FirstWorks presents: Some Favored Nook

New England Premiere

Jessica Rivera (soprano), Andrew Garland (baritone), Molly Morkoski (piano)

A new chamber opera from Rhode Island composer Eric Nathan based on the incredible 24-year correspondence between poet Emily Dickinson and essayist, abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, and Colonel of the first black regiment in the Civil War, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Some Favored Nook places Dickinson’s writings in the context of the Civil War and focuses on her private struggle as a female poet in a patriarchal society. Resonant with themes of love, death, women’s rights and civil rights – issues that are as relevant in today’s deeply divided world as they were in Dickinson’s time, the concert pairs Nathan’s original composition and libretto by Mark Campbell with works by 19th Century composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) and Aaron Copland’s Dickinson songs.

Made possible, in part, with the support of the Marshall Woods Lectureship Foundation of Fine Arts

Part of the FirstWorks Frontier Series