Tales From a Safe Distance: Everything Comes to a Head

The Decameron Opera Coalition’s serial opera Tales from a Safe Distance is now streamable through the classical music streaming app IDAGIO. One $15 ticket gives access to view all four episodes whenever and however many times you would like through the end of 2021!

Trailer:

Created by the Decameron Opera Coalition, Tales from a Safe Distance features nine one-act operas and a tenth wrap-around story. Each Friday in October, an episode with two or three of these operas will premiere virtually. A $15 ticket gives you access to all four episodes, with the flexibility to watch any time after first airing. LOON’s chapter, Everything Comes to a Head, is part of Episode 1: Both Gladsome and Grievous – Premiering on October 9, 2020.

LOON’s Chapter in Tales from a Safe Distance:

Everything Comes to a Head

Music by Rachel J. Peters

Libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek

Inspired by The Decameron Day 4, Story 5 “Filomena’s Story”

Where is Basil, Rosemary’s boyfriend? He made like a tree and leaved. He made like a banana and peeled. He made like a bush and burned. He made like a pandemic committee meeting and Zoomed. Rosemary is worried their love has gone dormant (was it the lack of spice in their relationship?) but she’s staying planted in her tiny apartment. Her roommates, on the other hand, think Rosemary doesn’t need to cultivate that kind of baggage. Basil was deadwood! Everything Comes to a Head gives us some sage advice: if the roots of love are deep enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re in mint condition. 

Composer and Librettists:

Cast:

Production Team:

A Peek at the Process

Decameron Opera Coalition

10 creative teams. 9 companies from across the United States. 4 electric nights of new opera.

Boccaccio’s 14th century masterpiece  “The Decameron”  involved ten characters passing the time while sheltering from a plague by telling one another stories – stories comic, tragic, romantic, sexy, terrifying. The Decameron Opera Coalition has adapted those stories for the modern pandemic era.

“Tales from a Safe Distance” features nine World Premiere one-act operas, and a tenth wrap-around story starring internationally renowned bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni.

Each Friday in October you’ll see and hear a diverse array of voices, sounds, visuals, methods, and messages as dozens of contemporary opera’s most vital artists tell intimate tales of a global moment.

This unprecedented, searingly relevant, nation-wide collaboration is not to be missed.

Tales from a Safe Distance Schedule

Episode 1: Both Gladsome and Grievous – Premieres October 9, 2020

• “The Happy Hour” (Introduction)
• “Everything Comes to a Head” (Lyric Opera of the North | Duluth, MN)
• “The Late Walk” (Bare Opera | New York, NY)

Episode 2: Prompted by Appetite – Premieres October 16, 2020

• “Dinner 4 3” (Fargo-Moorhead Opera | Fargo, ND)
• “The Roost” (UrbanArias | Washington, DC)

Episode 3: So Noble a Heart – Premieres October 23, 2020

• “Orsa Ibernata” (Milwaukee Opera Theater | Milwaukee, WI)
• “Seven Spells” (Opera in the Heights | Houston, TX)
• “The Sky Where You Are” (An Opera Theater | Minneapolis, MN)

Episode 4: The Bolts of Fortune – Premieres October 30, 2020

• “Sourdough: Rise Up” (Resonance Works | Pittsburgh, PA)
• “Corsair” (Chicago Fringe Opera | Chicago, IL)
• “The Happy Hour” (Conclusion)