BTCS 2022 Production:
Christoph Willibald Gluck’s
Orfeo
RELEASE: MAY 10, 2022
Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society is proud to present Orfeo, the story of the demigod of music Orpheus who travels to the underworld to rescue his beloved wife who has recently died. Along the way, in exchange for taming the furies with his beautiful music, he makes a “deal with the devil” that he can bring Eurydice back to the mortal realm, as long as he does not look back at her.
An amalgamation of the various 1762 -1774 reform opera scores, this movie production of Gluck’s famous opera Orfeo features an overture of Kreisler’s rendition of the Gluck Melodie, an aria made from the instrumental ballet pieces, Naselli’s famous Eurydice aria sang by newly introduced character Persephone, lines from Dante’s Inferno spoken by the added characters of Hades and Charon, and a soprano lead portraying the title role. Filmed both outdoor and in our own modern abandoned hellscape on REDKomodo 6k, this operatic film is a huge undertaking for Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society and director/producer Liz Kiger’s second film.
Please consider donating to BTCS & supporting emerging artists:
Paypal: brooklyntelemann@gmail.com
Venmo: brooklyntelemann-liz
reviews:
April 2023: Scott Larson
Physical premieres:
May 16, 2022 @ 9:30PM - 101 Wilson
101 Wilson Ave, Brooklyn, 11237
101wilsonbar.com
June 30, 2022 @ 7pm - Pete’s Candy Store
Featuring live mini performance by Alexandra Pawlus & Allegra Durante.
709 Lorimer St Brooklyn, NY 11211 https://www.petescandystore.com/calendarJuly 20, 2023 @9pm - Film Noir Theatre
122 Meserole Ave, Greenpoint, NY 11222
CAST:
Alexandra Pawlus as orfeo
Helena Waterous as Eurydice
Allegra Durante as Amore
Thomas Geib as Charon
Liz Kiger as Persephone
James Wigger as Hades
Rebecca Rutkovsky as Spirit
Crew:
Liz Kiger
Matthew Kyle Levine
james Kogan
Samn Johnson
Jordan barone
James Wigger
marie BlaiR
Alexandra Pawlus is a Canadian-Polish lyric coloratura soprano based in Brooklyn, New York. She attended New England Conservatory and University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and is a Teaching Artist with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Shortly before the pandemic, Alexandra made her performance debuts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Recent roles include Queen of the Night and Drusilla.
Soprano Helena Waterous has received international praise for her unique vocal beauty, expressivity, and versatility as a singer and performer and has performed with the Trentino Music Festival, New York Lyric Opera, Capitol City Opera, and numerous productions and recitals at The Crane School of Music at Potsdam and Indiana University. Helena is a passionate storyteller and loves breathing life into characters and poetry from L'incoronazione di Poppea to Pierrot Lunaire. Her most celebrated roles include Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Susannah (Susannah), and Manon (Manon Lescaut).
Allegra Durante, soprano and multihyphenate, has taken on roles including Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Morgana (Alcina), Echo (Echo et Narcisse), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Giulietta in Romeo & Giulietta, a pastiche of scenes from I Capuleti e i Montecchi interwoven with text from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. She was delighted by this opportunity to revisit Amore, a familiar and favorite role, in the relatively unfamiliar setting of a filmed production. In her now-abundant spare time ("thank you," 2020) she designs graphics, sews costumes, and is earning a degree in Psychology from CCNY.
Bass-baritone Thomas Geib is excited to be participating in his first production with the Brooklyn Telemann Society. Previous roles include Frank (Die Fledermaus), Fezziwig/Charwoman (Scrooge & Gilbert & Sullivan), Bogdanowitsch (Merry Widow), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), Pinellino (Gianni Schicchi), Customs Officer (La Boheme), and Ceprano/Usher (Rigoletto). May this be the first of many!
Soprano, Rebecca Rutkovsky has performed with Amadeus Opera, the Allegro Singers, Tri-Cities Opera, Plaza Theatrical Productions and as a soloist at Merkin Hall. Her favorite roles include Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Alcina (Alcina), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), and The Mother (Hansel and Gretel. Rebecca has also been seen as the soprano soloist in a televised performance of Schubert’s Mass in G Major. She received her masters degree from Binghamton University and bachelors degree from American University, both in Vocal Performance. Rebecca maintains an active private voice studio in Long Island, NY.
James Wigger was born in Farmington, Missouri. A self-taught artist/photographer/Art Director whose work examines the darker sides of the spiritual and emotional aspects of being human. James lives and works in Queens, New York. Orfeo marks James’s theatrical debut.
Director Liz Kiger is a Turkish-American non-binary soprano vocalist, violinist, & opera director specializing in Baroque performance. They holds their MM in Classical Vocal Performance and a post graduate degree in Vocal Pedagogy from NYU. They have most recently performed as the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Papagena (Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte), Ottavia (Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea) at Scorca Hall (National Opera Center), Susanna (Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro) in scenes with NYLOT at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall), soprano soloist in Bach’s Magnificat, & Juno/The Plaint (Purcell: The Fairy Queen). Liz currently coaches with Stephanie Bacastow and is a proud advocate for singers with incurable vocal pathologies.
Matthew Kyle Levine is a filmmaker and cinematographer based in New York City. His short films have won awards and played at numerous film festivals throughout North America, including the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival and the Canada Shorts Film Festival, most notably for his short film MISS FREELANCE. Matthew directs, shoots, and edits films, music videos, commercials, and documentaries for a variety of clients and artists.
Keyboard specialist Marie Blair is a versatile and highly sought-after musician comfortable working in many realms. Equally at home as a soloist and collaborative musician, Marie currently serves as an adjunct faculty accompanist in the voice department at NYU. She enjoys performing Romantic and Twentieth/Twenty First Century repertoire on piano, as well as Baroque and Renaissance repertoire on harpsichord.
James Kogan is an audio engineer and field recordist raised on Canarsie and Munsee Lenape land in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Recent work has included production audio for Kinlaw’s The Tipping Scale (TTS EXTENDED), recording and post-production audio for mayfield brooks’ Bessie Award-nominated dance film whale fall, sound design for Karina Billini’s All The Helium Hearts (Over The Belt Parkway), and recordings for Kendall Thomas, Æon Ensemble, Kalia Vandever, Katie Pawluk, Reverso, and the Ukrainian Village Voices. His interests span folk and improvised music, opera, metal, all the delicious honey-soaked desserts from the Levant, taking walks, and acoustic ecology of the natural and built environments.
Samn Johnson (he/him, b. 1991) is a composer and audio engineer based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ever curious for new sound combinations, Samn’s music takes a variety of forms including orchestral, choral, electronic, and solo piano music, drawing on a wide range of sound worlds including renaissance polyphony, electronic pop music, and avant-garde classical works. In addition to engineering many of his own recordings, Samn works as a freelance mixing engineer and theory/composition teacher. His academic background includes composition degrees from the University of Michigan and New York University, where he studied with Julia Wolfe, and Robert Honstein.