BALTIMORE OPERA TROUPE TO PREMIERE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION OPERA
Hailed as an “impressive collective of talented performers,” Baltimore opera troupe The Figaro Project is no stranger to ambitious world-premiere productions. In the spring of 2011, the troupe presented not one, but three new one-act operas as part of their much-acclaimed Contemporary Opera Trio. This season, The Figaro Project returns to the realm of contemporary opera with Camelot Requiem, a new full-length work written in honor of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Camelot Requiem features music by Joshua Bornfield and words by Caitlin Vincent and takes place immediately after the president’s death on November 22, 1963. The first act of the opera is set in Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and depicts the immediate aftermath of the assassination, from the administration of last rites to the transfer of presidential power to Lyndon B. Johnson. The second act takes place at Bethesda Naval Hospital, nearly ten hours later, as Jackie and Bobby Kennedy must come to terms with their grief and accept their roles in the “New Frontier.”
“Caitlin came to me with the idea to do a piece on Jackie Kennedy on the day of her husband’s death,” said Bornfield. “We decided to focus on a narrow window of time in the waiting rooms of the hospitals in Dallas and Bethesda because it’s such an enigma how Jackie could go through the horror that she did and then almost instantly present a public image of herself that was so perfect.”
“It’s an event that plays such a significant part in our national identity,” adds Vincent. “Everyone born before 1959 or so can vividly remember where they were and what they were doing when Kennedy was shot, and even those born much later can immediately identify Jackie’s pink suit and pill box hat. With the fiftieth anniversary coming up, I thought an opera was a fitting tribute to a President and First Lady who, not only were strong supporters of the performing arts, but continue to capture the hearts and imagination of all Americans.”
Camelot Requiem will be premiered on Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at 7:30pm at First & Franklin Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon (210 West Madison Street, Baltimore, Maryland). Tickets are $15 (students $5), available at www.firstfranklin.org. For more information, visit the Figaro Project Website.
