A Game of Werewolf

Constitution Records Opera Theatre takes great pleasure in announcing the staged presentation of the comic chamber opera A Game of Werewolf by Timothy Ayers-Kerr, 7 PM, Oct. 22, 2022 at the Seminole Theatre, 18 North Krome Avenue, Homestead, FL 33030. This is the debut performance of this fun-filled and tuneful work in South Florida. Additional works to be performed include famous arias from The Merry Widow, Pirates of Penzance, and Perichole, among others.

The featured performers in A Game of Werewolf include Soprano Samantha Riling-Lopez, Soprano Lauren Williams, Mezzo-Soprano Yi-Chun Sarah Tsai, Bass-Baritone Johan Hartman, Baritone Jose Vasquez and Tenor and Composer, Tim Ayres-Kerr. While still in their 20s, all of the performers have considerable professional performance experience in solo roles as well as in opera choruses. Some of the ensembles that they have performed in include Sarasota Opera, Opera Tampa, Constitution Records Opera Theatre, Opera Orlando and Miami Lyric Opera. Solo roles that they have performed in include such operas as Carmen, The Magic Flute, La Traviata, La Serva Padrona and Die Fledermaus. 

Constitution Records was established by conductor and violinist David O. Hartman in 2017 to present in recordings as well as live performances, great classical vocal and instrumental works performed by young American artists of promise. 

The Game of Werewolf is a contemporary opera written by the Boston based composer and tenor, Timothy Ayers-Kerr. The story is based on the popular party came Werewolf and follows a town haunted by nightly werewolf attacks. The composer intended to challenge the “high-brow opera culture” with this work and has described it as “a mix of Gilbert and Sullivan meets Phantom of the Opera”. The Game of Werewolf won the Austin, Texas based One Ounce Opera competition in 2018. 

Constitution Records Opera Theatre is pleased to present a fully staged performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas themed opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, on Nov. 27 at 7:30 PM at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 5692 North Kendall Drive , Coral Gables.  The performance will include a number of Miami based professional singers including and introducing boy soprano Joshua Safont as Amahl; Mezzo-soprano, Sarah Tsai; Bass-baritone, Johan Hartman; Tenor, Dale Kitchen and Baritone, Lovell Rose. Additional Miami based performers with long standing musical ties to Constitution Records include Dr. Eugene Greco, Choirmaster and Organist at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, piano and countertenor Edgar Sanfelice- Chorusmaster. The choreographer for the extended dance sequence is Miami-Dade College Professor Michelle Grant-Murray. The performance will include the Constitution Records Opera Theatre Orchestra and Chorus.

The purpose of this performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors is to bring the joy and wonder of opera back to South Florida residents and to mark a kind of emergence from the gloom and paucity of live performance of the past year and a half. Amahl is a wonderful work on many levels and at its heart it is a story of a Mother’s love for her only son and the faith universally engendered by the birth of Jesus Christ.

An important element of this performance is that Bass-baritone Johan Hartman will bring his extensive performance background in the opera to serve as Stage Director.  He will also serve as vocal and dramatic coach for Josh Safont. Mr. Hartman impressed audiences and fellow performers with his talent when he sang the role of Amahl in Hartford, CT as an 11 and 12 year-old boy soprano in fully staged presentations with orchestra. Subsequently, and after a change of voice to a tenor, Mr. Hartman assumed the role of the Page. In later performances as a bass-baritone he also sang the role of Balthazar in performances at the New England Conservatory of Music where he obtained his undergraduate degree.