Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer Double Bill
World Premiere! Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera Before It All Goes Dark, commissioned by Music of Remembrance, was inspired by a remarkable true story reported by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune. It shares the transformative journey of an ailing Vietnam war veteran who learns decades later that he is the heir to a priceless art collection stolen by the Nazis. His arduous voyage to Prague in search of this legacy leads him to embrace an identity that had been hidden from him, and through art he discovers a deeper truth in his life. Featuring bass-baritone Ryan McKinny and mezzo soprano Megan Marino.
This new piece will be paired in an exciting double bill with a new production of Heggie and Scheer’s Another Sunrise. Starring soprano Caitlin Lynch, this is an intimate portrait of an Auschwitz survivor’s struggle to find words capable of describing harrowing, unimaginable situations to people who weren’t there. Together, the two operas are a profound tribute to the restorative power of memory.
