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From May 8 through May 18, the Little Stage Theater at SoBe Institute of the Arts became the portal to Fairy Tales, Songs of the Dandelion Woman, a 70-minute trip “down the rabbit hole.”  With a score and libretto created by Carson Kievman, this contemporary music-theater journey hurtles through a kaleidoscopically shifting mental landscape, past the borderline between hilarity and madness, into a surrealistic dislocation.  This parallel world, very much like our own as seen through a magnifying glass, is created as the Bank Examiner (Ken Mattice, baritone) and The Dandelion Woman (Meagan Brus, soprano) become aware of each other: an authority figure who is charged with determining her competence, and a misfit who moves with angular grace through her own private world, and is charismatic enough to dismantle the system simply by living as she pleases.

For this production, soprano Meagan Brus and baritone Kenneth Mattice returned to SoBe Arts to sing the roles of Dandelion Woman and Bank Examiner. Both artists were highly praised for their roles as Ophelia and Hamlet in SoBe Arts world premiere staged concert of the HAMLET Opera in 2012. Aalso engaged were the acclaimed opera director Jeffrey Marc Buchman, music director Mary Adelyn Kauffman, award winning designers, Sean McClelland (sets), Patrick Tennent (lighting), Camilla Haith (costumes), Alain Lores (projections) as well as a top-flight ensemble of instrumentalists. Audiences had the opportunity to see FAIRY TALES in a run of 1 preview and 6 performances from May 8 through May 18 in the Little Stage Theater on the SoBe Arts campus, a beautiful, historic setting and intimate venue

 

Music by Carson Kievman
Libretto by Carson Kievman & MD Needle
 

CAST

Meagan Brus, soprano as Dandelion Woman / Kenneth Mattice, baritone as Bank Examiner

CREATIVE TEAM

Stage Director, Jeffrey Marc Buchman / Music Director, Mary Adelyn Kauffman / Projection Design, Alain Lores / Costume Design, Camila Haith / Lighting Design, Patrick Tennent / Stage Manager, Jane Rosenbaum / Set Design, Sean McCelland

ENSEMBLE

Conductor, Mary Adelyn Kauffman / Flute, Carol Naveira-Nicholson / Clarinet, Miles Jaques / Percussion, Karli Mason & Tyson Voigt / Piano, Junko Kainosho / Violin, Rebecca Mosloff / Viola, Emilee Newell / Cello, Joy Adams

 
“In a season that has seen more twentieth - and twenty-first century opera in South Florida than in the last two decades combined, Kievman’s opus is a stunner. It deserves wider performances beyond the current Miami Beach run”
— The Miami Herald, May 2014
“‘Fairy Tales’ makes a bold and powerful impact in world premiere”
— South Florida Classical Review, May 2014
“a shattering experience”
— The Miami Herald, May 2014
“delivers great dramatic punch.... grips the attention”
— Miami New Times, May 2014
 

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