Welcome to Delaware Valley Opera! We are looking forward to an exciting summer season in 2010, with performances of Lee Hoiby’s A Month in the Country and W.A. Mozart’s Così fan Tutte.
Lee Hoiby’s career as a composer began in the 1950s, when the famous opera composer Giancarlo Menotti invited Hoiby to study with him at the Curtis Institute. At that time, Hoiby was devoted to being a concert pianist, studying with his beloved teacher, the pianist Egon Petri, who had been a protégé of Busoni. After a friend showed songs by Hoiby to Menotti, Hoiby was virtually drafted into composition. Over the past 40 years, Hoiby has written nine operas, hundreds of songs, and a large body of chamber music. His music is consistently luscious and very American, with hints at Copland and Stravinsky-like rhythms. It’s more profound than Broadway, but it has lyrical parallels to Broadway songs in a populist vein, with extended harmonies sometimes sounding similar to jazz. It has openness and exuberance, also clever, with a sense of humor, wit, and lots of thematic nuggets that get passed around among the instruments, like an intelligent conversation. The vocal writing is loved by many fine singers. most famously by Leontyne Price.