Rhymes With Opera presents a live, virtual production of Red Giant on Sunday, June 20, 2021 at 7pm ET which will be available for streaming beginning June 22, 2021 at 7pm ET. Red Giant will feature three singers performing synchronously from three different cities: soprano Bonnie Lander in Baltimore, MD; soprano Elisabeth Halliday-Quan in Rochester, NY; and baritone Robert Maril in New York, NY. They will be accompanied by the Rhymes With Orchestra, Adam Matlock’s new sci-fi opera Red Giant is a compelling chamber opera that tells the story of three people who are lost in space and struggling with the aftermath of humanity as their former home planet becomes uninhabitable. Tickets for the live performance are $20 and $10 for streaming and can be purchased online at www.rhymeswithopera.org/red-giant-2021. Ticket buyers for the live performance will also have access to stream the production.

“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,” said Matlock. “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.”

Red Giant is Rhymes With Opera’s first revival. The piece was originally performed in 2014 and was slated to be revived in May 2020. It is commissioned, produced and performed by Rhymes With Opera. Run time is approx. 40 minutes.

Red Giant
Opera in One Act (RWO Commission)
Adam Matlock, composer
Brian Slattery, librettist
Ashley Tata, director
Eamonn Farrell, video designer
Afsoon Pajoufar, set design
Aislinn Curry, stage management 
Elisabeth Halliday-Quan, soprano
Bonnie Lander, soprano
Baritone Robert Maril 
George Tsz-Kwan Lam, conductor 
Tia Allen, viola
Zach Herchen, saxophone
Chris Wilson, piano
Thomas Lai, violin
Maiko Hosoda, percussion
Jenna Girone-Virgilio, cello
David Crandall, radio announcer