Doppelgangers: Blythe Gaissert and Michael Kelly as Hannah Before and Hannah After in the November 2019 Opera Columbus (OH) production of "As One." (credit: Terry Gilliam)

The Atlanta Opera announces Discoveries Series for 2021-22

EarRelevant Staff | 16 AUG 2021

The Atlanta Opera returns to The Big Tent in June 2022 with a “Come As You Are” festival featuring new productions of the blockbuster musical Cabaret and the critically acclaimed chamber opera As One, sung in English with English supertitles.

For both productions, The Big Tent will be pitched on the grounds of Atlanta Technology Center at 1575 Northside Drive, the complex in which The Atlanta Opera has its administrative offices and rehearsals spaces. The location is less than a half-mile off of I-75, and is only a 2-minute walk (0.1 mile) from the #37 MARTA bus line which can be boarded at the Arts Center Station.

“Over the past year, the Big Tent has become our favorite ‘home away from home’,” says Tomer Zvulun, the company’s general and artistic director. “We have thoroughly enjoyed performing in a venue that we can put almost anywhere and easily turn into a Texas saloon on one night and Victorian London the next. And the audience response has been out of this world. I don’t think anybody is ready to see the Big Tent go into storage, certainly not me.”


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The Atlanta Opera’s production of Cabaret is adapted from 1998 Broadway revival that ran for more than 2,377 performances at Studio 54 in New York. Zvulun will direct and James Lowe will conduct members of The Atlanta Opera Orchestra.

Award-winning set designer Alexander Dodge will transform The Atlanta Opera’s Big Tent into the Kit Kat Klub, a decadent cabaret where singer Sally Bowles entertained Berlin’s elite in the 1930s. Erik Teague, the designer of the whimsical costumes from this spring’s production of The Threepenny Opera, will handle the costuming. Curt Olds will sing the role of the flamboyant Emcee and Anthony Luciura will play Herr Schultz, the elderly fruit shop owner.

Audiences will also see the Atlanta premiere of the critically acclaimed 2014 chamber opera As One by Laura Kaminsky. The libretto is by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. Reed also created the multimedia opera’s film.


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The opera is sung in two voices, Hannah After (mezzo-soprano) and Hannah Before (baritone), who share the part of a sole transgender protagonist.

Transgender baritone Lucia Lucas will sing the role of Hannah Before. Lucas became the first trans woman to sing a principal opera role on an American stage in 2019, singing the title role of Don Giovanni with the Tulsa Opera, a performance that was the subject of a feature-length documentary, James Kicklighter’s “The Sound of Identity.”

American mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert will sing the role of Hanna After, which has sung in eight previous productions, including a pair of November 2019 performances by Opera Columbus (OH).

Zvulun elaborates on programming these two works:

We believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. Cabaret and As One take place a century apart: one in the early 20th and the other the early 21st. But they are about the same theme: we are all different, but as human beings we are much more similar than we are sometimes told. History proves again and again that great dangers await us if we choose to focus on what separates us rather than what unites us. During the pandemic, the Big Tent has come to symbolize unity. A safe place, where we can come together as a community and enjoy live performance regardless of the turmoil outside. We look forward to coming together again under the big top to enjoy these two masterpieces.

The Atlanta Opera will present a total of 10 performances of Cabaret on June 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12 (matinee), 16, 17, 18, 19 (matinee) and three performances of As One on June 9, 11 and 12. Tickets for Cabaret start at $50; tickets for As One start at $15. They can be purchased at atlantaopera.org or by calling 404-881-8885. ■


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