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November 10, 2023
Brooklyn, NY - The American Opera Project announces Semmelweis, one of medicine’s greatest pioneers and unsung heroes, until sung in this opera, will be produced on Tuesday December 5, 2023 at the New York Academy of Medicine (1216 Fifth Ave. at 103rd Street New York, NY, 10029) at 7:00pm. The Maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis whose research could have saved many millions of mothers’ lives, is portrayed in this new music-theater work.
U.K. classical actor Mark Rylance just ended a critically acclaimed run of a new play by Stephen Brown portraying Ignaz Semmelweis at London's National Theatre.
The opera setting is Vienna c. 1840, a city of artistic and scientific revolution, thousands of women are dying in childbirth each and every year. Only Dr. Semmelweis can see the invisible killer at work, but to stop it, he must convince his colleagues to admit culpability and approve change.
Semmelweis composer Raymond Lustig and NYAM Senior Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Elaine Larson will discuss the development of this opera and the lasting impact of Dr. Semmelweis’ life and work before the one hour long scenes program.
Semmelweis by composer Raymond Lustig and librettist Matthew Doherty, was developed in AOP's Composers & the Voice training program. Semmelweis premiered at the Budapest Operetta-Theater, Budapest, Hungary on September 28, 2018.
Scenes from Semmelweis features music director Mila Henry, stage director Matt Gray, and Matthew Bryan Feld as Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, as well as singers Charlotte Mundy, Marcy Richardson, Joy Tamayo, Amelia Watkins, Samantha Martin, Sophie Delphis, Megan Schubert and Guadalupe Peraza. There will be an instrumental ensemble of three musicians: pianist Nissa Kahle, accordion and keyboards Peter Flint, and violist Leah Asher.
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