Preview of "Two Short Operas" from the Fringe-for-All 2009

A short preview of "Two Short Operas," as presented in the Fringe-for-All 2009 Showcase

"Two Short Operas" - the surprise hit of the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival!

"Two Short Operas" played to sold out houses for all performances at the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival and was awarded a coveted Fringe Encore performance.

The buzz...

• Named a "Must-See Show" by Ron Hubbard of the St Paul Pioneer Press
• Featured in City Pages' Gimme Noise blog
• Review of the opening night performance at MinnPost.com
• Featured in a Minnesota Public Radio story on the Fringe Festival

2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival Show!

© 2009 Clare Pix Photography www.clarepix.com

The Dead Composers Society was founded in 2008 to provide young singers and musicians in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with performing opportunities.

We are excited to be a part of the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival, where we will be presenting Two Short Operas: Mr. Berman's Bath-Size Bar & There's a Mastodon in My Backyard. More information and tickets are available on the Minnesota Fringe Festival website.

Opera? At the Fringe? Yes! It's in English. It's funny. None of the singers weigh 300 lbs. The Dead Composers Society, a Twin Cities-based group of young musicians, presents two short comic (and a little absurd) operas by Minneapolis composer Stephen Houtz. Based on a combination of popular urban legends, the operas explore the ridiculous side of human interaction.

Mr. Berman's Bath-Size Bar follows the correspondence between the staff of a London hotel and an increasingly-exasperated resident on a futile quest to use his own personal bar of soap. In There's a Mastodon in My Backyard, a wealthy and eccentric woman's discovery of what appear to be ancient fossils in her backyard sets off a chain reaction of excitement, skepticism, and scientific fervor within the ranks of the Smithsonian Institute - but the action becomes a race against time when the woman reveals her own plans for the bones. Directed by Robert Neu
Accompaniment and Music Direction by Andrew Fleser


Thu., Jul. 30 @ 8:30 p.m.
Sun., Aug. 2 @ 4:00 p.m. (audio described)
Tue., Aug. 4 @ 8:30 p.m.
Fri., Aug. 7 @ 10:00 p.m.
Sat., Aug. 8 @ 5:30 p.m.


Playwrights' Center 2301 Franklin Ave E Minneapolis, MN 55406

Past Productions - Liederabend

Saturday, March 14, 2009
4:00 pm
Mount Olivet Lutheran Church
Minneapolis

Liederabend

Music Director/Accompanist - Andrew Fleser

Vocalists - Ben Henry-Moreland, Nathan Petersen-Kindem, Meredith Cain-Nielsen, Leah Reddy

Past Productions - Amahl and the Night Visitors

December 18, 2008
University Baptist Church
Minneapolis

Cast
Amahl - Cassandra Koob
Mother - Meredith Cain-Nielsen
Kaspar - Jon Thomas Olson
Melchior - John Allen Nelson
Balthazar - Stephen Houtz
Shepherds - Ashleigh Adams, Lindsay Sessing, Laurent Kuehnl, Mark Bauer

Music Director/Accompanist - Matthew Haider

Past Productions - Trouble in Tahiti

Trouble in Tahiti
August 5 & 7, 2008
Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall, University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN


Music Director and Accompanist - Andrew Fleser

Cast
Sam - Ben Henry-Moreland
Dinah - Meredith Cain-Nielsen
Trio - Leah Reddy, Nicholas Chalmers, Mark Bauer

The Dead Composers Society Logo

Our logo, courtesy of Katherine Clanton.