American Terror: An Opera

Discussion with Jeffrey Lependorf & Dave King and work-in-progress performance
 

Concept & libretto by Jeffrey Lependorf
Jonathan Lawlor, tenor
Sarah Nalty, soprano
Gabriele Zemaityte, piano

Join us for a discussion and work-in-progress excerpt of Jeffrey Lependorf’s chamber opera—a Hudson Hall commission—made from the 1969 “Firing Line” television debate between William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky on America’s involvement in Vietnam. 

Strikingly relevant to world events today, these two masters of discourse voraciously argue about America sending military aid overseas, while somehow failing to effectively communicate with one another. Lependorf sets his original libretto, a kind of translation of the actual debate, by appropriating and reconfiguring music by Haydn and Scriabin. 

American Terror has been made possible with support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.