City Lyric Opera, 18 Bleecker St, New York, NY (2026)

06/17/2025

On Thursday, June 6 at 7PM, we proudly co-presented a concert with Sugar Hill Salon at Bethel A.M.E. Church in East Harlem, featuring the world premiere of PRAISE SONG FOR THR FLYING AFRICANS, a new cantata by composer and sopranist Jay St. Flono. This stunning cantata commemorated the 223rd anniversary of the Igbo Landing self-sacrifice that took place in Georgia, birthing generations of stories of Flying Africans in Black American literature, songs, and works of art. Set to the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley, as well as original text, Praise-Song for the Flying Africans stands at the crossroads, beckoning us to pick up our wings and find our highest purpose even while the world rages around us.

📸:

05/18/2025

HAPPY CLOSING to Black Water/Savior! It’s been so wonderful sharing these two incredible pieces with you this week. Thank you to everyone who came out to support!

Jeremy Beck’s Black Water
Soprano -
Dancer -
Piano - .scherer
Stage Director -
Choreographer - Joya Powell
Music Director -

Amy Beth Kirsten’s Savior
Joan -
Joan - .zazu
Joan -
Flute -
Cello -
Percussion -
Stage Director - .pitt
Music Director -
Associate MD -

Production Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Production Scenic Design
Assistant Scenic Design
Production Lighting Design
Associate Lighting Design
BW Costume Design - Alicia Austin
Savior Costume Design - Sienna Zoë Allen
Wardrobe -
Audio Engineer
Audio Engineer/Sound Design

Production Photography

05/16/2025

Meet the choreographer of BLACK WATER! Our production of Jeremy Beck's BLACK WATER - originally created as a monodrama for soprano and piano - has been reimagined to include dance to convey this intensely physical story in the hands of choreographer JOYA POWELL.

JOYA POWELL is a native Harlemite, Choreographer, and Educator passionate about community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. Joya is the recipient of The 2016 Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Bessie Award. Hailed by The New York Times as a “radiant performer;” throughout her career she has danced with choreographers such as Paloma McGregor, Katiti King, Neta Pulvermacher, Nicole Stanton, Marsha Parrilla, Donlin Foreman and Paco Gomes. Her choreography has appeared at venues such as: BAM Opera House, Meet the Artist Saturday's at Lincoln Center, SummerStage, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, FLICfest 2016, Dance New Amsterdam, Casa del Prado Theatre in San Diego, Montgomery College Theater in Maryland, The Hammerstein Ballroom, Dixon Place, and BAAD!. She has also choreographed such Off-Broadway and out of state plays as: JOB by Thomas Bradshaw (The Flea Theater), Fit for a Queen by Betty Shamieh (The Classical Theatre of Harlem), True Bible Tales by Robert Askins (Jewish Plays Project/E. 14th St. Y), and The Minstrel Show by Amina Henry, Ducklings by Amina Henry (The National Black Theater), and Gilgamesh and The Mosquito by Sam Chanse and Bob Kelly. Joya is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Wesleyan University, a part of the Artistic Resource Group for The FLEA Theater, a collaborating member of Dance Caribbean Collective, choreographic collaborator of Table Theater + Radical Evolution. She received her M.A. in Dance Education from New York University, and her B.A. in Latin American Studies and Creative Writing from Columbia University. As Artistic Director/Choreographer of Movement of the People Dance Company Joya is dedicated to connecting cultures, creating socially conscious choreography and community engagement.

BLACK WATER runs May 15 - 18th at the Sheen Center! Tickets on sale now through our bio and www.citylyricopera.org/black-water-savior

05/15/2025

Tonight's the night! Black Water and Savior opens at the Sheen Center tonight at 7:30pm! Performances run May 15th - 18th. You won't want to miss this powerful double bill of new works - Jeremy Beck's BLACK WATER details the real life tragedy of the Chappaquiddick Incident, and Amy Beth Kirsten's SAVIOR explores the layers of Joan of Arc's final moments. Both pieces offer a powerful exploration of the power and price of female agency across the centuries.

Use the code DAYOFDISCOUNT when buying tickets online for 25% off your order! Tickets are available through the link in our bio and at www.citylyricopera.org/black-water-savior

See you there!

05/15/2025

Meet the amazing design team of BLACK WATER & SAVIOR!

Black Water and Savior open TONIGHT - and in addition to the stunning music of our performers, we can't wait for audiences to see the work of our incredible design and backstage teams - the folks who keep rehearsals running smoothly, build our sets, light the performers, and bring the visual and tactile worlds of these operas to life. From stage management to wardrobe to sound to lights, there would be no show without their expertise.

Do you have your tickets yet? Don't miss these fantastic additions to the contemporary opera repertoire. Performances run May 15th - 18th at the Sheen Center on Bleecker Street. Tickets are available now through the link in our bio and at www.citylyricopera.org/black-water-savior

05/14/2025

MEET THE MUSIC DIRECTORS OF BLACK WATER/SAVIOR

JULLIANNE MERRILL (Savior) is an NYC-based Music Director, Pianist, and Electronic Music Designer.

Her Broadway credits include: A Strange Loop, Some Like it Hot, Harmony, How to Dance in Ohio, Smash, and Real Women Have Curves. Off-Broadway work includes Music City, Jonathan Larson Project, Big Gay Jamboree, Drag: The Musical, Communion, The Lonely Few, White Girl in Danger, and the National Tour of Some Like it Hot. She is a recent graduate of and now professor at BerkleeNYC.

In addition to conducting and performing, Julianne runs a New Work Development Lab at the International College of Musical Theatre (ICMT) and
specializes in pit-technology consultation for live performance.

STEPHANIE LEOTSAKOS (Black Water) is a Greek-Colombian-American conductor, composer, soprano, violinist, educator, and inventor. She is an integrator who weaves connections across different disciplines into her creative work. Stephanie takes an involved, collaborative role in the drama on stage, performing as the Narrator/Senator in addition to conducting. In premiering the new opera Yehudit by Iris Karlin at Temple Emanu-El in NYC last May, Stephanie both conducted the opera and sang the voice of ‘God’ from the podium. In her opera compositions, Young Goodman Brown (2022) and OMG (2016), Stephanie explores cross-temporal and trans-historical traditions and mixed-media immersion in drama theatre. Young Goodman Brown has been performed nationally and has had four international performances in the U.K. OMG later premiered in NYC at The Tank, where she then sang the leading role.

She holds an M.A. in Composition/Theory from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Composition and Conducting from Princeton with minors in Vocal Performance and K-12 Music Education. Funded by the 2024 Dominick Argento Fellowship for Opera Composition, Stephanie begins her PhD in composition at Rutgers University this Fall, aiming to bridge research in sonic and visual-spatial immersion, XR/AR/VR technologies, and neurodivergence/synesthesia in new dramatic works.

Don't miss these powerhouse conductors - tickets on sale now through the link in our bio!
Performances run May 15th - 18th at the Sheen Center, NYC.

05/13/2025

Joan of Arc is on the stake. As she comes in and out of consciousness, the music of her divine visions envelops her. She hears the voice of an enemy, as chronicled in his war diary; she then remembers a song from her childhood. The divine visitor brings a message. The Chronicler yearns for Joan’s death. The Chronicler recalls a humiliating defeat at the hands of “the Devil’s maid.” Now, the fire…she calls out for her Savior: Jésu won’t You come? There is only silence.

City Lyric Opera presents a captivating double bill of Amy Bet Kirsten’s SAVIOR and Jeremy Beck’s BLACK WATER this weekend only! Performances run May 15 - 18 at the Sheen Center on Bleecker Street. Don’t miss these powerful new works! Tickets available now in our bio and at www.citylyricopera.org/black-water-savior

05/11/2025

ONLY FOUR DAYS UNTIL OPENING!
City Lyric Opera is thrilled to present a double bill of Jeremy Beck's BLACK WATER and Amy Beth Kirsten's SAVIOR, two powerful contemporary operas about the power and price of female agency across the centuries.

Don't miss this chance to see two extraordinary works of new classical music. Performances run May 15th - 18th at the Sheen Center at 18 Bleecker Street. Tickets are on sale now through the link in our bio and at www.citylyricopera.org/black-water-savior

See you on opening night!

05/11/2025

Joan of Arc is on the stake. As she comes in and out of consciousness...the music of her divine visions envelops her. She hears the voice of an enemy as chronicled in his war diary; she remembers a song from her childhood. The divine visitor brings a message; the Chronicler yearns for Joan's death. Suddenly, she is on trial and condemned. Joan recalls her capture, the fire: she calls for her savior. There is only silence. She waits. In the haze - an answer, and a final breath.

City Lyric Opera presents SAVIOR, by Amy Beth Kirsten along with Jeremy Beck's BLACK WATER at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture’s Frank Shiner Theater May 15-18, 2025. Tickets on sale now. Link in bio!

05/09/2025

MEET THE DIRECTORS OF BLACK WATER AND SAVIOR!

MICHELLE BECK is a director, writer, producer, actor, and teaching artist. Her film, The Snakes, is currently on HBO and HBO Max. The film screened at the American Black Film Festival as an HBO Short Film Finalist, RSF Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, Brooklyn Short Film Festivals, and was nominated for a Black Reel Award.

She is the owner of Beck to the Future Films, where she creates films about social justice issues including women’s rights, q***r identity, environmentalism, and race. She is the Director of Film for Epic Theatre Ensemble, a non-profit organization that creates art around social justice issues. She is an Associate Professor for the BFA Cap21 MT program.
JEN PITT is a Brazilian-born, New York-based opera and theatre Director. Jen trained at Lecoq in Paris and started her career as a performer in experimental theatre. She was lucky enough to be a member of The Living Theatre during Judith Malina's last years. She has since been directing and approaching all her work from a devised and movement-based practice.

Jen strives to create environments that are boldly daring and wholly equitable. She seeks to make inquisitive work that is visually arresting and viscerally engaging by blending “low” and “high” brow references that question hierarchies of perception. Her work investigates themes around generational female trauma— su***de and addiction, ritual, and desire. Jen earned her MFA in directing from Columbia University and served as the Directing Fellow at Juilliard's vocal arts program.

05/08/2025

In 1969, the dead body of a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, was discovered inside an overturned car in a channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. The car belonged to Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, who did not report the late-night incident to the police authorities until the following morning. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates is a slightly-veiled fictional account of these events. In Jeremy Beck’s Black Water, the work is presented almost completely from the point of view of the woman: in reality, in flashback, in dreams, and in hallucinations. (Program note from the composer)
….
City Lyric Opera presents Black Water along with Amy Beth Kirsten’s Savior at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture’s Frank Shiner Theater May 15-18, 2025. Tickets on sale now. Link in bio!

05/01/2025

Meet the cast of Savior! ⁠
⁠
Chinese American soprano Abagael Cheng (she/they) is a singing artist, actor, producer, and activist who strives to break the boundaries of traditional performance and move audiences toward social activism. She aims to deepen relationships within and between communities by engaging audiences with politically relevant narratives and centering collaboration in her productions. Most recently, Cheng produced an original interdisciplinary recital at Culture Lab LIC, The Hunger & The Haunt, which explored how folks from the AANHPI diaspora reclaim connection to their heritage and discover pathways toward ancestral nourishment. ⁠
⁠
Soprano Ciera Cope enjoys singing the very new, the very old, and all very weird in between. ⁠Recent highlights include: collaborating with choreographer Mark Bankin on the premiere of his experimental dance theater piece, Disputation Between the Body and the Worms; performing and recording the world premiere of Benedict Sheehan’s GRAMMY nominated oratorio Akathist; and performing the premiere of Heather Christian’s Terce at Prototype Festival. Later this season, Ciera will perform in the world premiere of Stephen Main’s oratorio The Image at Trinity Wall Street. ⁠
⁠
Rebecca Sacks, mezzo-soprano, is known for her dynamic stage presence, smart musicality, and stylistic versatility. With a voice described as “powerful” and “extraordinary” (Operawire), she has recently been heard as Dame Carruthers in Young Victorian Theatre Company’s 2025 production of The Yeomen of the Guard and in her role and company debuts as Mrs. Anderssen with St. Pete Opera’s production of A Little Night Music. Other roles include Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Fricka (Das Rheingold), Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos), Queen Alkmene (Die Liebe der Danae), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Baba (The Medium), and Grimgerde (Die Walküre).⁠
⁠
Tickets on sale now through our bio!

City Lyric Opera

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