Letter From Italy 1944 Premieres at Middletown Center for Performing Arts

The Greater Middletown Chorale is delighted to welcome soprano Patricia Schuman and tenor Jack Anthony Pott, operatic soloists, in its premiere of The performance of this new dramatic oratorio will take place at Middletown High School’s Performing Arts Center at the Middletown High School in Middletown, CT on April 28th, 2013, at 4:00 p.m.

Schuman has been a leading soprano specializing in the Mozart repertoire on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses.  She has sung Vitellia, Countess Almaviva, Ilia and Donna Elvira at venues ranging from the Salzburg Festival to the Metropolitan Opera House. 

She has concertized with several  symphonies, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw among them.  Ms. Schuman can be heard on various recordings such as Handel’s Messiah (Koch) and Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach (Nonesuch) and seen on DVD in the title role of L’incoronzione di Poppea by Monteverdi.  Busy on the recital stage, Ms. Schuman has appeared in a series of recitals at Yale University, Wesleyan University, University of Connecticut and other recital series in the New England Area.

Mr. Pott, no stranger to the GMC, has been a featured soloist with many ensembles in Connecticut.  Both an accomplished choral conductor and singer, he has performed a variety of operatic roles with Connecticut Concert Opera, CONCORA, UConn Opera and the Asylum Hill Music Series in Hartford.  Well-versed in both secular and sacred music, he has performed in numerous performances of Handel’s Messiah, as well as Bach’s Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion,  and Magnificat.  Mr. Pott is a member of the voice faculty at Central Connecticut State University, The Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, and also for the Hartt Community Division at the University of Hartford.

On preparing for the role of Dr. John Meneely, Mr. Pott stated:  “I was fortunate to have Sarah and Nancy Meneely, descendants of the man.  They gave me access to wartime letters and albums and answered my questions openly. The goal now was to take what I knew about him and formulate a character who would also be representative of the other soldiers like him: those who came home from the war, but who continued to fight the battle.”

Two such accomplished singers lend gravitas to the roles of the married couple in the oratorio, Delia and John Meneely.   Dr. Meneely, a Yale-educated medical doctor, served as a medic in the 10th Mountain Division in the Aleutians and Italy during World War II.  He returned home to raise a family and practice medicine, but his own internal struggles with Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome were formidable. 

Dr. Meneely’s and the family’s universal story was composed in the form of a dramatic oratorio by Sarah Meneely-Kyder, a Grammy-nominated composer from Old Lyme and a teacher at Wesleyan University.  Her sister, poet Nancy Fitzhugh Meneely, served as the lyricist.  GMC Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio and Dramatic Director Dr. Sheila Garvey help immensely in realizing the vision and staging for the premiere.

The Greater Middletown Chorale is a private, non-profit organization providing great music for the people of Connecticut. It is funded with the support of the State of Connecticut, Department of Economic and Community Development’s Connecticut Office of the Arts, Middletown Commission on the Arts, Aetna Foundation, Chevron Humankind Grants and Pfizer Foundation.