Marie's Orchard

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In April 2008, Heartland, a full-length operetta with music by Philip Westin (pictured), was one of four works selected in a national competition to be included in the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop at Disney Studios in Burbank, California. The work had been completed in 2007, and was subsequently featured in a studio recording. At the ASCAP/ Disney workshop, principals from Center Stage Opera, several of whom sang in the Heartland recording, performed segments from the work to an invited audience including industry heavyweights Stephen Paulus, Eric Whitacre, and Stephen Schwartz, Director of the workshop, who led the panel discussions. According to ASCAP, Heartland was the first “opera” ever to be selected for presentation at the prestigious workshop.

As a direct result of the ASCAP/Disney workshop, Center Stage Opera commissioned Marie’s Orchard. Envisioned as a reworking of Heartland into a full-blown opera, the libretto by Dylan F. Thomas was inspired by the Willa Cather novel, O Pioneers! Thomas completed the libretto in December 2008, and Westin began composing the opera in January 2009. For the next 18 months, Stephen Schwartz was very helpful as work on the opera progressed, listening to various musical drafts and providing suggestions. As work on the piece progressed, although Westin chose to retain many musical elements from Heartland, for the most part Marie’s Orchard is a completely new piece. The opera was completed in May 2010.

Center Stage Opera premiered Marie’s Orchard in a fully staged production at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, California, on June 10 and 12, 2011. The title role of Marie was tailored especially for Shira Renee Thomas, who sang the role at the ASCAP/ Disney workshop. The cast also included Benjamin Bensold in the role of Emil, Abdiel González in the role of Frank, and Adrien Roberts and Jay Stephenson in the roles of Angelique and Anthony. Brian Onderdonk conducted the Center Stage Opera Orchestra, and Dylan F. Thomas directed the production. For futher information, please click on the links in the column at the left.