A Doll's House
an opera in 3 acts
March 13, 7:00pm at National Opera Center, NYC
March 15, 2:00pm at Symphony Space, NYC
tickts at: www.voiceafire.com
A Doll's House - an original opera by Ray Luedeke for 6 singers, piano and synthesizer - is based on Henrik Ibsen's shocking 19th Century drama. Presented in concert, this 3 act opera tells the story of Nora, a seemingly typical housewife, who becomes disillusioned and dissatisfied with the rules of marriage and society. The sound of a slamming door, associated with Ibsen's 1879 play, has become an iconic symbol of human liberty.
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright and poet (1828-1906), is regarded as one of the founders of the modern theater and is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world, after Shakespeare. His major plays include A Doll's House,
Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, and The Lady from the Sea, plays which deal with the social and political situation of women in 19th Century Europe. His characters in these 4 plays, notably Nora, in A Doll’s House, and Hedda in Hedda Gabler remain powerful symbols of the struggle for the rights of women, and for human rights in general.
The Cast in NYC - March 2020
April Martin - Nora Helmer - Hailed by Opera News as "a stand out in the large ensemble" for her portrayal of Mrs. Fiorentino in Street Scene and as a "sweet-toned soprano" in L'elisir d'amore,
April is "a sparkling respite" (kcmetropolis.org) who sings with a "waft of unexpected warmth" (The Aspen Times).
She joins the Richmond Symphony to sing the soprano solos in Beethovens' 9th Symphony in November 2020.
In December 2019, Ms. Martin soared as the soprano soloist in Händel’s Messiah.
She trained as a member of the inaugural class of Resident Artists with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and apprenticed with Virginia Opera, Central City Opera, and the Aspen Music Festival.
Ms. Martin garnered awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Haefner-Williams and Charlotte Opera Guild competitions. https://www.aprilmartinsoprano.com/?lightbox=dataItem-jnja507m
Since completing graduate studies in vocal performance and pedagogy at the University of Iowa, tenor John DesMarais - Torvald Helmer - has 
been performing in the New York City area as a soloist and ensemble singer with some of the area's finest vocal ensembles, including Musica Sacra, Bachworks, and the New York Virtuoso Singers, in venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, under conductors including James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Robert Spano. Among the opera roles he has performed are Roméo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute. As a recitalist, he has given performances of such works as Britten's Winter Words, Schumann's Dichterliebe, Fauré's La Bonne Chanson, and, most recently, Mélodies of Reynaldo Hahn. A soloist and cantor at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral since 2001, he has sung solo roles in numerous concert performances including Franck's Les Sept Paroles du Christ sur la Croix and Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, and has served as cantor for several nationally televised masses, including the Papal Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI at Yankee Stadium and several Christmas Eve Midnight Masses. He has been recorded as a soloist on the JAV and Urban Chant labels, and has sung for a number of major motion pictures, including Noah and Zoolander 2
A native of New York, actor and singer Abigail Wright – Mrs. Linde - made her Carnegie Hall debut as Marghareta in The Song of Norway with Jim Dale and Santino Fontana and appeared 
in Carousel on Live from Lincoln Center, now available on DVD from PBS. In one of her favorite New York theatre performances, she was thrilled to appear as Rosita and in the ensemble in the Lorca-inspired puppet play Don Cristóbal. Regionally, she has portrayed Nellie in South Pacific and Meg in the Israeli premiere of Little Women, and in Anne of the Thousand Days, Abigail Wright stood out, according to the Washington Post, as a "hotblooded and sensuous Mary Boleyn."
In the Metropolitan Opera ensemble, she has appeared live and in cinemas in Peter Grimes, Otello, La Damnation du Faust, Orfeo ed Euridice, Prince Igor and in Turandot.
http://www.abigailwright.com
Extolled by The Baltimore Sun for his “robust work” and DC Metro Theater Arts for “a heart-stopping, high voltage bass-baritone voice,” Andrew Thomas Pardini – Nils Krogstad - continues to win audiences with his vibrant tone and thrilling character portrayals. 
Upcoming engagements during the 2019-20 Season include company and European debuts as Baritone Soloist / ‘Ein deutsches Requiem’ at Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra, a role debut as Silvio / ‘Pagliacci’ at Salt Marsh Opera, and role debuts as Monterone / ‘Rigoletto’ and Edmund Bertram / ‘Mansfield Park’ at Opera Modesto. This past summer, Pardini made his company debut as Father / ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ at Bar Harbor Music Festival Opera Theatre, and a role debut as Emperor Overall / ‘The Emperor of Atlantis’ at The In Series.
https://www.andrewthomaspardini.com
Margaret O’Connell - Anna Marie and Suzannah Ibsen - enjoys a versatile career in opera, contemporary music, musical theatre, oratorio, and recording. New 
York audiences saw Margaret portray a “fiercely committed” Older Alyce in an acclaimed production of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied as part of NY OperaFest 2017. She made her Carnegie debut with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra as Ein großes Mädchen in Strauss’ Feuersnot. The following summer she sang with Maestro Botstein at the Bard Festival as Camilla in Schubert’s Die Verschworenen. Renowned Greek-American composer Dinos Constantinides invited her to debut at Weill Hall in the New York premiere of his Oracle at Delphi and Listenings and Silences. Ms. O’Connell made her Berlin debut as Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann with two days’ notice. She has been invited to present recitals in Berlin with Lithuanian pianist Raminta Lampsatis. http://www.mezzomargaret.com
Brad Baron – Dr. Rank and Henrik Ibsen - is a bass-baritone who also balances the disciplines of acting, writing, directing, producing, and more.
Most recently, he performed The Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance) and Emile de Becque (South Pacific) at Ohio Light Opera. Prior to that he sailed the high seas performing original cabarets aboard Azamara Voyages by way of Royal Caribbean and Magic City Opera Productions."
https://www.brad-baron.com
Pianist Jennifer Chu has toured as recitalist in Spain where she gave the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s piano sonata in the Canary Islands. She has performed in venues including the 
Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie’s Weil Recital Hall. She has appeared in the Mozarteum Summer Academy Festival, Bowdoin Festival, Eastern Music Festival, and Aspen Festival. She has also premiered works by Laurie San Martin and Nathan Shields at Juilliard. She was the recipient of Princeton Univesity’s Isidore and Helen Sacks Memorial Prize, the Manhattan School of Music’s Frances Hall Ballard Scholarship, and Juilliard’s Richard French Prize. Formerly a member of the piano faculty at Concordia Conservatoy she is a teaching artist member of Associated Solo Artists and has been on the faculty at Juilliard since 2013.
https://www.juilliard.edu/music/faculty/chu-jennifer
Keyboardist, Nissa Kahle is a graduate of the University of Texas, where she received her Masters Degree in 
piano performance and opera accompanying. She received a fellowship from the Classical Artists Development Foundation to continue her training in opera conducting and accompanying, and worked as a staff accompanist at Texas State University, and accompanied for the University of Texas, Spotlight on Opera, and the educational programs at the Austin Lyric Opera. She spent a summer in Graz, Austria studying opera accompanying on a scholarship with the AIMS program. While completing her undergraduate degree in Seattle, she worked with the 5th Avenue Theater, Village Theater, Second Story Repertory Theater, and the Seattle Musical Theater, among others.
Since arriving in New York in 2016, Nissa, also an accomplished accordionist, has worked on Broadway in Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and in Chicago. She was a member of the international touring company for Chicago, a show that toured not only in the US but also in Canada, the Philippines, and Japan.
A review of the show singled out Nissa as “especially splendid”, as part of a “sumptuous 14 piece band, including two pianos, tuba, banjo, and accordion.”
Equally proficient in both the world of Opera and of Musical Theater, Nissa is in demand as a music director/conductor, pianist, and vocal coach.
Composer Ray Luedeke, born in New York City, attended the Eastman School of Music; the Vienna Academy of Music, on a 
Fulbright Grant; Dartmouth College, where he studied with George Crumb; and Northwestern University, where he studied with Alan Stout. His output is extensive and varied. It runs the gamut from entertaining theater pieces for children, through a long list of sophisticated solo and chamber music to colorful, carefully crafted pieces for orchestra.
Ray Luedeke’s music has been recognized by numerous grants and awards, among them prizes from the Manhattan Choral Ensemble, from the Percussive Arts Society, from the International Horn Society, and from Northwestern University. His Toronto Symphony contest winning orchestral Fanfare, opened Toronto’s Thomson Hall and his overture The North Wind’s Gift was performed throughout Europe in the 1991 tour of the Toronto Symphony. Six Canadian orchestras jointly commissioned Tales of the Netsilik for narrator and orchestra.
Recordings of his music include Shadow Music with the Louisville Orchestra, The Transparency of Time with pianist Andre LaPlante and the Winnipeg Symphony, The Moon in the Labyrinth with harpist Judy Loman and the Orford String Quartet, Brass Quintet with the New Mexico Brass Quintet, Circus Music with the Hannaford Street Silver Band, Ah, Matsushima! with violin/marimba duo Jacques and Michael Israelievitch, Fancies and Interludes VI with violinist Jacques Israelievitch and pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, and Tango Dreams with world champion accordionist Alexander Sevastian. Quartetto Gelato has recorded Ray’s brilliant arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and has performed it worldwide. http://www.voiceafire.com/Bio_and_Works.html
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Luedeke
Voice Afire Opera-Cabaret:
In 2010 Ray left his position as Associate Principal Clarinet of the Toronto Symphony, held since 1981, and moved to New York City, 
where he continues to compose and is Director of Voice Afire Opera-Cabaret, a production company specializing in new ways of combining theater with live music. New York productions include Butterfly’s Trouble, a re-invention for 7 performers of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly; The Art of Love for 2 pianos and actor; Kafka Shorts for string quartet and 2 actors; In Kharms Way, a evening-length music theater piece, also for string quartet and 2 actors; and My Life with Pablo Neruda, an opera-cabaret for 2 singers, 2 actors, and 4 instrumentalists.
http://www.voiceafire.com
