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By Ben Mattison
12 Dec 2005
The previously unnamed opera by Michael John LaChiusa scheduled to premiere at Houston Grand Opera in March now has a title: Send (who are you? I love you).
The one-woman opera will star soprano Audra McDonald, who will appear in Francis Poulenc's La Voix humaine on the same program. The double bill runs March 4-26, 2006.
Send tells the story of a woman looking for romance over the Internet. It begins with the woman "meeting" a man through an Internet dating service and proposing that he call her. While she waits for him to call, she imagines their entire lives together, from dating through marriage and death. As the opera ends, the phone rings and their relationship begins.
Broadway veteran Lonny Price is the director; sets and costumes are by James Noone and Melissa Graff, respectively. Ted Sperling, the musical director of the Tony-winning A Light in the Piazza and other shows, is the conductor.
The new opera is 21st-century sequel of sorts to La Voix humaine, in which a woman ends a relationship over the telephone.
LaChiusa is the composer of the Broadway musicals The Wild Party, Marie Christine, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. He served as the Lyric Opera of Chicago's composer in residence in 1998-99, and the company later premiered his Lovers & Friends: Chatauqua Variations.
The debut of Send (who are you? I love you) will mark the 35th world premiere at Houston Grand Opera.
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