Celebrate Guerilla Opera’s newest studio album with the premiere of “Rumpelstiltskin,” an animated film about a magical and deformed little man who only wants one thing in life, unconditional love. When a greedy king kidnaps and forces a young maiden to spin straw into gold, the little man helps her under one disturbing condition.
“Rumpelstiltskin” features music by Marti Epstein, libretto by Marti Epstein and Greg Smucker, and shadow puppetry animation and direction by Deniz Khateri and performed by Guerilla Opera. It runs 55 minutes and is sung in English.
Guerilla Opera
Guerilla Opera is one of Boston’s most exciting young companies creating brave new works. Founded in 2007, Guerilla Opera has accumulated a repertoire of 40 new works by the most exciting composers of our generation with a track record of over 100 performances in Boston and beyond. In daring performances they have garnered a national reputation for innovative contemporary opera with The Boston Globe raving that “radical exploration remains the cornerstone of everything it does.”
A Boston-based, artist-led ensemble, their mission is to commission and reenvision new and experimental works that are custom-tailored to our artists; to champion cutting-edge music and immerse audiences in profound experiences; to be a model for creative authenticity and inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) in order to inspire, influence and amplify emerging generations of artists. Their vision is to generate a unique body of work that ferociously confronts the status quo, eschews antiquated and stereotypical traditions of opera, examines stories through culturally focused and contemporary lenses, and brings new music to new audiences.
Marti Epstein
Marti Epstein is a composer whose music has been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, Ensemble Modern, and members of the Boston Symphony. She has completed commissions for the Fromm Foundation, The Munich Biennale, the Ludovico Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, the Radius Ensemble, Tanglewood Music Center, Winsor Music, Boston Opera Collaborative, and the Callithumpian Consort.
During the 2017–2018 concert season, Epstein’s work was featured extensively alongside the work of Anton Webern at the Trinity Wall Street’s Time’s Arrow Festival in New York City. Her music was also performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players in Leipzig, Germany in June 2018. Her opera, Rumpelstiltskin, was presented with shadow puppetry in May 2019 in New York City. In November 2019, the Boston-based Ludovico Ensemble presented three portrait concerts of Epstein’s music in celebration of her 60th birthday. In 2021, her music was featured as part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s streaming concert content.
Epstein was a two-time fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center (1986 and 1988) and a two-time fellow at the MacDowell Colony (1997 and 1998). In 2020, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to compose Seven Sisters, Radiant Sisters for the Hinge Ensemble, Alpenglow for loadbang, and In Praise of Broken Clocks for Sound Icon.
Epstein is Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music/Boston Conservatory of Music.
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