{"id":342,"date":"2022-05-01T22:14:10","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T22:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etestsite.0622b8f.netsolhost.com\/?page_id=342"},"modified":"2025-03-30T20:03:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T20:03:28","slug":"press","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/?page_id=342","title":{"rendered":"Press"},"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>Press Reviews<\/strong><br><br>Our American Cousin is being presented by Live in Concert, Inc., a 501\u00a9(3) non-profit based in Western Massachusetts.<br><br><a href=\"http:\/\/www.masslive.com\/entertainment\/index.ssf\/2008\/06\/american_cousin_opera_captures.html\">\u2018Cousin\u2019 opera recounts Lincoln assassination<\/a><br><br>NORTHAMPTON \u2013 In opera, anything can happen as long as you sing about it. In Eric Sawyer and John Shoptaw\u2019s new opera \u201cOur American Cousin,\u201d the events immediately surrounding President Abraham Lincoln\u2019s assassination were examined operatically through the eyes of the actors in the play the president came to Ford\u2019s Theater to attend that fateful evening. The opera premiered Friday evening at the Academy of Music Theater. The production was superb, with excellent singing from the principals across<strong> <\/strong>the board\u2026<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.masslive.com\/entertainment\/index.ssf\/2008\/06\/american_cousin_opera_captures.html\">more<\/a><\/em><br><br><em>Clifton J. Noble\u00a0Jr.<br>The Republican<\/em><br><br>Big themes, big performances boost \u2018Our American Cousin\u2018<br><br>\u2026[Our American Cousin] has several passages where words and music come together exquisitely. One is the series of choruses in Act I, when the Ford\u2019s Theatre audience turns and reforms into groups representing the war\u2019s human aftermath \u2013 amputees, freedmen, nurses, carpetbaggers, etc., singing words culled from real diaries and letters. Here is Sawyer\u2019s most beautiful music, drenched in a bittersweet chromaticism reminiscent of Benjamin Britten\u2019s War Requiem. These, and a final chorus condemning the cycle of \u201cblood for blood,\u201d might well be packaged separately. They speak clearly to our day<strong>.<\/strong><br><br><em>David Perkins,<\/em>\u00a0<em>Boston Globe<\/em><br>\u00a0<br><br>Eric Sawyer\u2019s Opera About Lincoln\u2019s Assassination Premieres<br><br>\u2026The work is overall an impressive achievement. The opening act is filled with a sense of dark intrigue and anticipation. The portion drawn from the original play, primarily in Act II, is light and entertaining. The final portion is more somber and contemplative\u2026this work deserves many future productions because of its superior artistic, albeit highly intellectual qualities.<br><strong><br><\/strong><em>Marvin J. Ward,\u00a0Classical Voice of New England<\/em><br><br><a href=\"http:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/sponsors1.pdf\">\u00a0SPONSORS OF OUR AMERICAN COUSIN<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/ericsawyer.net\/sponsors.htm\"><br><\/a><br><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Press Reviews Our American Cousin is being presented by Live in Concert, Inc., a 501\u00a9(3) non-profit based in Western Massachusetts. \u2018Cousin\u2019 opera recounts Lincoln assassination NORTHAMPTON \u2013 In opera, anything can happen as long as you sing about it. In Eric Sawyer and John Shoptaw\u2019s new opera \u201cOur American Cousin,\u201d the events immediately surrounding President [&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-342","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/342","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=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/342\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouramericancousin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}