Black Horses, The Medium & Johnny Schicchi by Dutka, Menotti, Puccini, Van (2017/2017), Geregisseerd door Theresa Seri, Dirigent Isaac Dae Young, Venice Island Performing Arts & Recreation Center, Philadelphia, Verenigde Staten

Black Horses, a new opera by area composer Misha Dutka, is about a team of horses preparing to pull a princess's carriage. The horses reflect that they once lead a pampered life in a princess's stable, until the new motorcars came into fashion with the wealthy, and they were sold to a cargo company. A jarring realization hits them when they meet their former employer in an unexpected way. The Medium is set in the 1930s, where Babba runs a successful séance scam with her daughter and a stray mute boy. Her reluctant partners are the performers of parlor tricks that keep the customers coming back. But Babba crosses a line - in her conscience? in her psyche? - and soon it is impossible for the woman to tell where the trick ends and the real supernatural begins. In "Johnny" Schicchi, money-grubbing relatives gather at the bedside of their "dearly departed" uncle in South Philly, eager to learn what he's left them in his will. But the bum left them nothing! All is lost! Unless.... Enter Johnny Schicchi, a crafty neighbor. He has a fool-proof plan.... Except, this is a family of fools!