About
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STEPHANIE FLEISCHMANN is a librettist and playwright whose texts serve as blueprints for intricate three-dimensional sonic and visual worlds. Her “lyrical monologues” (New York Times), “finely tuned” opera libretti (Opera News), plays, and music-theater works have been performed internationally and across the United States. She is the 2022 recipient of the Opera America Campbell Librettist Prize.
Fleischmann collaborates closely with a wide range of composers, responding to and supporting each artist’s unique voice with language that sings and dramatic structures that activate and hold space for music. She writes texts designed to serve as blueprints for operas that are highly imagistic, powerfully theatrical, and intensely human.
Opera libretti include: In A Grove (Christopher Cerrone, LA Opera/Pittsburgh Opera, directed by Mary Birnbaum; In a Circle Records; NY Times Best Classical Music Albums of 2023); 2 operas with Michael Hersch: Medea (Ensemble MusikFabrik/Schola Heidelberg, Cologne, for Sarah Maria Sun) and Poppaea (Wien Modern/ZeitRäume Basel, nominated for 2023 Austrian Music-theater Prize; New Focus Recordings); Dido Reimagined (Melinda Wagner, for Dawn Upshaw & Brentano String Quartet; Hopkins Center for the Arts, 92nd Street Y, Wake Forest University, and more); 2 operas with Jeremy Howard Beck: Another City (Houston Grand Opera) & The Long Walk (American Lyric Theater/Opera Saratoga/Utah Opera/Pittsburgh Opera); 2 operas with David Hanlon: The Pigeon Keeper (Santa Fe Opera & TBA) & After the Storm (Houston Grand Opera); Remedios Varios, with Carlos Carrillo (Chicago Opera Theater); a new commission for West Edge Opera; Paradiso (Yevgeniy Sharlat; Hub New Music; workshop, Austin Opera); Tevye’s Daughters, (Alex Weiser; American Lyric Theater); Arkhipov (Peter Knell; Jacaranda); The Property (Lyric Opera of Chicago). Collaborations in progress: The Visitation, an opera for a vanishing world (Christina Campanella, Opera America); Barrel of Laughs, (Julia Adolphe, Opera America/National Sawdust). Texts for voice: Anna Clyne (Scottish National Chamber Orchestra), Chris Cerrone (Yale/Northeastern; Conspirare), Gity Razaz (Brooklyn Youth Chorus), Matthew Recio (Ithaca College Treble Chorale), Olga Neuwirth (Aldeburgh, Basel, Berlin).
Selected plays/music-theater works: Sound House (the Flea/New Georges); with Christina Campanella: The Visitation, a sound walk (urhere.art), Red Fly/Blue Bottle (HERE; EMPAC, Noorderzon) and The Secret Lives of Coats (Red Eye); Agave (w/ Dmitry Troyanovsky/Daniel Kluger; Brandeis University); Niagara (Bobby Previte/Daniel Fish, Hudson Opera House); The Sweetest Life (Saskia Lane, New Victory LabWorks); Eloise & Ray (New Georges); What the Moon Saw (Son of Semele). Performed/developed via: Roundhouse Studio (London), Exit Festival (France), MASS MoCA, Birmingham Rep (UK), Synchronicity, Roadworks, Soho Rep, Mabou Mines/SUITE, Public Theater.
Additional grants/Fellowships: Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Toulmin Foundation, Venturous Theater Fund Capital Grant, Howard Foundation Fellowship in Playwriting (Brown University), 3 NYSCA Individual Artist Commissions, NEA Opera/Music-Theater, 3 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, Tennessee Williams Fellowship (University of the South), Frederick Loewe Award; MAPFund, Opera America, NY State Music Fund, Greenwall Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Fund, Whitfield Cook Prize, Macdowell, Hedgebrook. Alumna: New Dramatists; New Georges Audrey Residency; Composer Librettists Development Program at American Lyric Theater; HARP (Here Arts Center; Playwrights Center Core Writer. BA Wesleyan University, MFA Brooklyn College. http://www.stephaniefleischmann.com/
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Stephanie Fleischmann is a librettist and playwright whose texts serve as blueprints for intricate three-dimensional sonic and visual worlds. Her “lyrical monologues” (NY Times), “finely tuned” opera libretti (Opera News), plays, and music-theater works have been performed internationally and across the U.S. Libretti include: IN A GROVE (Christopher Cerrone; LA Opera, Pittsburgh Opera; In a Circle Records; NY Times Best Classical Music Albums 2023); MEDEA, Michael Hersch; Ensemble MusikFabrik, Cologne) & POPPAEA (Hersch; Wien Modern, Zeiträume Basel; New Focus Recordings); PARADISO (Yevgeniy Sharlat; Hub New Music/Austin Opera); DIDO (Melinda Wagner; Brentano Quartet; 92nd Street Y, Rockport Music Festival and more); ANOTHER CITY (Jeremy Howard Beck; Houston Grand Opera) & THE LONG WALK (Beck; Opera Saratoga, Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera); AFTER THE STORM (David Hanlon; HGO) & THE PIGEON KEEPER (Hanlon; Santa Fe Opera); REMEDIOS VARIOS (Carrillo; Chicago Opera Theater). Selected plays/music-theater: RED FLY/BLUE BOTTLE (HERE, EMPAC, Noorderzon), THE SECRET LIVES OF COATS (Red Eye), SOUND HOUSE (New Georges) music by Christina Campanella; THE SWEETEST LIFE (Saskia Lane; New Victory). Selected grants/fellowships: Campbell Librettist Prize, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Venturous Fund, Howard Foundation, NEA, NYFA, NYSCA, MapFund, Macdowell, New Dramatists, HARP, American Lyric Theater. www.stephaniefleischmann.com
