Eureka! (Introductions)

Four years ago, in a Hell’s Kitchen apartment, inspiration struck.

“We should write an opera together,” said the pianist.  “You can write all the vocal parts, and I can do the orchestra.  Actually, you could write the orchestra too.”

“I don’t know about that,” replied the soprano with a smile.  The pianist quietly filled the carafe and measured the coffee grounds. (He always made better coffee, anyway.)  Finally the soprano returned to the subject.  “OK. If we write an opera, what would the story be?”

She paused, her hand on the refrigerator door. “It has to be classic literature.  Those are the best stories.”

The pianist nodded.  “Dickens.”

“Great Expectations.”

Their eyes locked.  The soprano turned away from the coffee pot and ran to the baby grand piano in the dining room.  “How about this?”

They wrote the overture over the phone in two days.  When the pianist moved on to other projects, the soprano kept on, writing the libretto, the orchestral score, and the piano reduction.

Four years of labor, love, frustration, exploration, and fun later, Tanya Crist, soprano and composer, wrote the final notes of Great Expectations: An American Opera in Three Acts. 

Now it is our pleasure to invite everyone to the WORLD PREMIERE of this beautiful and surprising new work.