Voices carry

VOCAL MAJORITY Mark Adamo, Yuval Sharon, Anne LeBaron, George Steel and Gordon Beeferman, from left, will participate in this year's Vox series.

Photographs: Jane Kung (Sharon); Steve Gunther (Lebaron); Rene Perez (Steel); Andrew Giammarco (Beeferman)

What is a composer to do when given the opportunity to see a full orchestral reading of scenes from a new work, presented by an established opera house? "You take it," says Jonathan Sheffer, who found himself offered that chance nearly ten years ago. "You don't hesitate." Sheffer faced that scenario in 1999, when New York City Opera approached him and five other composers, offering to present selections from recently completed works with the company's orchestra, a cast of young talented singers, a stage and an audience.

That showcase, now known as Vox, celebrates its tenth anniversary this weekend at New York University's Skirball Cultural Center. Scenes from ten new operas will be performed on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, culminating in Vox's 100th opera. Over the past 11 years (accounting for a skip in 2005), Vox has fostered new American opera through 20-minute presentations from contemporary works.

When it started, though, it was a way to fill two empty weeks in the orchestra's schedule: City Opera had to employ the musicians per their contract. Deborah Drattell, composer-in-residence at the time, connected that predicament with a small grant from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), meant to support new works.

"In the past [City Opera] had done a parks concert or they'd done this and that," says Mark Adamo, whose Little Women was presented in the first showcase. "Deborah's idea was, We've got the orchestra—that's a problem we need to solve—and we have this grant. Why don't we come up with something like this?"

Drattell started collecting operas through word of mouth, acquaintances and general solicitations. She secured Columbia University's Miller Theatre for the presentation. "There were only a handful of very small festivals honoring new works," says George Steel, then Miller Theatre's director, now City Opera's general manager. "It was only proper to give much-needed exposure to them."

The operas themselves were in different stages of development. Little Women had already been presented in Houston and was scheduled for a Glimmerglass Opera production in 2002; John Musto scrambled to write an extra scene in his Pope Joan to fill the time allotment. Still, the composers and librettists jumped at the chance of being included, for one reason in particular: "There are opportunities for workshops and showcases," Sheffer notes, "but almost none with a full orchestra."

"I had a good piano score, but you don't hear all the colors of the different instruments in the orchestra," Melissa Shiflett says. Her Dora had been performed with a piano reduction by the American Chamber Opera. "To hear it…it worked out beautifully."

"It was a gift," Musto agrees. He never completed Pope Joan, his first attempt at writing an opera, but adds, "It certainly gave me confidence in my ability to write for the stage."

In subsequent years, the showcase expanded to feature upwards of ten operas each May. In 2002, Adamo took over for Drattell, gave the presentation its current name and condensed the schedule from several weeks into a single weekend. In 2006, Vox found a new home at the electronically equipped Skirball center under a new project manager, Yuval Sharon. "The mission has not changed at all from the very beginning," Sharon says. "Composers often have to imagine what the full sound of their opera will be like. Here they can put it on its feet and test it in front of a live audience." Sharon also initiated a program called Vox Second Look, which presents new excerpts from previously staged showcases. Anne LeBaron's Crescent City, from the 2006 showcase, and Gordon Beeferman's The Rat Land, from 2007, will be encored this year.

According to Sharon, about a third of the operas featured in Vox have gone on to be fully realized at opera companies in the U.S. and around the world. The last four commissions at New York City Opera have also come through the showcase. "Partnering with Vox has been invaluable to New York City Opera," Steel says. "It's the first place I'm going to look when I'm looking for new operas."

New York City Opera presents Vox 2009 Fri 1 and Sat 2.

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