{"id":215,"date":"2022-04-29T15:23:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T15:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etestsite.0622b8f.netsolhost.com\/?page_id=215"},"modified":"2025-04-08T19:49:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:49:45","slug":"home-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<figure style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:400\" class=\"wp-block-table has-small-font-size\"><table class=\"has-orange-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF OUR AMERICAN COUSIN<\/strong> \u00a0<br><br> The world premiere of the fully-staged opera took place on June 20, 2008 at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts, the city\u2019s 800-seat 1892 opera house, not unlike Ford\u2019s Theatre. <br><br>Our American Cousin, an opera composed by<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/ericsawyer.net\/\">Eric Sawyer<\/a> <\/strong>with libretto by John Shoptaw, tells the story of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s final evening through the eyes of the actors and audience at Ford\u2019s Theater.<br><br> The performances featured the acclaimed Boston Modern Orchestra Project and some of<strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/ericsawyer.net\/the_stars\">New England\u2019s foremost opera stars<\/a>.<\/strong> Stage direction was by Carole Charnow, general director of Opera Boston. <br><br><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/?page_id=659(opens in a new tab)\">See video excerpts from the 2008 performances of Our American Cousin<\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eric-Sawyer-Our-American-Cousin\/dp\/B0037MACIS\/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1292681403&amp;sr=8-5\"><\/a> <br><br>The performance coincided with the release of a commercial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eric-Sawyer-Our-American-Cousin\/dp\/B0037MACIS\"><strong>recording<\/strong><\/a> of the opera on the BMOP\/sound label.<br><br><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/libretto.pdf\">See opera libretto from cd booklet<\/a><\/strong><br><br><strong>CD Review:Fanfare Magazine, Issue 32:2 Nov\/Dec 2008<\/strong><br><br>\u2026this is one of the freshest, most ambitious new American operas I\u2019ve heard in ages. Instead of taking up once again some cinematic or literary retread, it actually dares to use original material. And it also dares to take up historical events and musical tropes without succumbing to mere costume drama\u2026I appreciate, admire, and enjoy Sawyer\u2019s voice. And I hope this is only the first of Shoptaw\u2019s librettos. As a first collaboration, the result is stunning.<br>Robert Carl<br><br><br> <strong> <\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><!-- \/wp:columns --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF OUR AMERICAN COUSIN \u00a0 The world premiere of the fully-staged opera took place on June 20, 2008 at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts, the city\u2019s 800-seat 1892 opera house, not unlike Ford\u2019s Theatre. Our American Cousin, an opera composed by Eric Sawyer with libretto by John Shoptaw, tells [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template-cover.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-215","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}