Genre: Opera

Navona Records is pleased to present FOUR TEN-MINUTE OPERAS from composer Jonathan Sheffer, a collection of works spanning a variety of themes from American history and culture. Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and emerging UK artists, this release offers operatic explorations into perspectives from the American Civil War, pitfalls of dating in the digital age, religious commentary in the face of tragedy, and a dramatic retelling of a fatal baseball pitch. Conducted by Sheffer himself, each of these 10-minute operas tells an engaging tale that’s sure to strike a chord.

Henley Heyn’s self-titled HENLEY HEYN VOL. 1 was born from two important aspirations of her early career: to be seen and to be heard. Raw authenticity and artistic freedom drive this operatic multimedia release, performed by Heyn herself and the Slovak National Opera Orchestra. Heyn has roared onto the operatic stage in recent seasons, making her Straussian and Wagnerian debuts as Salome & Brünnhilde, followed closely by a harrowing portrayal of Magda Sorel in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, The Consul. Now, she has collaborated with an 85-member orchestra to bring the impassioned vision of HENLEY HEYN VOL. 1 to life.

Strong convictions make for strong emotion, and in Michael J. Evans' case, emotion transforms into operatic scenes. A FINE AGITATION is an eight-part stage work based on Susan B. Anthony's letters during her infamous voting trial, which sheds light on the beloved social reformer from a personal, intimate, and profoundly charming angle. Both biographies and political subjects are notoriously difficult to set to music without becoming either dry tragedies or kitschy pastiches, but Evans circumvents this pitfall with a compositional style that is subtly, tastefully shaded, and at times almost light-footed. It shows Anthony, an American social justice icon, from a perspective that might have been disregarded for the better part of a century – the perspective of being human.

Navona Records presents HAMLET from Joseph Summer. In this installment of the Shakespeare Concert Series, composer Joseph Summer brings us along to Elsinore with The Bard’s classic play in an all new setting complete with the lyric integrity of Shakespeare’s words in a contemporary musical arrangement. Performed by Bulgaria’s State Opera Ruse orchestra, choir, and selected Bulgarian soloists with nine international soloists singing the lead roles, the celebrated revenge tragedy bursts with a new modern flair while keeping the spirit and riveting narrative of the original alive.

The Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava stuns with a new recording of Richard Wagner's three-act opera TRISTAN AND ISOLDE. Skillfully conducted by German conductor Robert Reimer, this new, vibrant performance is likely to claim its place as one of the reference recordings of Wagner's innovative work.

Lawrence Siegel’s Kaddish is an evening-length cycle of fifteen original songs for chorus, soloists, and chamber ensemble that serves to find a common ground with those who survived the Holocaust. The choral masterpiece’s libretto is drawn from interviews with Holocaust survivors and incorporates elements of folk songs and traditional Klezmer music. As a whole, Kaddish brings us on a journey through the cultural identities of pre-Holocaust central Europe, reflections of the atrocities that occurred during those years, and the victims’ desire for ordinariness.

Lewis Spratlan composer