Faculty Artist Series: Theo Popov (TAC and MHL) and Robert Mollicone (Opera Studies)
SFCM’s Faculty Artist Series is presented as an annual concert series featuring SFCM faculty in performance. This series showcases our world-class faculty to our community and audience members in personally curated repertoire.
Program
Benjamin Britten: A Selection of Songs To Be Announced
Will Ferguson, tenor
Michael Kelly, baritone
Robert Mollicone, piano
-Intermission-
Theo Popov and Mark Campbell: A Thousand Gleaming Fires (World Premiere)
Scene 1. Their apartment.
Scene 2. Fire Island.
Scene 3. The Long Island Railroad.
Scene 4. Flying To/From
Scene 5. A Hopeless Place.
Scene 6. Flying From/To
Scene 7. Rob's Memorial
Theo Popov, music
Mark Campbell, libretto
Robert Mollicone, music direction and piano
Will Ferguson, tenor
Michael Kelly, baritone
About A Thousand Gleaming Fires
A Thousand Gleaming Fires is a song story that examines the relationship of a contemporary gay couple—Ned and Rob—by framing it through the correspondence between another gay couple—composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears. As Ned reads the letters collected in the book My Beloved One, he retraces his relationship with Rob.
Featured Artists
Theo Popov, composer
Mark Campbell, librettist
Robert Mollicone, piano
Will Ferguson, tenor
Michael Kelly, baritone
Theo Popov
Robert Mollicone
About SFCM’s Technology and Applied Composition Department
Get ready for a career on the edge of art and technology. Our Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) is an exclusive course of study that gives students a direct path into the worlds of film scoring, video game sound design, and other rewarding musical avenues. Featuring instruction from some of the most visible composers in the industry today, the TAC music degree readies you for a cutting-edge compositional life, bridging art and technology in the most dynamic ways imaginable.
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About SFCM’s Opera and Musical Theatre Program
The SFCM Opera and Musical Theatre program draws exceptionally talented young singers from around the world and provides them with advanced training in vocal style, acting, stage movement, and other essentials of stagecraft. Each year, SFCM produces four fully staged opera and musical theatre productions with full or chamber orchestra. Recent fully staged operas have included L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Mansfield Park, Postcard from Morocco, The Rake’s Progress, Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, and former faculty composer Conrad Susa’s Transformations. SFCM has hosted workshops for in-development opera projects such as Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and Jake Heggie’s Great Scott.
In addition to fully staged productions, a number of scenes, programs, and other performances with piano accompaniment are presented each year. Opera students also have an opportunity to receive coaching from San Francisco Opera music staff, and to participate in productions tailored for school-age audiences in collaboration with San Francisco Opera’s Education Department.
SFCM’s Musical Theatre Workshop provides ensemble experience to singer/actors with an emphasis on American musical theatre, examining one or more musical theatre composers and their works through rehearsals and performance. Recent performances include such works as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, She Loves Me, Company, Little Women, Urinetown, and The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!).
Visiting artists have included Ryan Taylor (General Director, Minnesota Opera), Roy Rallo (Stage Director, San Francisco Opera), David Maier (Fight Director, San Francisco Opera), Barbara Scott (Improvisation Technique), Matt Chapman (Laban Technique), and Jose Luis Moscovich (General Director, West Bay Opera).