Media Contact: Melissa Dunphy
contact@melissadunphy.com
(484) 340-2530 (cell)
www.gonzalescantata.com
www.melissadunphy.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Gonzales Cantata" based on the hearings of disgraced Attorney General to be performed at Philly Fringe Festival
40-minute choral work features Alberto Gonzales, Arlen Specter – as sopranos
Wed Jul 8 2009 09:22:41 ET
Philadelphia, PA – "The Gonzales Cantata," a gender-bending 40-minute choral work, will be given three performances as part of the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The cantata takes its libretto directly from the 2007 Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in which disgraced former Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales famously said "I don’t recall" more than 71 times. Performances will take place at the Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania, 4011 Walnut Street, on Friday September 4 at 7PM, Saturday September 5 at 7PM, and Sunday September 6 at 2PM.Composer Melissa Dunphy, an incoming doctoral composition student at the University of Pennsylvania, was inspired to write the Gonzales Cantata after hearing PA Senator Arlen Specter grill Alberto Gonzales in an NPR story in 2007. She has previously written incidental music for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre and Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival, and counts among her musical influences Handel, Phil Kline, John Adams and P.D.Q. Bach. In a statement against the prevalence of men in politics, the genders of the main roles have been reversed – Gonzales, Specter and Patrick Leahy are set in the soprano register, while a tenor sings Sen. Diane Feinstein – and the staid atmosphere of the Capitol building has been replaced by the pageantry of Miss America.
Rising star and award-winning soprano Mary Thorne takes on the title role, while Peabody graduates Jessica Lennick and Danya Katok will play Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter. Mezzo-soprano Julia Mintzer, a Juilliard graduate on the faculty of the Tanglewood Institute, will sing Orrin Hatch fresh from a turn as Carmen at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Montreal in August. An impressive cast of young opera singers and instrumentalists rounds out the 30-member ensemble: alumni of Oxford University and Temple join talented students from the University of the Arts and West Chester University.
Despite the political nature of the piece, Dunphy insists that the Gonzales Cantata is a study of character rather than politics. "This is a humanist drama, not a partisan statement. We see Gonzales’ mistakes, but we also feel some real pathos for a man who has dug himself into a terrible hole." Dunphy is normally seen onstage in Philly as "undoubtedly the city’s leading Shakespeare ingénue" (Philadelphia Inquirer).
###
LISTINGS INFORMATION
What: The Gonzales Cantata
When: Friday, September 4th at 7PM
Saturday, September 5th at 7PM
Sunday, September 6th at 2PM
Where: The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tickets: $20, purchase at the door or through the Live Arts and Philly Fringe Box Office
###
PRESS PREVIEWS
Press are welcome to attend open rehearsals at the Rotunda at the following times:
Sunday, August 23rd from 3-5PM
Saturday, August 29th from 3-5PM
Thursday, September 3rd at 7PM
Please contact Melissa Dunphy at contact@melissadunphy.com prior to attending for more information.
A 10-minute preview of the Gonzales Cantata will also be performed at the 2009 Philly Fringe Preview Series at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey St, on Monday August 31st at 8PM.
###
FESTIVAL INFORMATION
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe runs from September 4 - September 19, 2009. The Festival Box Office will open for phone [(215) 413-1318] and walk up sales [location TBA] on August 24th. You may also purchase tickets online, at www.livearts-fringe.org. Festival Guides, which include dates, times, and venues for all performances for both Festivals, will be available mid-August at all Festival venues, and other locations throughout the city.
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe were originally founded in 1997 as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Today, the Live Arts Festival serves as a series of selected cutting-edge, boundary-breaking performing arts events, created by some of the most renowned contemporary artists from our region and around the world.
The Fringe serves as a collective home for artists bringing their work to audiences in every conceivable form - in traditional and untraditional venues, using new artistic forms and established ones, breaking rules or refining them.
###
FOR MORE INFORMATION
… about the Gonzales Cantata, visit www.gonzalescantata.com.
… about the composer, Melissa Dunphy, visit www.melissadunphy.com
… about the Philly Fringe Festival, visit www.livearts-fringe.org
… about the Rotunda, visit www.therotunda.org
To schedule an interview, please contact composer Melissa Dunphy (484) 340-2530, contact@melissadunphy.com)
###
PHOTO INFORMATION
Press Photo by Matt Dunphy, www.bitrotten.com
Pictured: Melissa Dunphy