``One of the most distinctive American opera composers'' - The Washington Post (Jan. 1998)
With Faust, Henry Mollicone returns to conduct his ninth West Bay Opera production. His recent appearances here have included The Tales of Hoffmann, Madama Butterfly, The Consul, Don Pasquale, Tosca, and La Cenerentola. Mr. Mollicone has also guest-conducted with many other opera companies, including Texas Opera Theater, Long Beach Opera, Opera San José, and those in Baltimore, Portland, Augusta, Lake George, and Central City.
In addition to his active career as a symphonic and opera conductor, Mr. Mollicone is an internationally recognized composer, with two full-length operas to his credit. His three-act opera Hotel Eden was first performed at Opera San José in 1989, and went on to succesful productions in New York and elsewhere. His two-act opera Coyote Tales (with libretto by Sheldon Harnick), commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, had its premiere there in 1998, and a second production last season at the Oberlin Conservatory, with Mr. Mollicone conducting. (The CD is available on the Newport Classic label, and it was published by ECS Publishing in 1999) His one-act operas, Emperor Norton, The Face on the Barroom Floor (both of which have been produced by West Bay Opera under his baton), Starbird, and The Mask of Evil, have been performed extensively. The Face on the Barroom Floor received an American Composers' Recording Award. It is one of America's most often performed contemporary operas, being given annually at both the Central City Opera Festival (where it was commissioned) and the Utah Festival Opera. It has also been produced in Edinburgh, the Netherlands, and in Germany.
In addition to his operas, Mr. Mollicone has written works for voice, chorus, ballet, and various chamber combinations, as well as music for film and television. His orchestral works include Celestial Dance (commissioned by the Long Beach Symphony), Inner Light (composed for the Eastman School Orchestra), the overture Kathy's White Knight (commissioned by the Santa Cruz Symphony and the Fremont Symphony), and A Rat's Tale: The Pied Piper Revisited, in collaboration with the playwright William Luce, premiered by Charles Nelson Reilly. His Dansa Trimbula, a work for saxophone and accordion soli with string orchestra, was commisioned and premiered by the San José Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Barbara Day Turner. His works have been performed by many distinguished artists, including JoAnn Falletta, Frederica von Stade, and Erie Mills.
A former student of Donald Martino, Gunther Schuller, Seymour Shifrin, Daniel Pinkham, and Ron Nelson, Mr. Mollicone has recently completed a song cycle for tenor Jerry Hadley, and is planning a new opera with Tony-award-winning playwright William Luce. In 1976 he was a musical assistant to Leonard Bernstein for the show 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and from 1971 to 1976 was an assistant conductor at the New York City Opera. Mr. Mollicone has been a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow since 1997, and has served on various panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the associate director of the Ernest Bloch Festival in Newport, Oregon and director of its composers' symposium, and in the summer of 1999 he was composer-in-residence at the Brevard Music Festival. He has also received awards and grants from Opera America, the National Institute of Music Theater, the Presser Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
21 Sep. 2001