Hark! What Schtick through yonder window breaks? Is this a cabaret act I see before me? Cornelia Street Cafe, Monday, April 13th
SWING BUCKLE THE BARD with the honey-tongued, operatic chanteuse LISA DAEHLIN and pianist nonpariel RICHARD PEARSON THOMAS. Using Shakespeare’s verse as anything but a roadmap, we will wag our way through an alternate Paradise of songs, snippets and abominations. Carouse with Ophelia, the Macbeths, Juliet, Romeo, la tête d’Anne Boleyn, and a fairie-dusting of sass from the churlishly anachronistic Dorothy Parker.
LISA DAEHLIN, soprano, has performed numerous roles including Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera), Fiordiligi (Cosi Fan Tutte), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Angelica (Suor Angelica), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues of the Carmelites), First Lady (Magic Flute), High Priestess (Aida) and Wellgunde (Das Rhinegold). In New York City, Lisa performs frequently at St. Paul’s Chapel, Cornelia Street Café, and The Players Club. Her concert repertoire focuses extensively on Norwegian, French and American Chanson, Cabaret and Art Song. European concerts in Italy, Germany, and upcoming this summer, as an invited singer for the International Edvard Grieg Society in Bergen, Norway. Lisa has performed at the Algonquin’s Oak Room, at City Center, at Lincoln Center. Her one-woman show Twisted Stitch: Songs of Love and Knitting, featured a world premier cycle of songs by Stefania de Kenesey. Awarded an MA from Columbia University, Lisa operates a private voice studio in New York City. www.lisadaehlin.com
STEFANIA DE KENESSEY is a leading figure in contemporary music, and her CD “Shades of Light, Shades of Dark” received rave reviews as “fully worthy to share a program or disc with the masterpieces of Mozart or Brahms” (Fanfare). She is delighted to continue an ongoing collaboration with soprano Lisa Daehlin, who has commissioned and premiered several of her songs, including the knitting cycle “Twisted Stitch”. A professor of music and former dean at Eugene Lang College, the undergraduate division of The New School, de Kenessey recently completed “Influence”, her first feature-length film score, and her opera adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities” (bonfiretheopera.com) premieres Oct.9-10, 2015. For further information about her music, please visit her website at www.stefaniadekenessey.com
SVEN TRYGVE HAABETH is a Norwegian singer/songwriter and actor. With a versatile voice, he’s done everything from punk to folk music. This summer finds him in New York, having crossed the pond, for a second season of Shakespeare in Riverside park!
ELLEN MANDEL has created music for over sixty plays. Currently: Phoenix Theatre Ensemble’s Medea at the Wild Project through May 3; last season Phoenix’s Don Juan in Hell (NYITA Best Revival 2014, Best Original Music nomination). Her music for Top Girls at the Antaeus (LA) received the 2014 Scenie Award. Ellen has written many songs to poems and released four song CDs: There Was a World, a wind has blown the rain away, the first of all my dreams, and The Cat and the Moon. http://ellenmandel.com
FLASH ROSENBERG is a Guggenheim Fellow and “Attention Span for Hire” who draws, photographs, writes and performs. As artist in residence for LIVE from the New York Public Library she drew literary discussions in real time to create original “Conversation Portraits.” She is a full service photography, motion picture, merriment, and mischief factory, living with three turtles and infinite questions.
HILDE SKAPPEL is a New York based Norwegian actress, soprano, translator and writer. In 2013, she received the American Scandinavian Society’s Grant Award for outstanding achievements in her field and for her dedication to Scandinavian Culture. She earned her Musical Theatre Certificate from The Baardar Academy in Oslo, and her Acting Certificate from The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, where she currently works as an actress in Film, Theatre and Musical Theatre. She performs regularly at The Norwegian Seamen’s Church in several concerts and events, creates children’s theatre for The Norwegian School and has been a vocalist in a rock band. In Norway, her performances in musicals includes: Jesus Christ Superstar, When Midnight Strikes and A Chorus Line/Into The Woods. She has translated many Musical Theatre Productions for Norwegian theatre companies, such as Legally Blonde, Spelling Bee and Grand Hotel. Hilde is currently working to write and produce Musical Theatre pieces in collaboration with the Norwegian New York-based composer Christian Stahr, as well as writing her own solo projects. http://hildeskappel.com/
CHRISTIAN L. STAHR is a composer, orchestrator, music arranger and pianist from Sarpsborg, Norway. He studied musicology and composition at the University of Oslo, Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He worked as an orchestrator and music arranger for smaller ensembles as well as large symphony orchestras in Norway. He has also worked as a studio musician and keyboard player for bands and singers throughout Norway. He holds an MFA in musical theatre writing from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His New York debut as a composer with the short musical “You Can’t Sing” premiered at Sticky’s Poetry Club in the fall of 2010. In 2011 he wrote music for the short musical “The Call” for Sticky’s, and for the short musical “The Champagne Fountain” at Duplex’s “Funny Business” night of works. His full length musical, “Let’s Be Frank” received an Equity reading in 2012 featuring the talents of Alex Gemignani, Hannah Elless and Doreen Montalvo among others. http://www.stahrmusic.com/
RICHARD PEARSON THOMAS, composer and pianist, has had works performed by the Boston Pops, Covent Garden Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Portland Opera, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Banff Centre, Skylight Opera Theatre, Riverside Opera Ensemble, Encompass Opera Theatre and Riverside Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. His songs have been sung in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Joe’s Pub, and before the U.S. Congress. Mr. Thomas’s operas, Blood of Angels, and A Wake or a Wedding, have been produced by Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York City. As pianist, Mr. Thomas has concertized with singers worldwide. He is on faculty at Teachers College/Columbia University and has taught at Yale and the University of Central Florida. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California, and is a native of Montana. www.richardpearsonthomas.com
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