And Here We Are, a shadow puppet opera
by Matthew Welch and Daniel Neer
-
Digital Album
Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
DOWNLOAD INCLUDES 46-PAGE PDF BOOK FEATURING THE LIBRETTO BY DANIEL NEER ALONG WITH PROGRAM, COMPOSER NOTES, ARTIST BIOS AND PHOTOS FROM THE 2018 PREMIERE!Purchasable with gift card -
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1. |
Overture
03:37
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2. |
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3. |
"And Here We Are"
01:42
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4. |
Susie Fox
03:02
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5. |
There Are Rules
02:28
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6. |
Lt. Abiko
05:42
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7. |
Privacy
02:50
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8. |
Trying New Things
05:28
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9. |
Roll Call
02:03
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10. |
Scarecrows Taking Shape
01:35
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11. |
Dorothy (Sakura)
04:15
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12. |
Shanghai Li'l
03:46
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13. |
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14. |
Piano Lessons
04:28
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15. |
Feet and Ankles Swell
01:23
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16. |
Benjo
04:32
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17. |
Eva Gauthier
10:10
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18. |
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19. |
The Radio
04:57
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20. |
The Rationing of Food
01:17
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21. |
Daré
09:34
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22. |
No More Fat
01:09
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23. |
Zomara
02:22
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24. |
Firefly, Carry Me Home
01:54
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25. |
Battle of Manila
04:57
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26. |
Finale
04:06
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27. |
Edgar's Debut Aria
02:54
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28. |
Epilogue
03:45
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credits
released April 15, 2020
AND HERE WE ARE
(A Shadow Puppet Opera)
music by MATTHEW WELCH
libretto by DANIEL NEER
Kotekan Records is thrilled to house AND HERE WE ARE, a new opera from Matthew Welch and librettist/singer Daniel Neer. A timeless story of isolation, AND HERE WE ARE is based on the true memoir by Matthew’s great-uncle, a prisoner of the WWII Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila.
This 2-Act opera for 4 vocal soloists and mixed ensemble features Mantra Percussion with Welch’s long-time ensemble Blarvuster. Freshly mixed audio from the Experiments in Opera 2018 premiere with director and designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew comes to life here!
CAST
Daniel Neer, baritone
(as Edgar Mason Kneedler)
Elyse Kakacek, soprano
(as Susie Fox, Dorothy, Shanghai Li'l)
Kate Maroney, mezzo-soprano
(as Eva Gauthier, Daré, Zomara)
Joe Chappel, bass
(as Lt. Abiko)
Blarvuster and Mantra Percussion
Ben Holmes, trumpet
Joe Bergen, percussion
Chris Graham, percussion
Mark Utley, percussion
Emily Manzo, piano
Ian Riggs, bass guitar
Joe Tucker, drums
Matthew Welch, conductor
PREMIERE PRODUCTION
Assistant Direction and Design: Tomas Del Valle
Puppeteers: Emma Wiseman, Meghan Williams, Maria Cama, Justin Perkins, Leah Ogawa
Video Design and Programming: Chris Carcione
Toy Theater of Town Hall built by: Eric (Jiaying) Zhang
Additional Design Edits: Tom Lee
ABOUT THE CREATORS
MATTHEW WELCH is a composer of innovative opera and genre-resisting concert music. Named one of “14 artists changing the future of opera,” by Huffington Post, and regarded as “a composer possessed of both rich imagination and the skill to bring his fancies to life” (Time Out NYC), Matthew’s musical adventures and collaborative spirit have brought him to work with some of today’s most noted musical personalities: Anthony Braxton, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Julia Wolfe, and John Zorn. Mixing his backgrounds in bagpipes, gamelan, experimental, classical, rock and improvised music, Welch’s compositional sound is worldly and eclectic in material, yet personal and seamless in style.
Praised by the New York Times as “exquisitely ethereal” and “border-busting; catchy,” Matthew’s music has been performed in the US, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. Matthew holds degrees in Music Composition from Yale, Wesleyan and Simon Fraser Universities, and as a bagpiper, he has won three World Pipe Band Championship titles. His ensemble, Blarvuster, has been based in New York City since 2002. Welch co-founded Experiments in Opera in 2011.
DANIEL NEER is a librettist, lyricist, playwright and performer. In addition to his collaboration with Matthew Welch for the opera And Here We Are, his libretti includeIndependence Eve with Sidney Marquez Boquiren (UrbanArias and American Opera Projects), and Mercury Falling with Chandler Carter (Long Leaf Opera Festival). As a lyricist for new chamber music and song projects, Daniel’s collaborations include Brooklyn Queens Expressway with Robin McClellan (Queens New Music Festival), Bruce Bailey with Daniel Felsenfeld (Two Sides Sounding), Metamorphosis with Scott Gendel (The Narkissos Project), Gitchee Gumee with Jonathan David (Bar Harbor Music Festival), Summer 1976 with Kim Sherman and Gursky Songs with Alex Burtzos (music/poetry|poetry/music), The Good Doctor Windhager by Ronnie Reshef (Winner of The Secret Opera song competition), MASKS by Alex Burtzos (The New Song), HAIKU NYC with Ellen Mandel (BEAT Festival), and Ellis Island with Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz (Battelle Fine Arts Center at Otterbein University). Daniel’s first play, The Interview, received a world premiere as part of the New Works International Festival for Short Plays at the Richmond Shepherd Theater in New York City, directed by Ted Gorodetzky.
JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW is a theatre designer for theatre, opera, dance, music performances and installation. As a designer she aims to create a visual environment that is organically integrated into the landscape and language of the production. Her designs were described as “clever” and “inventive” (NY Times) and that it “contains the vibrant richness of a Caravaggio painted in neon”.
Her designs have been seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Rose Theater Jazz at Lincoln Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), HERE Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse, La Mama ETC, The Kitchen, ArtsEmerson, Manhattan School of Music, Joyce SOHO, Bard Music Festival, REDCAT, Highways Performance Space, and internationally at Havana, Prague, Lima, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Graz Austria and Bloemfontein South Africa. Jeanette received the Bel Geddes Design Enhancement award for her lighting and projection design for Ludic Proxy. She was the recipient of the 2009-2011 NEA/TCG Career Development Program and was the 2006 Gilbert Hemsley Jr. lighting internship.
RECORDED LIVE BY NATIONAL SAWDUST MAY 6, 2018
MIXED AND MASTERED BY MATTHEW WELCH SPRING 2020
ALBUM ART BY LAUREN KOLESINSKAS
THIS MUSICAL WORK AND ALBUM IS DEDICATED TO:
KATHERINE KNEEDLER WELCH
Kotekan Records 109
kotekanrecords.com
Copyright 2020, Matthew Welch
LINKS
matthewwelchmusic.com
experimentsinopera.com/portfolio-item/and-here-we-are/
vimeo.com/282333018
laurenkolesinskas.com
AND HERE WE ARE
(A Shadow Puppet Opera)
music by MATTHEW WELCH
libretto by DANIEL NEER
Kotekan Records is thrilled to house AND HERE WE ARE, a new opera from Matthew Welch and librettist/singer Daniel Neer. A timeless story of isolation, AND HERE WE ARE is based on the true memoir by Matthew’s great-uncle, a prisoner of the WWII Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila.
This 2-Act opera for 4 vocal soloists and mixed ensemble features Mantra Percussion with Welch’s long-time ensemble Blarvuster. Freshly mixed audio from the Experiments in Opera 2018 premiere with director and designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew comes to life here!
CAST
Daniel Neer, baritone
(as Edgar Mason Kneedler)
Elyse Kakacek, soprano
(as Susie Fox, Dorothy, Shanghai Li'l)
Kate Maroney, mezzo-soprano
(as Eva Gauthier, Daré, Zomara)
Joe Chappel, bass
(as Lt. Abiko)
Blarvuster and Mantra Percussion
Ben Holmes, trumpet
Joe Bergen, percussion
Chris Graham, percussion
Mark Utley, percussion
Emily Manzo, piano
Ian Riggs, bass guitar
Joe Tucker, drums
Matthew Welch, conductor
PREMIERE PRODUCTION
Assistant Direction and Design: Tomas Del Valle
Puppeteers: Emma Wiseman, Meghan Williams, Maria Cama, Justin Perkins, Leah Ogawa
Video Design and Programming: Chris Carcione
Toy Theater of Town Hall built by: Eric (Jiaying) Zhang
Additional Design Edits: Tom Lee
ABOUT THE CREATORS
MATTHEW WELCH is a composer of innovative opera and genre-resisting concert music. Named one of “14 artists changing the future of opera,” by Huffington Post, and regarded as “a composer possessed of both rich imagination and the skill to bring his fancies to life” (Time Out NYC), Matthew’s musical adventures and collaborative spirit have brought him to work with some of today’s most noted musical personalities: Anthony Braxton, Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Julia Wolfe, and John Zorn. Mixing his backgrounds in bagpipes, gamelan, experimental, classical, rock and improvised music, Welch’s compositional sound is worldly and eclectic in material, yet personal and seamless in style.
Praised by the New York Times as “exquisitely ethereal” and “border-busting; catchy,” Matthew’s music has been performed in the US, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. Matthew holds degrees in Music Composition from Yale, Wesleyan and Simon Fraser Universities, and as a bagpiper, he has won three World Pipe Band Championship titles. His ensemble, Blarvuster, has been based in New York City since 2002. Welch co-founded Experiments in Opera in 2011.
DANIEL NEER is a librettist, lyricist, playwright and performer. In addition to his collaboration with Matthew Welch for the opera And Here We Are, his libretti includeIndependence Eve with Sidney Marquez Boquiren (UrbanArias and American Opera Projects), and Mercury Falling with Chandler Carter (Long Leaf Opera Festival). As a lyricist for new chamber music and song projects, Daniel’s collaborations include Brooklyn Queens Expressway with Robin McClellan (Queens New Music Festival), Bruce Bailey with Daniel Felsenfeld (Two Sides Sounding), Metamorphosis with Scott Gendel (The Narkissos Project), Gitchee Gumee with Jonathan David (Bar Harbor Music Festival), Summer 1976 with Kim Sherman and Gursky Songs with Alex Burtzos (music/poetry|poetry/music), The Good Doctor Windhager by Ronnie Reshef (Winner of The Secret Opera song competition), MASKS by Alex Burtzos (The New Song), HAIKU NYC with Ellen Mandel (BEAT Festival), and Ellis Island with Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz (Battelle Fine Arts Center at Otterbein University). Daniel’s first play, The Interview, received a world premiere as part of the New Works International Festival for Short Plays at the Richmond Shepherd Theater in New York City, directed by Ted Gorodetzky.
JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW is a theatre designer for theatre, opera, dance, music performances and installation. As a designer she aims to create a visual environment that is organically integrated into the landscape and language of the production. Her designs were described as “clever” and “inventive” (NY Times) and that it “contains the vibrant richness of a Caravaggio painted in neon”.
Her designs have been seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Rose Theater Jazz at Lincoln Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), HERE Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse, La Mama ETC, The Kitchen, ArtsEmerson, Manhattan School of Music, Joyce SOHO, Bard Music Festival, REDCAT, Highways Performance Space, and internationally at Havana, Prague, Lima, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Graz Austria and Bloemfontein South Africa. Jeanette received the Bel Geddes Design Enhancement award for her lighting and projection design for Ludic Proxy. She was the recipient of the 2009-2011 NEA/TCG Career Development Program and was the 2006 Gilbert Hemsley Jr. lighting internship.
RECORDED LIVE BY NATIONAL SAWDUST MAY 6, 2018
MIXED AND MASTERED BY MATTHEW WELCH SPRING 2020
ALBUM ART BY LAUREN KOLESINSKAS
THIS MUSICAL WORK AND ALBUM IS DEDICATED TO:
KATHERINE KNEEDLER WELCH
Kotekan Records 109
kotekanrecords.com
Copyright 2020, Matthew Welch
LINKS
matthewwelchmusic.com
experimentsinopera.com/portfolio-item/and-here-we-are/
vimeo.com/282333018
laurenkolesinskas.com
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Kotekan Records San Francisco, California
Kotekan Records is dedicated to the projects of Matthew Welch. Inspired by the interlocking rhythm, Kotekan records focuses on the most intertwined reaches of Welch’s hybrid compositional world. Each album cover is commissioned from artist Lauren Kolesinskas. ... more
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