Composer Jake Heggie's “Two Remain (Out of Darkness)" at Augustana College -- October 22.
Saturday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.
Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL
A moving and emotional two-act chamber opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, Two Remain (Out of Darkness) will enjoy its Quad Cities debut with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra under conductor Ernesto Estigarribia, the October 22 performance in Augustana College's Brummer Theatre Center presented as part of the area-wide Holocaust-remembrance project Out of Darkness (OutOfDarknessQC.com).
Based on the true stories of two Holocaust survivors, Heggie's and Scheer's Two Remain (Out of Darkness) explores the unimaginable through vivid testimony and arresting musical compositions. In Act I, Krystyna Żywulska, assisted by ghosts of Auschwitz, shares her story of survival with a journalist, while in Act II, Gad Beck is haunted by his first love: the poet Manfred Lewin, who perished in Auschwitz.
Two Remain (Out of Darkness) co-creator Jake Heggie has composed such operas as Dead Man Walking, Great Scott, Moby-Dick, It's a Wonderful Life, and If I Were the You, the latter three also boasting librettos by Gene Scheer. In addition to nine full-length operas and numerous one-acts, Heggie has composed nearly 300 art songs, as well as concerti, chamber music, choral and orchestral works, leading the Wall Street Journal to deem the artist “arguably the world’s most popular 21st-century opera and art song composer." Gramophone magazine, meanwhile, stated, "Heggie’s way with music, the way in which his choices unlock and intensify the poetry and drama of the words, is consistently illuminating, full of surprises."
Beyond his numerous collaborations with Heggie, Two Remain (Out of Darkness) librettist Scheer was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Composition for his operatic adaptation of the novel Cold Mountain. With the composer Steven Stucky, Scheer wrote the oratorio August 4, 1964 for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which was also a Grammy nominee. Additionally, Scheer has written a number of songs for singers such as Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore, Denyce Graves, and Nathan Gunn, and filmmaker Ken Burns prominently featured the artist's song “American Anthem” (sung by Norah Jones) in PBS' Emmy Award-winning World War II documentary The War.
Conducting Two Remain (Out of Darkness) is Ernesto Estigarribia, the Assistant Conductor and Youth Ensembles Music Director of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Hailed for his “expert direction” by Fanfare magazine, the Paraguayan Estigarribia previously served as Music Director of Buffalo Community Orchestra and Southeastern Minnesota Youth Orchestras, and having a passion for working with young musicians, he is also member of the conducting staff of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies. Estigarribia has conducted the Mankato Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Oskaloosa Music Festival Orchestra, Argentina's Orquesta del Centro del Conocimiento, and his home country's Orquesta Sinfónica del Congreso Nacional, where he was the first Paraguayan guest conductor to appear in the International series.
Serving as the opera's stage director is Shelley Cooper, an assistant professor of theatre arts at Augustana College whose area stage credits include directing The Threepenny Opera and Into the Woods for Augustana, Ride the Cyclone for the Black Bix Theatre, and Big River and Dames at Sea for the Mississippi Bend Players. Krystyna Żywulska is sung by Sarah Shafer and Gad Beck by Patrick McNally, with the ensemble completed by Arbisser, Stephanie Doche, Kelly Hill, Claire Kuttler, Nathaniel Sullivan, and dancers from Augustana College.
Two Remain (Out of Darkness) will be presented in Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center on October 22, and one hour before the scheduled 7:30 p.m. performance, host Kai Swanson, Estigarribia, and Cooper will gather in the theatre space for an informational pre-concert conversation about the work. Admission is $10-35, with household live-stream and digital access available for $35, and more information and tickets are available by calling Augustana at (309)794-8045 and visiting Augustana.edu/tickets and QCSO.org.
