Tales from a Safe Distance - Episode 1: Both Gladsome and Grievous

About this event

Ten friends last saw one another on a starlit rooftop in Florence. Now, their only way to share a toast is via a video call from their pandemic lockdown locations. How to pass the time when no one has new developments to share? Make up stories!

Tales from a Safe Distance is a 21st century operatic adaptation of Boccaccio’s 14th-century novel “The Decameron”, in an unprecedented co-creation from the newly formed Decameron Opera Coalition. These nine innovative opera companies from across the U.S. commissioned ten creative teams and engaged dozens of artists from around the world to create this new opera anthology, including a special guest star, world renowned bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni.

Episode 1 - Both Gladsome and Grievous - 35 minutes

Searching for a glimmer of socialization via a virtual reunion call, ten friends share their pandemic experiences with a winsome Italian host in “The Happy Hour”.  When you’re locking yourself away from a rampaging pandemic, absurd circumstances and grim possibilities cohabitate closely. From Bayes’ whimsically macabre tale of roommate friction in “Everything Comes to a Head” to Tamara’s haunting story of pandemics past and pandemics present in “The Late Walk”, complex times meet complex tones.

Decameron Opera Coalition’s Tales From A Safe Distance: purchase tickets for any one episode and you will automatically receive FREE access to all four episodes. The tickets will appear automatically in your account when you purchase any one event in the Tales From A Safe Distance series:

Link to Episode 2 - Prompted by Appetite

Link to Episode 3 - So Noble a Heart

Link to Episode 4 - The Bolts of Fortune

For more information casts and artist biographies for each tale, please visit www.DecameronOperaCoalition.org

This stream is available to watch until Friday, December 31, 2024.

Programme

- Episode 1 - Both Gladsome and Grievous - 35 minutes

Repertoire

The Happy Hour

by Peter Hilliard and Matt Boresi

Commissioned by the Decameron Opera Coalition

Based on the ten narrators of Bocaccio’s Decameron, The Happy Hour features internationally renowned bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, and characters from each of this opera’s tales.  

Everything Comes to a Head

by Rachel J. Peters, Margi Preus, and Jean Sramek

Inspired by The Decameron Day 4, Story 5 “Filomena’s Story”

Commissioned by Lyric Opera of the North - Duluth, Minnesota

Where is Basil, Rosemary’s boyfriend? He made like a tree and leaved. He made like a banana and peeled. He made like a bush and burned. He made like a pandemic committee meeting and Zoomed. Rosemary is worried their love has gone dormant (was it the lack of spice in their relationship?) but she’s staying planted in her tiny apartment. Her roommates, on the other hand, think Rosemary doesn’t need to cultivate that kind of baggage. Basil was deadwood! Everything Comes to a Head gives us some sage advice: if the roots of love are deep enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re in mint condition.

The Late Walk

by Jasmine Barnes and Nikolaus Hochstein Cox

Inspired by The Decameron Day 5, Story 8

Commissioned by Bare Opera - New York, New York

During a pandemic nothing is a walk in the park. For modern lovers Tamara and Natalie, a night out in the fresh air takes a turn for the uncanny when they meet an older couple very much like them. There’s only one problem: these other park-goers are dead. The Late Walk is romance, science fiction and horror set against the backdrop of a global pandemic and asks, in the fashion that only opera can, what can all the best intentions and most human passions do in the face of an omnipotent and callous virus?