One of the special joys of contemporary opera is visiting new musical and storytelling territory on a journey of theatrical exploration. That should certainly be the case for Marble City Opera’s next production, Heartbreak Express by George Lam & John Clum. The work was premiered by Rhymes With Opera, a boutique opera company in NYC’s Greenwich Village, in November, 2015. This MCO production of Heartbreak Express will be the first one since its premiere and certainly the first one outside of NYC.
The Lam/Clum opera was inspired by the 2006 documentary film by Tai Uhlmann, For The Love Of Dolly that followed five of Dolly Parton’s most avid fans. The opera involves four Dolly “superfans” who are waiting to meet her, each with big ideas and dreams of what the meeting will mean. Two sisters, Luanne and Darlene, won the opportunity to meet Dolly in person via an essay contest. Two others, Don and Travis, big collectors of Dolly memorabilia, have other ideas, having put their life savings into a new Dolly doll. They are after Parton’s blessing and assent to manufacture them.
The stage director is Marya Berry; the conductor is Logan Campbell. Sopranos Whitney Wells and April Hill are the two sisters, Luanne and Darlene, respectively. The tenor role of Travis will be sung by Ben Rorabaugh, with the baritone role of Don sung by Daniel Spiotta. The role of Dolly’s “assistant” will be sung by countertenor Min Sang Kim.
The work will see three performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 20, 21, and 22 at Old City Performing Arts Center (OCPAC), 111 State Street, at 7:30 PM.
Drawing from a career background in music, motion pictures, and theatre, Alan Sherrod has been writing about Knoxville's diverse art and music scene since 2007 — first as the classical/new music writer for the alternative weekly Metro Pulse, then later in the same capacity for the Knoxville Mercury. After the closure of Metro Pulse in 2014 by its parent company, Sherrod created ARTS KNOXVILLE to provide a home for Knoxville arts journalism. In August, 2017, he expanded ARTS KNOXVILLE into the site it is today — a site dedicated to continuing the arts journalism legacy of those alternative weeklies. In addition to covering Knoxville's arts scene, he has also contributed music content to the Nashville Scene and other arts and entertainment publications around the U.S, including the website, Classical Journal. Mr. Sherrod was a recipient of a 2010 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts — the Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera — under the auspices of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2019, Sherrod was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame.
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