Arts & Events

AROUND AND ABOUT OPERA: Lisa Scola Prosek's New Opera 'Daughter of the Red Tsar' Featuring John Duykers as Winston Churchill

By Ken Bullock
Friday August 31, 2012 - 11:05:00 AM

Bay Area opera composer Lisa Scola Prosek has written the music and libretti for some of the most creative, melodic works in the genre staged hereabouts over the past decade or so. Her new—and typically ambitious—piece is an 80 minute one act, 'Daughter of the Red Tsar,' about Churchill's flight to Moscow in 1942 to meet Stalin, their all-night drinking bout getting to know each other, and the plight of Stalin's daughter Svetlana and her doomed Jewish intellectual boyfriend. 

Featuring John Duykers as Churchill, stage direction by Melissa Weaver, conducted by Martha Stoddard, it opened last weekend and plays tonight (Friday) through Sunday at 8 p. m. at Thick House, 1695-18th Street (near Connecticut) on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. $30. (415) 246-4829; firstlooksonoma.com