Red Giant: Album Release
Red Giant is OUT NOW on all streaming platforms! Click the links below to listen.
About Red Giant
As part of the farewell season, RWO will release its second studio cast album – the sci-fi chamber opera Red Giant (music by Adam Matlock and libretto by Brian Slattery). RWO first performed Red Giant in January 2014 as a fully staged touring production that saw performances in Baltimore, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. As part of its 2021-22 season, which was produced amidst pandemic restrictions, RWO created an online revival production of Red Giant. For this special virtual production, our three ensemble singers rehearsed and performed live from separate locations across the east coast!
This studio cast recording from this production marks the second record released by RWO. The album was mastered by Rhymes With Orchestra saxophonist Zach Herchen and produced by RWO's co-artistic director and founding member Robert Maril.
Cast
Elisabeth Halliday-Quan (soprano)
Bonnie Lander (soprano)
Robert Maril (baritone)
Orchestra
Thomas Lai, violin
Tia Allen, viola
Jennifer Girone-Virgilio, cello
Zach Herchen, saxophone
Christopher Wilson, piano
Maiko Hosoda, percussion
Artistic and Production
Adam Matlock, composer
Brian Slattery, librettist
David Crandall, sound effects designer and recorded voice
George Lam, music preparation
Robert Maril, recording engineer
Composer’s Note
Adam Matlock, composer
As a lifelong fan of Science Fiction and a composer enamored of opera as a medium, it only made sense to combine the two when given the opportunity to work on a piece. Of course in the beginning the scenario — people trying to escape a planet’s surface that has become uninhabitable due to their sun becoming the titular Red Giant — was pure fantasy. But in the nearly decade since this piece was first written, we’ve seen governments and societies struggle to reach a consensus as to whether or not climate change is really happening in the face of readily observable evidence — and it’s hard not to feel that this story has gained some resonance in the face of that. And of course, even in the face of a true existential crisis, humans will still find time to bicker.
Additional Support
Rhymes With Opera's 2022 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.