Tales from a Safe Distance - Episode 2: Prompted by Appetite

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 2 - Prompted by Appetite - 28 minutes

Pressure and proximity through an anxious summer… all that pent up energy is ready to explode. Eros and intimacy blossom behind the locked doors of a lockdown.

The revellers of “The Happy Hour” continue their tales with Nathan’s sexy romp “Dinner 4 3” in which a frustrated married couple cook up a feat of sensual deception.  Next it’s on to Kat’s tale of heartbreak and heat in “The Roost”, in which familiarity breeds contempt between husband and wife. With an egg in the nest and a mother-in-law pecking away, can the night still sizzle before the cock crows?

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 1 - Both Gladsome and Grievous

Link to Episode 3 - So Noble a Heart

Link to Episode 4 - The Bolts of Fortune

For more information and 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 2 - Prompted by Appetite - 28 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.

Dinner 4 3

by Michael Ching and Deborah Brevoort

Inspired by The Decameron Day 5, Story 10

Commissioned by Fargo-Moorhead Opera - Fargo, North Dakota

A wealthy businessman and his trophy wife are unfulfilled in their marriage. They both search internet dating sites for extra-marital partners and, upon finding suitable matches, make dates to meet.  But their romantic liaisons don’t go as planned; in the end, both the husband and wife are caught cheating. The underlying problem in their marriage is revealed, leading them to an understanding.

The Roost

by Marc Migó and John de los Santos

Inspired by The Decameron Day 5, Story 4 (Filostrato’s Tale)

Commissioned by UrbanArias - Washington, D.C.

Expecting your first baby is a joyous time in any couple’s life. Expecting your first baby while quarantined in your overbearing mother’s house with a broken air conditioner during a global pandemic is another story altogether. With hormones at their peak, Kat and Ricky face these challenges with honesty and tenderness in this operatic comedy inspired by one of The Decameron’s sexiest tales.