

Emily premiered in 2001 at the Pasadena Balcony Theatre and has enjoyed subsequent performances at the EBEL of Los Angeles, the Mary K. Hail Music Mansion in Providence, the Longfellow House Concert Series in Cambridge. In 2014, it was performed by the Thompson St. Opera Company in Louisville, KY. Kendrick’s awards include ASCAPLU$ Awards, American Composers Forum Subito Grant, the Judith Lang Zaimont Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music, an Honorable Mention from the American Prize, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for her musical Operator which premiered at First Parish Medfield. Her choral works have been performed across the country as well.

Other upcoming performances of Kendrick’s works include the premiere of her opera Misfortune at Opera Bites at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA this October and choral works and arrangements for the Exsultet Choir in Holliston and Ensemble Lyrae in Boston. For more on Kendrick and a full list of upcoming performances, please visit www.evakendrick.com.

Press quotes on Emily:
"Emily...makes virtue out of understatement and low-key, even ordinary moments in the life of poet Emily Dickinson.This is an insightful glimpse into the psyche of a budding but reclusive artist whose life simply does not provide the building blocks of standard dramatic structure. There is no tragedy to exploit other than the pathos one might draw from a conflicted soul, but that introspection is what makes Emily a singular theatrical opera .Dramatically, the high points occur in two successive scenes involving multiple characters. A challenging sextet of family and one hapless prospective suitor for Emily provides the most complex moment dramatically and musically, as a conversation shifts into six separate interior monologues. Immediately following is a scene of the family at the dinner table that features the most sublime example of harmony as one Emily joins the sextet for a rendering of The Lord’s Prayer." Keith Waits, Arts Louisville, 2014
Read the full review here

"Eva Kendrick’s chamber opera “Emily" is a satisfying peek into the family dynamics and dramatic social life of one of America’s most intriguing foundational poets Kendrick weaves Dickinson’s poems seamlessly through her own original music and libretto, creating natural moments for characters to read aloud from Emily’s work in the context of a scene. The music is appealing in its simplicity with just enough moments of operatic flourish to thrill the audience...Kendrick’s dramatic ensemble numbers make excellent use of counterpoint and, in the case of a particularly lovely rendering of The Lord’s Prayer, a cappella. Her deft inclusion of humor is not to go unnoticed, either." Erin Keane, WFPL, (Lousville's NPR Station), 2014
Read the full review here

"Eva Kendrick...took a concise slice of Dickinson’s life, a cast of ten, a piano, and only an hour of your time to explore the essence of Emily’s poetry...there are some nice harmonies and one fantastic moment with a 6-part stacked polyphonic monologue. " Keep Louisville Literary Blog, 2014
Read the full review here

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