Publisher's Fact Sheet

Here's the message the Publisher is sending out to the review community.

Opera by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson
Compared with Work by Alenier and Banfield


How does a current day artist begin, sustain, and complete an opera project?


The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas is an upcoming collection of essays, interviews, reviews, and a working libretto that explores the intersection between poetry and music that proceeds to contemporary opera — the most complex genre of the performing arts. The collaboration of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson as well as the more contemporary collaboration between poet Karren LaLonde Alenier and composer William Banfield are the context for this study in process.


This book is written in a style that anyone can read, and explains how a current day artist can begin, sustain, and complete an opera project. It answers many questions about creating an American opera: what resources are needed, who is involved or should be involved, what are the obstacles? It discusses commissions, collaborations, community, critics.


A chronology of events that led to the premiere of Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On by Alenier and Banfield provides an inside look at the historical development of one American opera. The book provides a road map for creative collaborators and performing arts educators as well as a current day history of American opera and Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s contribution to that art form. The book will also appeal to opera enthusiasts curious about the behind-the-scenes story of contemporary opera, aficionados of Gertrude Stein, and students of feminist studies.


Without pretension, the author reveals a learning process that included becoming a successful first-time librettist and critic. Included in the appendices of The Steiny Road to Operadom are the libretto of her opera, seven reviews of contemporary opera and music theater works, and a list of American opera and music theater recordings. For more detailed information, please visit:


http://alenier.blogspot.com


Preview copies, artwork and interviews are available to members of the working press upon request. Kindly contact the publisher with requests: news@unlimitedpublishing.com

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein