Judgment of Midas

 

 JUDGMENT OF MIDAS  Music by Kamran Ince
Libretto by Miriam Seidel Present Music is thrilled to collaborate with Milwaukee Opera Theatre to perform a World Premiere Opera by Turkish-American composer, Kamran Ince. In the ruins of ancient Sardis, two modern lovers fall into the past and a grand mythical music contest. They learn to hear each other anew through Pan versus Apollo, wild versus reason, woman versus man. Judgment of Midas takes as its starting point a series of mythical musical contests said to have taken place on Mount Tmolus, in Turkey, between the two gods Pan and Apollo and witnessed by King Midas. The singing contest is between Pan, maker of the people’s music, and Apollo, maker of the Gods’ music. The opera’s musical language will utilize popular, ethnic, and folk musical styles with music of epic proportions, effecting a vivid blaze of musical contrast. Judgment of Midas was commissioned in part by the late Dr. Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr. to mark the 50th anniversary of Sardis excavations which revealed a series of mosaics featuring the mythical contest. Performers will include 24 instrumentalists, six soloists and an 8-member choir.