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World Premiere of Dark Sisters


Welcome Students and Teachers to Opera Online! Today marks the world premiere of Nico Muhly's opera Dark Sisters in New York City which will be coming to Philadelphia in June. To celebrate this exciting premiere, we take a look this week at the works of young American composer, Nico Muhly.

Video Clips of the Week!
Nico Muhly was born in Vermont, Muhly received his bachelor's degree in English from Columbia University and his masters degree in music composition from the Julliard School. Only 30 years old, Muhly has already composed over 50 pieces and has written music for everything, from electric violin to movie scores. The first video clip is an example of Muhly's modern music style, a percussive piano piece performed by Nico Muhly himself called "Skip Town".

"Skip Town" performed by Nico Muhly



Muhly has been especially praised for his choral works. Growing up as a boy chorister, Muhly fell in love with choral music. The next clip is a choral piece called "A Good Understanding" written for chorus, organ and percussion.


"A Good Understanding"



Nationally, Nico Muhly may be best known for his music written for the movies. The next video clip comes from Muhly's score for the Oscar-nominated film "The Reader".

"Reading" from the soundtrack for "The Reader"



Only recently has Nico Muhly tried his hand at writing an opera. His first opera, Two Boys premiered this past summer in England and will be making its debut in New York City in 2013-2014 season. The next clip is the trailer for the English premiere of this cyber-murder mystery.

Trailer for Two Boys



Our last video clip is an inside look at Dark Sisters. Inspired by the raid of a polygamist colony in Texas, Dark Sisters imagines the aftermath of a government raid on a polygamist family. Due to allegations of child abuse, officials have removed all the children from the compound. In amidst the chaos of the sensational media coverage and the grief of losing their children, the sister-wives struggle to keep their family together, while one woman, Eliza, begins to plot an escape from her family.

Interview with Nico Muhly on Dark Sisters



Websites of the Week!
Interested in Dark Sisters? Check out the preview of the opera in the Wall Street Journal, and the composer profile in the New York Times.

Opera on the Air!
On Saturday, November 12th radio station WRTI will be holding Opera Day between 6 am and 6 pm. You're invited to a spectacular 12-hour day of opera featuring beloved arias, choruses, and ballet excerpts culminating in a historic Met Opera recording of Verdi's Il Trovatore at 1 pm with tenor Franco Corelli and soprano Leontyne Price. Hosted by WRTI's Rolf Charlston, Jill Pasternak, Jack Moore, Jim Cotter, and Susan Lewis, this special day will also showcase some wonderful thank-you gifts, and include some fun surprises.




Until next week!

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