Goat Hall Productions

Past Productions

June 2010
SEASON X
Fresh Voices X Festival of New Works

Goat Hall Productions / San Francisco Cabaret Opera celebrates its 10th Annual Fresh Voices Festival of New Works 2010 with four evenings of real-life stories of loneliness and alienation, the spirit of adventure and the will to survive (America) and dark re-creations of old tales with new twists (Europe and Beyond).

Ten fully-staged short operas will Xplore: an erotic transformation in Hungary; starving artists in a sideshow in Czechoslovakia; a pioneer woman in Nebraska driven mad by loneliness; an Xpresident disintegrating in America. And more!

X at the Heart of America
Stories of loneliness and alienation, the spirit of adventure and the will to survive.

X in the Soul of Europe and Beyond
Dark re-creations of old tales with new twists.

Featuring Hadley McCarroll and Keisuke Nakagoshi, piano

Program A
X at the Heart of America:
Featuring the WORLD PREMIERE of "Trifles*", John G. Bilotta / John F. McGrew
Michael Desnoyers, Alexandra Jerinic, Nathan Kondrat, Nathaniel Marken, Maria Mikheyenko
"George Bush", Chris Whittaker
Meghan Dibble, Chelsea Hollow, Nathaniel Marken
"Life is Fine", Edward Knight / Langston Hughes
Raina Simons

X in the Soul of Europe and Beyond
"The Bloody Chamber", Daniel Felsenfeld/Elizabeth Isadora Gold, adapted from the novella by Angela Carter
Nanette McGuinness, Jo Vincent Parks, Indre Viskontas
"Job: A Masque", Mark Alburger
Kate Bautch, Sarita Cannon, Heather Lauren Klein, Nanette McGuinness, Crystal Philippi, Marilyn Pratt

*"Trifles" is sponsored in part through Subito, the quick advancement grant program of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Composers Forum.

Program B
X in the Soul of Europe and Beyond
"The Hunger Art", Jeff Myers / Royce Vavrek
Joshua Beld, Meghan Dibble, Justin Marsh, Eliza O’Malley, Sophia Santulli
"Medea Alone", David Garner
Kristen Brown
"Theresa Kren", Mark Narins
Katherine Howell, Tristan Robben

X at the Heart of America
"Letter from Linda", Alden Jenks / Frank Polite
Indre Viskontas, Sarita Cannon
"Sutter Creek", Robert Denham
Kate Bautch, Sarita Cannon, Heather Lauren Klein, Wayne Wong

One Weekend Only: June 17-20, 2010
Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
Sorry no cabaret tables available at this location.

Advance tickets sales: $20 general admission/$15 seniors/students/TBA
Tickets at door: $25 general admission/$20 seniors/students

The Cast

“Living up to its name, the Fresh Voices Festival presented a truly amazing selection of new works by San Francisco Bay Area composers and librettists.... Not only is the concept great but so is the quality of musicianship in both the vocal and ensemble performance. Artistic director Harriet March Page and musical director Mark Alburger, tireless champions of new music, demonstrated an energy and vision that was truly astounding. . . .Goat Hall Productions with its innovative programs is proving to be an essential part of the music scene of San Francisco.” -- William Susman, 20th-Century Music

“. . . .I hope that such enjoyable musical theater will eventually find its way even further throughout the region. I’m sure I speak for all the audience when I say I didn’t want it to end!” -- Allan Crossman

March 2010
WORLD PREMIERE
"Sex & the Bible: An Opera" - a 75-minute cabaret opera based on the Old Testament by way of Las Vegas. Mark Alburger, composer/librettist.

March 5-14, 2010
Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street, San Francisco

About the show
Composer Mark Alburger and director Harriet March Page have retooled these Biblical scenarios into a contemporary Sin City of Las Vegas, featuring Heavenly Emcee and a cast of familiar Satanic Lounge Lizards, suspicious Godfather Patriarchs, alluring Femmes Fatales, and Trailer Trash Hangers-On. From the Stonewall Ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah through the Action Hero Governor of Samson and Delilah, other allusions are brought into the mix, via Alburger's eclectic, postminimal, style-appropriating score and Page's creative staging in this WORLD PREMIERE production featuring sextets of singers and instrumentalists in a minimum-clothing-optional environment reflecting the iconography of millennia.

“Alburger’s music blows the dust out of the ears of opera-goers….superior to several far more elaborate and expensive modern operas.” -- Jeff Kaliss, Commuter Times

The Cast

October 2009
Solidarity, a chamber opera by Patrick Dailly

WORLD PREMIERE
This 75-minute cabaret opera features singers, commedia, clowns, and a Pit Band with Accordion. Based on real events of the Polish Solidarity Movement and imposition of Martial Law.

September 27, 2009
Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Avenue, North Berkeley

October 3 -11, 2009
Flux53 Theater/Artspace, 5300-5312 Foothill Blvd., Oakland, CA 94601 (near Mills College)

Tickets $15/$20

Solidarity is about the birth of the Solidarity movement in Poland up to the imposition of martial law in 1982. It is conceived of as a play within a play, presented as a circus cabaret with minimal props and costumes to suggest the characters; the real events and people depicted in the opera will be projected onto the back of the stage.

The Cast

June 2009
FRESH VOICES IX: FESTIVAL OF NEW & USED OPERAS – Part III
Two Weekends in Hell
Weekend One
"The Old Maid and the Thief", a Grotesque Opera in 14 Scenes
Music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti
"No Exit", an Opera in One Act
Music by Zachary M. Watkins - Adapted from the play by Jean-Paul Sartre

June 12-14, 2009

Cast
Meghan Dibble as Inez / Miss Todd, Michelle Jasso as Miss Pinkerton, James McGoff as Bob, Suzanna Mizell as Leticia, Jennifer Muhawi as Estelle, Wayne Wong as Garcin, Hadley McCarroll, Music Director, Harriet March Page, Stage Director

Weekend Two
*WORLD PREMIERE*
"Inferno, The Second Circle of Hell: The Lustful", a Chamber Opera
Music by Peter Josheff, Libretto by Jaime Robles - Based on the story of Paolo and Francesca from Dante's Commedia.

June 17-21, 2009

Cast
Eliza O'Malley as Francesca, Adam Flowers as Paolo, Richard Mix as Hell's Wind, Eric Zivian, piano, Harriet March Page, Stage Director, Peter Josheff, Music Director, Jenny McAllister, Choreographer, with dancers from Huckabay-McAllister Dance, Delayne Medoff, Lighting Designer

Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

May 2009
FRESH VOICES IX: FESTIVAL OF NEW OPERAS & SONGS
Three Evenings and One Afternoon in Hell: Or Is It Heaven?
. "Rash Acts and their Consequences"
. "Yearning to Touch a Loved One: Dead or Alive!"

Two Programs
May 22-24, 2009

Program A
The Operas
. Greg Bartholomew's "Razumov" with singers Tristan Robben, Peter Lindh, Mark Narins
. Paul Siskind/Alan Steinberg's "The Sailor-Boy and the Falcon" with singers William Loney, Georgia Duan
. Mark Alburger's "Sex and Delilah" with singers Maria Mikheyenko, Nanette McGuinness, Kristen Brown, Mark Alburger
. Stefan Weisman/David Cote's "Fade" with singers Jason Sarten, Eileen Meredith, Alix Jerinic
. Nolan Stolz's "The Touch" with singers Dalyte Kodzis, William Loney, Mark Narins
The Songs
. Robinson McClellan's "Prodigal Songs" with singers Rachel Warner, Sarah Sloan, Kate Howell
. Jean Ahn/Hillary Gravendyk Burrill's "Open" with singer Nanette McGuinness
. Gary Friedman/Carol Elizabeth Sarah Norton's "I Do Not Love Thee Three Ways" with singer Megan Stetson
. Cynthia Weyuker's "Eriskay Love Lilt" with singer Cynthia Weyuker

Program B
The Operas
. Sheli Nan's "Saga" with singers Meghan Dibble, Eliza O'Malley, Jo Vincent Parks
. Veronika Krausas' "The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth" with singers Michelle Jasso, Kristen Brown, Julia Hathaway, Sarah-Nicole Ruddy
. David Heuser/Gary S. Albright's "The Golden Ax" with singers Indre Viskontas, Wayne Wong
. Lan-chee LAM/Michael Albano's "The Lady Doth Protest Too Much" with singers Rachel Warner, Edward Coverdale + CHORUS
. Chris Pratorius' Roxane de Boveda with singers C.A. Jordan, Joaquin Quilez-Marin, Cecily Greaburn, Zoltan Lundy
The Songs
. Edward Knight/M.J. Alexander's "Tales Not Told" with singers Cary Rosko, Elizabeth Henry, Dalyte Kodzis, Indre Viskontas, Kristen Brown, Harriet March Page
. Warren Gooch's "Songs of Academe" with singers Cary Rosko, Elizabeth Henry + TUBA

Community Music Center 544 Capp Street, San Francisco

The Cast

April 2009
Fresh Voices IX Festival of New and Used Operas – Part I
"The Prophetess: or, The History of Dioclesian"
Music by Henry Purcell - Drama adapted from Fletcher and Massinger's The Prophetess
Diocletian, a Pagan Opera
Music by Mark Alburger - Based on Edward Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

Purcell’s fantastical history and masque depicting the rise of the Emperor Diocles is paired with Alburger’s relentlessly real history which involves Diocles throwing his wife to the lions (or not).Nine beautiful women in an all-female cast tell the story of the Roman Emperor Dioclesian/Diocletian, and make love and war with exquisite arias and choruses, quarterstaffs and hand-to-hand combat. First Part and Masque (the Fantasy) by Purcell; Intermezzo (the Real History) by Mark Alburger.

April 17-26, 2009

Performers
Kimberly Anderman, Annemarie Ballinger, Alison Collins, Kat Cornelius, Robin Costa, Alexandra Jerinic, Erin Lahm, Maria Mikheyenko, Indre Viskontas

Harriet March Page, Artistic/Stage Director
Mark Alburger, Music Director
Durand Garcia, Fight Director
Skye Atman and Alexander Katsman, pianist

NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa St., at Theatre Artaud, Potrero Hill, SF

General Seating $20.00; Student/Senior $15.00

March 2009
Enjoy Mozart and Pink Champagne at Le nozze di Figaro
Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, an erotic adventure in Italian, double cast, fully-staged, cabaret style. Free pink champagne and sweet desserts served at your table by costumed cast!

General seating is also available with refreshments accessible to all. Come alone or with a group and enjoy a special event.

March 6-15, 2009
Community Music Center, 544 Capp St., San Francisco
The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Table for 4 ($120), Table for 3 ($90), Table for 2 ($60), Table for 1 ($30), $20 general seating, $15 senior/student

The Cast