Michael Gordon: Acquanetta (Chamber Version) Amelia Watkins, Eliza Bagg, Bang on a Can Opera Ensemble & Daniela Candillari

• Michael Gordon (b. 1956): Acquanetta (Chamber Version):
• 1 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): The Mood 05:56
• 2 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Conceal Me 05:20
• 3 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Introducing Acquanetta 04:27
• 4 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Who Am I Today? [Mad Scientist] 05:33
• 5 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Inside This Costume 05:37
• 6 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Gown, Gloves, Mask [The Experiment] 06:05
• 7 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Well Done! Let's Take Five [Shadows and Light] 06:39
• 8 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Please Don't Take My Brain [Brainy Woman] 05:23
• 9 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Celluloid World 10:04
• 10 Acquanetta (Chamber Version): Beautiful Monster 10:39
• Total Runtime 01:05:43

Info for Michael Gordon: Acquanetta (Chamber Version)

An homage to the campy and spine-chilling horror films of the 1940s, the stage version of Acquanetta combines theater, opera and film to explore the world of a real-life B-movie star with a mysterious past. Known for her exotic beauty, Acquanetta - aka Mildred Davenport - was the star of such cult films as Captive Wild Woman, Jungle Woman, The Sword of Monte Cristo, and Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, before she disappeared from public life. Michael Gordon's soaring and often comic score, with text by librettist Deborah Artman, is a vivid metaphor for the ways in which the movie camera manipulates how we see and are seen. The cast of characters, featuring Mikaela Bennett (Acquanetta), Amelia Watkins (Brainy Woman), Eliza Bagg (Ape), Matt Boehler (Director) and Timur (Doctor), reveals inner longings and emotional shadows in a spooky meditation on identity, transformation, stereotypes and typecasting, set in the heyday of Hollywood glamor.

"The opera turns the story of that campy film's star into a somberly ritualistic meditation on public versus private identities." — Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times ​

“The one unmissable show I've seen so far was Acquanetta, the sublime horror-opera that opened the PROTOTYPE Festival." – Helen Shaw, Time Out New York ​

"Acquanetta, as entertaining and funny as it is, will have you thinking about it for days." – Heather Waters, The Theatre Times ​

“Gordon's opera Acquanetta draws its irresistible appeal above all from the continual ecstasy of vital, forward chasing, metrical patterns copied over one another.... There is no dull second in this thrilling, entertaining work." – Eleonore Büning, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ​

"It's energetic rhythms, highly amplified, electronic sound and rapidly changing harmonies, embroiled us in its excesses... It was an outrageous 75 minutes." – Richard Sasanow, Broadway World

"A fascinating experience of modern psychological theater." - Hanns Mänhardt, Super Sonntag

Mikaela Bennett, soprano
Bang on a Can Opera Ensemble
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Daniela Candillari, conductor

Daniela Candillari
is quickly emerging as a dynamic and compelling conductor in opera houses and on concert stages throughout North America and Europe. Recent engagements include her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut, leading Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers, which resulted in her immediate reengagement to lead An American Dream in the 2018-2019 season. Other debuts include Minnesota Opera leading Fellow Travelers, her concert debut with NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, opening their festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, and her PROTOTYPE Festival debut conducting Acquanetta. In the 2018-2019 season, she makes her Boston conducting debut with the world premiere of PermaDeath, her Asian debut in Hong Kong conducting Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize winning opera Angel’s Bone, and her Opera Philadelphia debut conducting Rene Orth’s Empty the House, a new production, produced in cooperation with the Curtis Institute of Music. In the summer of 2019 she leads the West Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain in a new production by director James Darrah at Music Academy of the West. Future engagements include her debuts with Arizona Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

Other recent projects include conducting the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia, assisting Matthew Aucoin on his opera Crossing for BAM’s Next Wave Festival, and assisting Vasily Petrenko on a production of Falstaff with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic featuring Sir Bryn Terfel. Additionally, she has led workshops for Arizona Opera (Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen) and Opera Philadelphia (Double Exposure).

Ms. Candillari’s vast repertoire knowledge in opera has come through a traditional route: as a Répétiteur her work includes extended periods with Slovenian National Opera, European Opera Centre and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; she has been an opera coach (working alongside Martina Arroyo and Carol Vaness); as a recitalist, she has worked with Håkan Hagegård and for the European Commission in London; as assistant conductor she has worked on contemporary projects for OPERA America and more traditional repertoire for Sarasota Opera; and at Slovenian National Opera she was successively chorus master, assistant conductor and assistant to the Artistic Director. Her broadcasting work includes National Public Radio America, Austrian Radio, Slovenian National Radio and Television, and Serbian National Television.

She has a strong interest in contemporary work in many different genres. Ms. Candillari conducted the world premiere of Stefania de Kenessey’s opera Bonfire of the Vanities at Museo del Barrio, New York. At the Center for Contemporary Opera she workshopped Rachel Peters’ and Royce Vavrek’s opera Wild Beast of the Bungalow; and gave the first public presentation of Hannah Lash’s opera Beowulf. Ms. Candillari’s work as a composer has given her a special insight into and understanding of contemporary work. Her own compositions - commissioned by outstanding instrumentalists and most recently by the University of Pittsburgh - have now been performed by musicians from the symphony orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, and by the musicians from the three resident orchestras of the Lincoln Center - the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet. Alongside her championing of contemporary repertoire, Ms. Candillari founded her own chamber orchestra - Gravity Shift - in New York City to take more traditional repertoire to new audiences.

A native of Slovenia, Ms. Candillari holds a Doctorate in Musicology from the Universität für Musik in Vienna, a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Master of Music and Bachelor in Piano Performance from Universität für Musik in Graz. She was a Fulbright scholar and was subsequently awarded TED Fellowship.

Booklet for Michael Gordon: Acquanetta (Chamber Version)