Join Stewart Copeland for a discussion of the upcoming world premiere opera "The Invention of Morel” and Stewart's evolution from drummer to composer. Experience this uniquely intimate event with Stewart Copeland at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The discussion will trace the artist's career from The Police to his current opera production and other classical music compositions. A Q&A is included at the end of the program.

Speakers

Stewart Copeland, Composer
Jonathan Moore, Librettist and Director
Andreas Mitisek, Conductor and COT Artistic Director

About The Invention of Morel

This world premiere opera is based on "La invención de Morel," a 1940 novel by the influential Argentine author, Adolfo Bioy Casares. The story for this opera does not live within the classic constructs of time and space, but instead explores powerful driving forces of human emotion: love, desire, and sacrifice.

The Invention of Morel will be performed February 18, 24 & 26 at The Studebaker Theater. Learn more at cot.org/morel.

Stewart Copeland

Composer Stewart Copeland was the co-founder and drummer of the rock band The Police. His career includes the sale of more than 60 million records worldwide and numerous awards, including five Grammy awards. He has had commissions from and worked with many major cultural institutions including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Opera, the San Francisco Ballet Company, the Savannah Music Festival, the Brighton Festival and the Royal Opera House (London), among many others. He is the recipient of the Hollywood Film Festival's first Outstanding Music in Film Visionary Award, a Grammy nominee for his 2005 CD Orchestralli, and a 2003 inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Stewart Copeland has been responsible for some of the film world's most innovative and groundbreaking scores.

Jonathan Moore

Jonathan Moore is a London based, award winning actor, writer and director. As an actor he has played leading roles at the Royal Shakespeare Co, Royal Court, Donmar, the Royal Exchange, Shakespeare's Globe and on BBC TV and Radio. He has directed theatre and opera world premieres at the Almeida, Donmar, West End, Royal Exchange, Gate, English National Opera, Covent Garden, La Fenice in Venice and on TV among many others. He has directed world premieres by composers such as Turnage, MacMillan, Henze, Schnittke, Nyman, Stewart Copeland etc. His early work was sponsored by Joe Strummer of The Clash. He has collaborated with Ludovico Einaudi, members of punk band Killing Joke, on several projects with Industrial group Test Dept.,Reggae star Eddy Grant, Jazz pianist Uri Caine and the classical violinist Daniel Hope. A published playwright and librettist, his work has been performed at leading theatres including the Donmar, Royal Exchange, Gate, BBC TV, radio and internationally. Jonathan was asked by Mark Rylance to direct the large scale immersive project for over fifty performers: What You Will, a coproduction for Shakespeare's Globe, The Cultural Olympiad and Mayor's Office. This was followed by several subsequent Shakespeare projects. He is due to direct a large scale site specific immersive project for Ludovico Einaudi in Italy and a new opera project with Stewart Copeland. He is on the Artistic Advisory Committee of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has had a Who's Who entry since 2007 and was on the front cover of Time Out Magazine. He has spoken on the Arts at Oxford University, the London School of Economics and on several BBCTV and Radio arts discussion programmes.

www.jonathanmooreuk.com

Andreas Mitisek

Mr. Mitisek has been the General Director of Chicago Opera Theater since June of 2012. He has also been Artistic and General Director of Long Beach Opera (LBO) since 2003. A native of Austria, he served as Artistic and music Director of the Wiener Operntheater from 1990 – 1997, the foremost contemporary opera company in Austria. Mr. Mitisek has conducted at the Wiener Volksoper, the Komische Oper in Berlin, the festival “Wien Modern,” the Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and others. He is also sought after as a guest conductor in North America, leading productions for the Seattle Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Vancouver Ope4ra, Austin Lyric Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, amongst others. His work as director and designer for site-specific productions in parking garages, swimming pools, night clubs, and warehouses has become a successful hall mark of his work with LBO, and his first such production with COT, Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice, was critically and publicly acclaimed. He is dedicated to attracting new audiences to COT by exploring unorthodox venues and presenting new and rare works (a key attribute of his leadership at LBO). Mitisek has been named by Opera News as one of the 25 people that will be a major force in the field of opera in the coming decade. Mitisek was featured as a LA Tastemaker by LA Times Magazine in 2009, Arts Leader of the Year by the Long Beach Arts Council in 2009, and was highlighted as one of the “2012 People” by LA Weekly. Recent COT credits include: conductor, Thérèse Raquin; conductor, stage director and production designer, Maria de Buenos Aires; director and production designer, Orpheus and Euridice, La Voix Humaine & Gianni Schicchi; conductor, The Fall of the House of Usher.