Kate Soper to Release Recording Of Opera THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE

On Friday, November 15, 2024, Pulitzer Prize finalist composer, performer, and writer Kate Soper releases the world premiere recording of her critically acclaimed opera The Romance of the Rose, featuring the dynamic Wet Ink Ensemble, on New Focus Recordings. Soper blends medieval and contemporary allegory to dramatize how love, sex, and music wreak havoc on our sense of self, with an original libretto inspired by medieval French poem Le Roman de La Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. Composer/librettist Soper also sings the role of "Shame" alongside a cast including rising opera stars Phillip Bullock, Anna Schubert, Devony Smith, Ariadne Greif, and Ty Bouque and Tony Award-nominated singer and actor Lucas Steele.

The cover artwork and accompanying art book feature illustrated scenes from the opera created by the iconic cartoonist Julie Doucet, which combine the aesthetics of medieval woodblock prints with vivid contemporary spectacle.

The first single, "Meet Shame," performed by Soper, is paired with a fantastical music video featuring original artwork by Roberta Aylward, and will be released on October 15, 2024.

Throughout the album, the listener is drawn into a dreamlike journey, following the characters of The Dreamer and his dubious recruit The Lover through a surreal landscape brimming with riddles. As they embark on a quest for the love of a literal rose, they encounter allegorical figures such as The God of Love, Lady Reason and Shame. However, as the narrative unfolds, these symbolic characters morph, revealing the fragmented nature of human identity. The music-featuring a mix of modernist shrieks and wails, intricate madrigal-like passages, auto-tuned didactic vocals and lush Romantic elements-mesmerizes, delights and unsettles the listener, defying any clear moral stance.

The work had its world premiere in 2023 at Long Beach Opera, directed by James Darrah. In her program note, Soper writes that opera, like love, "is a good receptacle for the messy complexity of the human condition in general." Staged at the historic Warner Grand Theater, the production received rave reviews for its inventive storytelling, bold abstraction, and humor, challenging the conventions of traditional opera.

Soper's critically acclaimed previous operas include Here Be Sirens (2014), IPSA DIXIT (2017), and The Hunt (2023). Known for blending agility, playfulness and intellectual curiosity, Soper offers a personal and reflective take on opera, contrasting with the grand, mythic themes of the Romantic tradition. Drawing inspiration from the medieval troubadour tradition, where poets and composers often performed their own works, Soper's music remains uniquely her own, standing out in the broader operatic landscape.

About Kate Soper
Described by The New Yorker as "one of the great originals of her generation," composer/performer/writer Kate Soper has been creating unique and uncategorizable musico-theatrical spectacles for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and Rome Prize fellow, she has received awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Koussevitzky Foundations and the American Academy of Letters, and has been commissioned by Miller Theatre, Alarm Will Sound, and the New York Philharmonic. Her large-scale works include the monodramas Voices from the Killing Jar and IPSA DIXIT and the operas Here Be Sirens, The Romance of the Rose, and The Hunt.

Praised by The New York Times for her "lithe voice and riveting presence," Soper performs frequently as a new music soprano. During the 2024-2025 season, she will perform her experimental chamber opera IPSA DIXIT alongside Wet Ink at the Big Ears Festival and will join the New York Philharmonic as composer and soprano soloist for a new work conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Soper has premiered works by Sky Macklay, George Lewis, Alex Mincek, and Eric Wubbels, and has been featured as a composer/vocalist on the New York City-based MATA Festival and Miller Theatre Composer Portraits series, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW series, and the LA Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series. As a nonfiction and creative writer, she has been published by McSweeney's Quarterly, PAJ, The Massachusetts Review, Theory and Practice, and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies.

Soper is a co-director and performer for Wet Ink, a New York-based new music ensemble dedicated to seeking out adventurous music across aesthetic boundaries. She is the Iva Dee Hiatt Professor of Music at Smith College. Learn more at www.katesoper.com.

The Romance of the Rose Tracklist
Kate Soper - The Romance of the Rose (2021)

Act 1/Disc 1 (1:11:06)
1.1: Prologue Part I (4:39)
1.2: Prologue Part II (3:59)
1.3: A Volunteer (4:07)
1.4: The Garden (3:12)
1.5: Narcissus (3:22)
1.6: The Attack (5:59)
1.7: Meet Shame (3:02)
1.8: The Oath (3:03)
1.9: Commandments / First Sally (4:32)
1.10: Lady Reason's First Try (4:07)
1.11: Lady Reason's Symmetrical Virelai (3:23)
1.12: Reason vs. Love I (4:45)
1.13: Second Sally (4:21)
1.14: Shame Returns (2:03)
1.15: Quodlibet (2:38)
1.16: Anagnorisis I (0:57)
1.17: Waking Up (5:41)
1.18: Act I Epilogue (7:16)

Act II/Disc II (55:43)
2.1: Round Two (3:53)
2.2: Torch Songs (8:28)
2.3: Lady Reason's Second Try (5:36)
2.4: Lady Reason's Collapsing Sestina (5:30)
2.5: Reason vs. Love II (2:58)
2.6: The God of Love's Battle Song (1:58)
2.7: Anagnorisis II (0:53)
2.8: The Dreamer's Post-Truth Aria (4:34)
2.9: Shame's Double Aria (7:28)
2.10: Final Showdown (5:35)
2.11: Epilogue I (6:33)
2.12: Epilogue II (2:17)

Total Time: 02:06:06

Book, music, and lyrics by Kate Soper
Inspired by Le Roman de La Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun
Additional texts by Christine de Pizan, Christina Rossetti, Shakespeare, and Alfred Lord Tennyson

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Studios, August 11-13, 2023 Edited by Ryan Streber †Mixed by Sam Pluta and Alejandro Quiles Mastered by Michael MacDonald at AlgoRhythms

CAST:
THE DREAMER (tenor) - Lucas Steele
THE GOD OF LOVE (baritone) - Phillip Bullock
LADY REASON (soprano) - Anna Schubert
SHAME (soprano) - Kate Soper
THE LOVER (mezzo-soprano) - Devony Smith
IDLENESS (soprano) - Ariadne Greif PLEASURE (baritone) - Ty Bouque

THE WET INK ENSEMBLE:
Clarinet (soprano, bass) - Rane Moore
Saxophone (alto, baritone) - Erin Rogers
Piano/keyboard - Laura Barger
Percussion - Ian Antonio
Violin/viola - Josh Modney
Cello - Michael Nicolas
Electric guitar - James Moore
Harp - Jacqueline Kerrod
Electronics - Sam Pluta
Conductor - Eric Wubbels