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On March 9 and 10, noted New York City choir New Amsterdam Singers (NAS) will present the world premiere of Arctic Explorations, a one-act folk opera by composer Michael Dellaira, at the Theater of St. Jean in NYC.
Sea shanties, hymns, and American popular and folk tunes from the 19th century inspired Dellaira’s score for soloists, chorus, and a small instrumental ensemble.
The production will feature Nuka Alice, an Inuit drum dancer, singer, and songwriter, who participated in the creation of the work.
It will also include musicians from frequent NAS collaborator The Harlem Chamber Players.
Arctic Fever
In the 1850s Elisha Kent Kane, a US Navy medical officer and explorer, led an Arctic expedition to explore, map coasts, and search for Sir John Franklin’s lost 1840s expedition. (AMC recently dramatized the latter, spicing it up with the supernatural, in the TV series The Terror.)
Kane never found Franklin’s doomed ships. But he returned with plenty of tales to tell, and tell them he did in his second book, Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, ’54, ’55, published in 1856, the year before he died.
When Explorers Ruled the World
Though no longer a household name, Elisha Kent Kane was tremendously celebrated in his day. Wikipedia cites Encyclopedia of the Arctic as stating that Kane’s funeral was the largest in United States history until Abraham Lincoln’s.
New Amsterdam Singers commissioned Arctic Explorations. The Cell Theatre co-produces and Kira Simring directs. Tickets are available online.
