Suddenly Last Summer
Philadelphia Premiere
Music by Courtney Bryan
Libretto by Gideon Lester and Daniel Fish based on the play by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Daniel Fish
Revival production directed by Mikhaela Mahony
A co-commission and co-production with Fisher Center LAB
Presented by special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee
Performed in English with English supertitles
What is madness and what is truth? Must truth bend to power? Tennessee Williams’ feverish one-act play is the basis for 2023 MacArthur Fellow and former Opera Philadelphia Composer in Residence Courtney Bryan’s first opera. Hailed by The New York Times as a “composer of panoramic interests,” Bryan joins forces with Tony Award-winning director Daniel Fish (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!) to present this Southern Gothic drama as a sweltering fusion of musical imagination and theatrical ingenuity. Anchored by soprano Mikaela Bennett as the embattled heroine Catharine Holly, with conductor Nathan Koci at the podium, this new work is part opera, part play, and all drama.
Suddenly Last Summmer On-Sale Dates:
Tuesday, April 28 at 10:00 a.m.
Subscriptions
Opera Pass
Tuesday, June 30 at 10:00 a.m.
Standard Price Single Tickets
Pick Your Price Pre-Sale for 26/27 Opera Pass holders
Tuesday, August 4 at 10:00 a.m.
Pick Your Price Public On-Sale (Mitridate, re di Ponto and Suddenly Last Summer)
ACCESS tickets
Suddenly Last Summer was co-commissioned by Fisher Center LAB and Opera Philadelphia, and receives its world premiere at the Fisher Center at Bard in June 2026. Fisher Center LAB is funded by the Lucille Lortel Foundation and the Fisher Center’s Artistic Innovation Fund, with lead support from Rebecca Gold Milikowsky and additional funding from The William and Lia G. Poorvu Family Foundation. Major development support for Suddenly Last Summer has been received from the Fisher Center’s Hope Commissions Fund, generously endowed by the Civis Foundation and Bard College. Additional commissioning support was provided by the Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation. The commissioning of Courtney Bryan received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Suddenly Last Summer was developed with residency support from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Forrest Theatre
| Thu, Oct 22 | 7:00 p.m. |
| Fri, Oct 23 | 8:00 p.m. |
| Sun, Oct 25 | 2:00 p.m. |
Runtime is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission
Cast & Creative Team
- Marsha Ginsberg * Scenic Design
- Terese Wadden Costume Design
- Stacey Derossier Lighting Design
- Joshua Thorson * Projection Design
- *Opera Philadelphia debut
The Composer
Courtney Bryan
Courtney Bryan is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and currently serves as composer-in-residence with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Recent works include DREAMING (Freedom Sounds), performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble at New York’s Kaufman Music Center; Visual Rhythms, a new art-inspired orchestral piece for Jacksonville Symphony; House of Pianos, which Bryan premiered in 2023 with the LA Phil New Music Group (chamber ensemble version) and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (full orchestra version); and Gathering Song (libretto by Tazewell Thompson), composed for bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green and the New York Philharmonic. Read more >>
Co-librettist
Gideon Lester
Gideon Lester’s previous translations and adaptations for Fisher Center LAB include Molière’s Dom Juan and Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, and at the American Repertory Theatre, Marivaux’s Island of Slaves and The Dispute, Büchner’s Woyzeck, Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, and stage adaptations of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (with Toneelgroup Amsterdam) and Kafka’s Amerika (with Theatre de la Jeune Lune.) The Fisher Center’s Artistic Director and Chief Executive, he is a Tony and Olivier award-winning creative producer, festival director, and dramaturg, and has collaborated with and commissioned a broad range of American and international artists across disciplines. A professor of Theater & Performance at Bard College, he has also taught at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and at Harvard. He was co-curator of Crossing the Line Festival, and Acting Artistic Director and Dramaturg at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA.
Co-librettist
Daniel Fish
Daniel Fish is a New York-based director who makes work across the boundaries of theater, film, and opera. He draws on a broad range of forms and subject matter, including plays, film scripts, contemporary fiction, essays, and found audio. His acclaimed 2019 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! transferred to Broadway from St. Ann’s Warehouse, following its premiere at the Fisher Center at Bard, and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The production then transferred to London’s West End, where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. Other recent work includes White Noise, inspired by the novel by Don DeLillo (Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Theater Freiburg, NYU Skirball Center), Michael Gordon’s opera Acquanetta (Prototype, and also a Fisher Center premiere), Who Left This Fork Here (Baryshnikov Arts Center, Onassis Stegi), Ted Hearne’s The Source (BAM Next Wave, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera).