Séance on a Wet Afternoon is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in 2 acts by Stephen Schwartz

Stephen Schwartz (composer)

Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...

 to a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by the composer, based on the novel by Mark McShane and the screenplay by Bryan Forbes

Bryan Forbes

Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...

 to the 1964 film of the same name

Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a 1964 British film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by Mark McShane in which an unstable medium convinces her husband to kidnap a child so she can help the police solve the crime and collect the ransom...

. The work, Schwartz's first opera after a string of Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musicals (Godspell

Godspell

Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since, including a 2011 revival now playing on Broadway...

, Pippin

Pippin (musical)

Pippin is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto...

, Wicked

Wicked (musical)

Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...

), premiered on 26 September 2009 at the Granada Theatre of Opera Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...

 which commissioned

Commission (art)

In art, a commission is the hiring and payment for the creation of a piece, often on behalf of another.In classical music, ensembles often commission pieces from composers, where the ensemble secures the composer's payment from private or public organizations or donors.- Commissions for public art...

 the work. The work lasts for about 2 hours 50 minutes.

Performances

The work received its New York debut at the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

 in April 2011, this time with an additional aria for the character of Myra in act 2. It is scheduled for an Australian premiere in 2012 at Opera Queensland

Opera Queensland

Opera Queensland is an opera company based in Brisbane, Queensland. The company was founded with funding from the Queensland State Government in 1981, then under the name Lyric Opera of Queensland, after the Queensland Opera Company was closed in December 1980.It is after Opera Australia the second...

. Both companies were co-producers of the Santa Barbara staging.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast, 26 September 2009 Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Valéry Ryvkin
Myra Foster	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Lauren Flanigan Lauren Flanigan Lauren Flanigan is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She has enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every year since 1990...
Bill Foster	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Kim Josephson
Arthur Foster, their son		Aaron Refvem Aaron Refvem Aaron Refvem is an American actor. He took over the role of Morgan Corinthos in General Hospital on May 12, 2009. He also appeared on Grey's Anatomy as Jackson Prescott, Two and a Half Men as Chuck in 2008, and in The Cleaner as a Young Brian...
Mrs Clayton	soprano	Hila Plitmann Hila Plitmann Hila Plitmann is an operatic soprano specializing in the performance of new works. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, composer Eric Whitacre, and their son.- Career :...
Mr Clayton	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	John Kimberling
Adriana Clayton, their daughter		Kelsey Lee Smith
Inspector Watts	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Craig Hart
Mrs Wintry	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Jane Shaulis
Miss Rose	soprano	Caroline Worra
Mr Bennett /Irish Tenor	tenor	Michael Marcotte
Mr Cole	tenor	Benjamin Brecher
Policeman	tenor	Bray Wilkins
Chorus (Reporters)
Director		Scott Schwartz
Scenic design Scenic design Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A... er		Heidi Ettinger
Lighting designer Lighting designer The role of the lighting designer within theatre is to work with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create an overall 'look' for the show in response to the text, while keeping in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost...		David Lander
Costume designer Costume Designer A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...		Alejo Vietti
Orchestrator Orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...		William D. Brohn William David Brohn William David Brohn is an American arranger and orchestrator, best known for his theatre scores of musicals such as Miss Saigon, Ragtime and Wicked... /Stephen Schwartz
Copyist Copyist A copyist is a person who makes written copies. In ancient times, a scrivener was also called a calligraphus . The term's modern use is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript.-Music...		Nathan Kelly Nathan Kelly Nathan Kelly is an American composer in Los Angeles, best known for working as an orchestrator for Broadway productions such as Gypsy, Curtains, The Tony Awards, and Séance on a Wet Afternoon. His work has been eclectic, orchestrating many different styles of music... , Don Oliver
Choreographer Choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...		Matt Williams
Executive producer Executive producer An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...		Michael Jackowitz

External links

• The operas home page
• "Séance on a Wet Afternoon – Stephen Schwartz's First Opera"
• Séance on a Wet Afternoon review by Bob Verini, Variety
  Variety (magazine)
  Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
  
  (26 September 2009)
• "Opera review: Séance on a Wet Afternoon at Opera Santa Barbara" by Josef Woodard, Los Angeles Times
  Los Angeles Times
  The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
  
  (27 September 2009)