At last… the first full recording of ROMULUS HUNT!
Nashville Opera releases Carly Simon’s only opera, ROMULUS HUNT, on June 23 as an 80th birthday present to its composer.
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Kennedy Center in 1993, ROMULUS HUNT is a semi-autobiographical opera by pop singer Carly Simon, in which the 12-year-old hero Romulus is faced with the choice between two divorced parents (Simon notes her own son was caught in the same bind), but through the “magic realism” intercession of a dreadlocked Rastafarian called Zoogy (invisible to all but Romulus), manages to set things right.
After the December 2014 presentation of the work, John, Maestro Dean Williamson, the Nashville Opera Orchestra, and the cast entered Ocean Way Studios to preserve ROMULUS forever. And while it’s taken a number of years, the time is right to share it with you.
Ms. Simon considers ROMULUS one of her best compositions and worked with John Hoomes to revise sections of the opera, including some minor musical revisions, and substantial staging and directorial revisions, for this production. From the opera’s original production, Ms Simon recorded excerpts of the opera in 1993 for commercial release, but the complete opera has never been released on CD, until now.
Ms. Simon's one-act dramatic opera is a tale of divorce and joint child custody. ROMULUS HUNT is 75 minutes long, sung in English, and utilizes 5 singers (4 adults and 1 male child) and 11 players in the orchestra (conducted by Nashville Opera’s Music Director, Maestro Dean Williamson).
We’re proud to team up with Emitha Records and the Lexicon Classics label to finally share this touching, funky, brilliant work with the world.
TRACK LIST
1. Prelude
2/3. Looser Arms/Valentine
4. A Boy of Twelve
5/6. The Spell/Man with Wings
6. My Dance is a Tango
7/8. Voulez-Vous Danser/Fond of the Blondes
9. It’s My Downfall
10. Hello, Lovely Lady/Looser Arms/Incantation
11. The Fight
12. Am I Still Young
14/15. It’s Such a Glorious Day/Seduction
16. Romulus Hunt
17. I’m Sorry
18. It Almost Happens On Its Own
19/20. Eddie’s Soliloquy/Voulez-Vous Danser
THE CAST
Nashville Opera Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Dean Williamson
Gus O’Brien - Romulus
Matthew Treviño - Eddie
Victor Robertson - Zoogy
Susannah Biller - Mica
Adriana Zabala - Joanna
LC2306 - 6/23/2023
© ℗ 2023 Lexicon Classics
Executive Producer: John Hoomes
Producers: Dean Williamson & Pat McMakin
Mixing Engineers: Pat McMakin & Dean Williamson
Mastering: Luke Gilfeather