The New School's Mannes Opera announces 2025-2026

 

A bold season led by women composers and directors

Featuring a U.S. premiere and unearthed gems 

 

Saariaho's chamber version of La Passion de Simone (fully staged)

A lost operetta by Korngold, The Silent Serenade, originally written for Broadway (U.S. PREMIERE)

Opera in Concert, featuring a double bill of Busoni's rarely staged Turandot and Unsuk Chin's Puzzles and Games

 

Mannes Opera continues to lead new work incubation with two workshops by Mannes faculty Alyssa Weinberg & Kamala Sankaram, in partnership with Opera Saratoga and Wolf Trap Opera

 

This is what a training program for the next generation looks like

 

Opera in Concert:

Turandot & Puzzles and Games

 

November 20, 2025

@Alice Tully Hall (1941 Broadway at West 65th Street, NYC)

 

Free with Registration

 

Turandot (1917; concert version 1971)

Composed by Ferruccio Busoni

Libretto by Philipp Jarnach

 

 

*Puzzles and Games

(2017; from 2007 opera Alice in Wonderland)

 

Composed by Unsuk Chin

Libretto by David Henry Hwang

Conducted by Tong Chen

Directed by Mikhaela Mahony

 

Alice in Wonderland is a 2007 operatic adaptation of the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll.[1] It is the first opera of Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who co-wrote the English libretto with the Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang.

 

It had its world premiere on 30 June 2007.[2] However, the jacket and notice of the DVD of the world premiere indicates that the recording was made on 27 June at the Bavarian State Opera as part of the 2007 Munich Opera Festival.[3] Conducted by Kent Nagano and featuring Sally Matthews in the title role and Dame Gwyneth Jones as the Queen of Hearts, the production was hailed as World Premiere of the Year by the German opera magazine Opernwelt.[4] A DVD was subsequently released by Euroarts.

 

The American Premier took place in 2012 at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis conducted by Michael Christie under the direction of James Robinson featuring Ashley Emerson, Tracy Dahl, Jenni Bank, David Trudgen, Aubrey Allicock, and Julie Makerov.

 

The most notable subsequent production was a co-production with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Barbican Center in London. The LA production was conceived by director Netia Jones and conducted in Los Angeles by Susanna Mälkki and in London by Baldur Brönnimann. The cast featured Rachele Gilmore, Andrew Watts, Marie Arnet, Jenni Bank, Jane Henschel, and Dietrich Henschel.

 

The Opera also exists in a condensed concert version which has been performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, The Bergen Philharmonic in Bergen and Oslo, and the Seoul Philharmonic. This version originated for Soprano and Alto but a Baritone was added for the Seoul version. The concert version has been performed by Sally Matthews(soprano), Rachele Gilmore(soprano), Jenni Bank(mezzo-soprano), and Dietrich Henschel(baritone).

<Wikipedia>