Oct. 3: 'Death and the Drifter'
UD graduate student presents original chamber opera 'Death and the Drifter'
A video about Emily DeWollfson and the chamber opera can be found on the University of Delaware YouTube channel.
2:08 p.m., Sept. 28, 2015--Death and the Drifter, a chamber opera written by University of Delaware graduate student Emily DeWoolfson, will be the first student-composed opera to be performed at the University of Delaware.
The opera will be performed at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building in Newark. The production is free and open to the public.
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DeWoolfson is currently in her second year in the University’s master’s program for music composition, studying under Jennifer Barker, professor of music.
In the future, DeWoolfson plans to apply to doctoral programs and will continue to write vocal and instrumental music.
Death and the Drifter, a one-act production, is loosely based on a short film called Backwater Gospel, touching on themes DeWoolfson finds underrepresented and that fit well in the opera genre.
“I’m sure anyone who reviewed my music up to this point would notice a certain preoccupation with themes of death and religion,” says DeWoolfson. “I’m the kind of person who stays up all night grappling with those kinds of questions, and that certainly manifests itself in my music.”
Death and the Drifter is her first opera.
According to DeWoolfson, she couldn’t pass up this opportunity, where she has access to the Department of Music’s resources and much support from fellow graduate musicians to actually pull off an opera performance.
The entire production is student-run, involving a diverse array of responsibilities. The three leads -- Kaitlyn Tierney, Ravon Middlebrooks and Rachel Pomeranz -- all study opera in the graduate program at UD. Graduate student Dalton Ringey serves as stage manager, and the choir and orchestra are composed of both graduate and undergraduate students.
Barker and Vincent Connor, visiting instructor of voice, have also offered their time and talents to the production by conducting and directing, respectively.
The most gratifying part of the creative process for DeWoolfson has been sitting down with and writing specific vocal parts for her friends, such as the lead, Tierney.
“That’s not something you always get to do as a composer, but I think it makes the piece more intimate, and hopefully better,” she says.
Chamber operas are performed with a smaller, chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Death and the Drifter will feature music scored for flute, horn, clarinet, bassoon, string quintet and percussion.
Article by Michelle Rind
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson