PARK OPERA
“The protagonist of the opera is listening itself.”
BY Wojtek Blecharz
SUPPORTED BY the national endowment for the arts
and by Havea, Halen, and Zyla.
MAINSTAGE SERIES: MAY 10, 2025, 4:00 - 7:00 PM → BALBOA PARK
Project [BLANK] continues its tradition as San Diego’s most innovative producer of opera, with a new production that busts open the operatic form and scatters its pieces throughout a public park. PARK OPERA is a one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary arts experience, free and open to the public. Staged outdoors in a public park, audiences receive a map and follow a wandering course through a landscape filled with music, art, and movement. Listeners of all ages will discover unexpected delights as they explore the park, igniting the imagination, activating the senses, and encouraging us to become “all ears”. In the process, we all can gain a deeper appreciation for our urban natural spaces, and consider the impact our presence leaves on our beautiful landscape.
PARK OPERA was conceived by composer Wojtek Blecharz, and has been performed in public parks in Poland, Germany, and Austria. Project [BLANK] is excited to bring this new work to San Diego for its US Premiere.
Are you INTERESTED BEING A PART OF PARK OPERA?
No opera would be complete without a world class chorus! In PARK OPERA, however, the chorus is comprised of children’s voices as they sing their own invented bird songs in the CHORUS OF BLUEBIRDS. Want to know more? Click the button below to join our bird workshop.
MUSICIANS & ARTISTS
AMY CIMINI
viola
ANITA CHANDAVARKAR
flute
ARIANA WARREN
CLARINET
ASHLEY ZHANG
TOY PIANO
BATYA MACADAM-SOMER
VIOLIN
BRENDAN NGUYEN
TOY PIANO
DANIELLE PERRAULT
contralto
LESLIE ANN LEYTHAM
MEZZO-SOPRANO
NATALIA MERLANO GOMEZ
SOPRANO
Natalie Koski-Karell
ballet
TINA CHONG
TOY PIANO
WOJTEK BLECHARZ, COMPOSER
Born in Gdynia (Poland) in 1981, he graduated with honours from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw in 2006, before obtaining a PhD in music composition from the University of California in San Diego in 2015.
Since 2012 he has curated the Instalakcje music festival at Warsaw’s Nowy Theatre. He has directed his own two opera–installations: Transcryptum (2013) commissioned by the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw and Park–Opera (2016) commissioned by the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw. His third opera-installation, Body–Opera, was commissioned by the Huddersfield Festival in 2016. In April 2018, his fourth opera, Fiasco, was premiered at the State Theatre in Darmstadt, directed by K.A.U & Wdowik. Since 2018, his opera Rechnitz. Opera – The Exterminating Angel has been presented at the TR Warszawa Theatre, a commission of that theatre and Warsaw Autumn, based on a text by Elfriede Jelinek and directed by Katarzyna Kalwat.
In 2012, he received a scholarship prize “for perfection in music composition” at the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, and in 2013 he was selected as one of winners of the IMPULS International Composition Competition in Graz. He was nominated for the Passport Award of the Polish Polityka weekly (2012), PKN Orlen’s Poles with Verve Award (2013), and Polish Radio Channel 3 Culture Man of the Year (2013). In 2013 his opera–installation Transcryptum was nominated to “cultural event of the year” by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. In 2015 a choral theatre piece with Blecharz’s music Mutter Courage und ihre Hunden, directed by Marta Górnicka, commissioned by the Brunswick City Theatre, was acclaimed as one of the best 60 performances in Germany. In 2016 he received a music theatre award for the Best Performance of Contemporary Play (Warsaw/ Wałbrzych). In 2017 he received the Siemens Foundation Scholarship for composing other states_horizon for 16 performers and 16 wireless loudspeakers at Zurich’s Collegium Novum. In 2019, he was composer-in-residence at the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy and was awarded the Progetto Positano for lifetime achievement from the ensemble mosaik.
His latest works have been composed for the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra in Beijing, International Contemporary Ensemble in New York, Musiques Nouvelles in Brussels, KNDM Ensemble in Berlin, Kwadrofonik, Klangforum Wien, Royal String Quartet, Flute O’Clock, LutosAir, and many other ensembles. He has written stage works for TR Warszawa Theatre (Soundwork), Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow (House of Sound), Goethe Institute in Warsaw and Polish Institute in Berlin (Axis), and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark (FIELD 5.Aura). Lately, his works have been featured at festivals and venues such as MATA (New York), Salzburg Biennale, Klangwerkstadt (Berlin), Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (Australia), Mostly Mozart (New York), Huddersfield, Rainy Days (Luxembourg), Time of Music in Viitasaari (Finland), Rumlingen (Switzerland), and Les Amplitudes in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland). In October 2016, he participated in Ari Benjamin Meyers’s 15-day installation at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, composing daily for four hours at the museum. In 2020, a retrospective presentation of Blecharz’s art from 2015–20 was organised at Berlin’s Radialsystem during the New Empathies festival. Currently, Wojtek Blecharz is working on his Symphony no. 3 for 222 wireless loudspeakers, commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage.
photo credit: Marta Gillner 2024
Are you INTERESTED SUPPORTING PARK OPERA?
PARK OPERA is a FREE event, but it takes an army of people to make it happen. If you are able, would you consider donating the price of a ticket? If you would like to make a significantly larger donation or become a production sponsor, please reach out to Executive Director, Brendan Nguyen at brendan@projectblanksd.org.
Are you INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING AT ONE OF OUR SHOWS?
Join our Project [BLANK] Steward program to learn the ins and outs of putting together interdisciplinary productions!
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