CAST

(including cast of original production at Opera Philadelphia, Sept. 2017)

Elizabeth Cree: Mezzo-soprano (Daniela Mack)
John Cree: Baritone (Troy Cook)
Dan Leno: Tenor (Joseph Gaines)
Aveline Mortimer, Witness #1: Soprano (Deanna Breiwick)
Uncle, Witness #9: Bass (Matt Boehler)
Inspector Kildare, Witness #7: Baritone (Daniel Belcher)
Doris, Witness #3: Mezzo-soprano (Melissa Parks)
Little Victor Farrell, Witness #4: Tenor (Jason Ferrante)
Mr. Greatorex/George Gissing/Etcher, Witness #6: Baritone (Johnathan McCullough)
Mr. Lister/Karl Marx/Voicever (Scene 1 and 27), Witness #8: Bass baritone (Thomas Shivone)
Priest/Librarian, Witness #5: Tenor (Daniel Taylor)
Jane Quig, Annie the Serving Girl, Witness #2: Mezzo-soprano (Maren Montalbano)

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Kevin Puts and Mark Campell’s third opera collaboration, Elizabeth Cree, opened Opera Philadelphia’s 2017 season, a bold festival of new works in the first few weeks of their season. Hailed as “stunning” by Schmopera, “grisly and brilliant” by TheaterJones, and “bracing” by OperaNews, it seems destined to many more productions by opera companies throughout.

Set in London in the 1880s, this highly suspenseful and theatrical opera interweaves several narratives: the trial of the titular heroine for the poisoning of her husband; a series of brutal murders committed by a Jack the Ripper-style killer; the spirited world of an English music hall; and, finally, some “guest appearances” by luminaries from the Victorian Age. Elizabeth Cree is a work that combines the factual with the fictive and the historical with the imaginary

Elizabeth Cree is ca. 90 minutes long, scored for a chamber orchestra, and was commissioned by Opera Philadelphia.