The performance is FREE and open to the public.
Reservations are not required. Limited seating. Doors will be closed at the start of the performance.Please plan accordingly.
Street parking is available on Adams Street.
Light refreshments following the performance and meet the cast.
For handicapped or disabled access or if you require an access accommodation for this event, please call 617-773-1177
Watch our Meet the Cast video of our original NY Premiere production in June 2013:
Longing sung by Peter Kendall Clark Avowal sung by Victora Tralongo
Based on the letters exchanged between these two iconic patriots during John’s years abroad as he worked to secure financial support from the Dutch for a new nation. Back home, Abigail single handedly maintained their farm in Braintree, MA, surviving war, economic deprivation, disease and heartache.
this program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
and
the performance is made possible with public funds
from the New York State Council on the Arts,
a state agency.
Meet Terry Quinn - librettist
Terry Quinn is the author of two novels, a biography and a volume of poetry. His short stories, memoir pieces and plays have appeared in many literary journals and national magazines. He has written, directed and performed in numerous dramas and comedies produced on stages in New York City, England, France, Holland and Germany, and on National Public Radio. With George Plimpton, he co-authored One Sunday at the Fitzgeralds and Zelda, Scott and Ernest �?the latter having featured Norman Mailer as Ernest Hemingway in the premiere performance. He also wrote the book, lyrics and music for two music theater works including Rasputin. A volume of his poetry, Mad for Newyorktown, (published by Straw House Press) has been set to music by Gary S. Fagin.
Two chamber operas for which he wrote the librettos have received seven productions, including world premiere performances at the 92nd Street Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York City (Hester Prynne at Death, with music by Stephen Paulus), and The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (John Adams in Amsterdam: A Song for Abigail, with music by Gary S. Fagin). A dramatic song cycle, titled A Distant Love: Songs of John and Abigail Adams, for which he wrote the libretto (score by Gary S. Fagin), had a three-performance world premiere at the Brooklyn Historical Society in the fall of 2009. Mr. Quinn is collaborating with composer Stephen Paulus on a full-length opera titled The Birthmark. He is also completing the librettos for a dramatic song cycle, Legendary Deaths, and a one-act opera, Oscar / Sarah / Salome, as well as a music theater work titled Georgette’s Last Rehearsal, for which he is writing the playscript, lyrics and score.
Meet Gary S. Fagin - composer
GARY S. FAGIN has conducted, composed, orchestrated and arranged music for symphony orchestras across the country, ballet, Broadway and Off-Broadway, Public Radio, regional and repertory theaters and university and conservatory orchestras.
Mr. Fagin is Founder and Music Director of New York City’s Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra and Music Director of the Bucks County (PA) Symphony Orchestra. He conducts the New Jersey Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker and has appeared as conductor with numerous regional orchestras.
Mr. Fagin served as Musical Director and Conductor for seven years at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven and for three seasons at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge. His many theater conducting credits include The Three Penny Opera with Sting on Broadway and Stephen Paulus’s Hester Prynne at Death at New York City’s 92 nd Street Y. He composed, orchestrated, and conducted the music for Charlotte: Life? Or Theater?, a music theater work based on the life and work of artist Charlotte Salomon; his Dramatic Song Cycle, John Adams in Amsterdam: A Song for Abigail, with libretto by Terry Quinn, received its world premiere performance at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam before Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands in April, 2005.
In January 2010, his And Bold To Fall Withal, Henry Hudson in the New World, composed to celebrate the 400 th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s sail into New York harbor, was given its world premiere performance with tenor Jason Danieley and the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra at New York City’s World Financial Center Winter Garden. In January 2011, a suite from Mr. Fagin’s music theater work-in-progress, Robert Moses Astride New York, received its premiere performance at the World Financial Center Winter Garden, with the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra and tenor Rinde Eckert singing the title role.
In addition to his compositions for orchestra and music theater, Mr. Fagin has composed works for chamber ensembles, piano and voice and solo instruments. He studied composition with George Crumb and George Rochberg at The University of Pennsylvania; violoncello with Orlando Cole of The Curtis Quartet; and conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller at The Yale School of Music, where he received the first Doctorate Degree in Conducting ever awarded by Yale.
Mr. Fagin was Assistant Professor and Conductor at The University of Wisconsin-Madison and later Hofstra University. He has taught at Yale University, The Juilliard School, The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and New York University. He is Founder and Director of The New York Conducting Studio; his students conduct major and regional orchestras, on Broadway, and attend America's most prestigious music conservatories.
For four seasons Mr. Fagin's arrangements were broadcast weekly on Garrison Keillor's PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION on American Public Radio. He has orchestrated music for the Boston Pops, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Sandy Duncan, Tom Chapin and for recordings by Rob Fisher & The Coffee Club Orchestra and The Manhattan Rhythm Kings. Mr. Fagin's edition of Kurt Weill's HAPPY END is published by European American Music. His transcriptions of works by Duke Ellington are available through The Smithsonian Jazz Anthology.
For more information on the Adams family and their letters, visit the Massachusetts Historical Society - Adams Family Papers
SYNOPSIS
The 1780's were breakthrough years for the string quartet. In 1781 and 1782 Joseph Haydn composed his six exquisite Opus 33 quartets and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began composition of ten celebrated ten quartets, dedicated to Haydn, that would redefine the string quartet genre.
Thus, it seemed appropriate to accompany John Adams in Amsterdam with a string quartet, the newest and most vibrant chamber music medium with which cultured Europeans would have been familiar in the 1780s.
The score is predominantly lyrical, almost romantic, befitting John Adams' heartfelt affection for his Abigail, though at times the music is infused with an American folksiness reflecting his rustic and forthright nature.
Although we considered using a different orchestration to accompany Abigail in the Colonies, the string quartet medium worked so well for John that we decided to keep the same accompaniment for Abigail.
As Abigail was struggling to survive in the midst of an active conflict, her life was more fraught with drama than was John's life in Europe. Thus, for Abigail, the music has more contrast, ranging from militaristic rhythms to intensely personal lyricism.
PAST CREDITS
The portion of A Distant Love titled “John Adams in Amsterdam: A Song for Abigail�?was commissioned as a separate work, in 2004, by the John Adams Institute. It received its premiere performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw on April 13, 2005, with Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands in attendance. In that production, the role of John Adams was created by baritone Richard Lalli. Two subsequent productions were mounted at St. Francis College’s Maroney Theater in Brooklyn Heights (2006), and at the Brooklyn Historical Society (2007).
