October 15 and 16
Odes to Earth and Air
A new multimedia chamber opera by Sidney Boquiren and Daniel Neer
Workshop presentation
Adelphi University | Garden City, NY
Odes to Earth and Air
Composer: Sidney Boquiren
Librettist: Daniel Neer
Videographer and Director: Ted Gorodetzky
Singers: Abigail Fischer and Daniel Neer
Odes to Earth and Air is a multi-media chamber opera focusing on the tumultuous relationship of 19th century sculptor Camille Claudel and her brother, the author and diplomat Paul Claudel. Combining chamber opera (mezzo soprano and tenor) with film media, it presents an imagined dialogue between the iconic Claudel siblings, whose soulful and reflective diatribe on their lives are skillfully reflected in an accompanying narrative of film images. Odes to Earth and Air attempts to deconstruct the driving motivation of two powerful cultural and intellectual giants who helped catapult the Symbolist movement of art and literature in early 20th century Paris, and explores the factors of gender, religion, politics and family relations in their artistic endeavors and quest for personal fulfillment.
November 21
Messiah, Tenor Soloist
Westchester Oratorio Society with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra
Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco | Mount Kisco, NY
The Westchester Oratorio Society presents Handel's Messiah under the direction of Benjamin Niemczyk with Rebel Baroque Orchestra and soprano Nell Snaidas, mezzo soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, tenor Daniel Neer and bass Raymond Diaz. For more information, visit www.westchesteroratorio.org
December 2-12
Amahl and the Night Visitors, role of Kaspar
Bravo Productions
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
July 8
Playthings of the Gods
Music of Benjamin Britten and Darius Milhaud
Vertical Players Repertory
Christ Church Cobble Hill | Brooklyn, NY
  
Vertical Players Repertory presented Playthings of the Gods, a series of short summer amusements staged in the sanctuary of Christ Church Cobble Hill. The cantatas, canticles and choruses on love and hate between man and god features music by Benjamin Britten and Darius Milhaud, set to texts by T.S. Eliot, Euripides, Racine (tr. Robert Lowell), Shakespeare and The Book of Genesis. I am joining vocalists Judith Barnes, Phillip Cheah, Hayden DeWitt and Sungji Kim, and actors Bianca Amato and Paul Hecht, with music direction by Lloyd Arriola. Repertoire includes excerpts from Milhaud's opera Médée, and Britten's Canticle II (Abraham and Isaac), Canticle IV (Journey of the Magi) and dramatic cantata Phaedra.
May 1
Carmina Burana, Scenic Cantata for Orchestra, Chorus and Solists
The Akron Symphony
E.J. Thomas Hall | Akron, OH
May 1, 2010, 8pm | E.J. Thomas Hall, 198 Hill St., Akron, OH
Carl Orff’s masterful setting of 24 medieval poems will be presented on the campus of The University of Akron with Hugh Ferguson Floyd conducting. Soloists include Linsay Kesselman (soprano), Robert Frankenberry (tenor) and Daniel Neer (baritone). A pre-concert discussion begins at 7:00pm. For more information, visit Akron Symphony.
April 23 and 25
Stars Through a Telescope
A new musical by Lauren Epsenhart and Yui Kitamura
Multicultural Sonic Evolution (MuSE)
Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theater & Queens Botanical Garden | NYC
In November 2008, the JAMSS (Japan Manned Space System Corporation) sponsored The Hanadensetsu Project, in which school children sent flower seeds into space via the Space Shuttle. The seeds returned to Earth in July 2009.
 
The Hanadensetsu Project has inspired ‘The Legend of Flowers’, showcasing the premieres of four new short musicals which explore themes of flowers, space, history, science, family and art. Stars Through a Telescope explores the relationship between Galileo, who supports the theory of heleocentrisism of Copernicus, (compromising his relationship with the Catholic church) and his grown daughter Virginia, who has recently taken vows to become a nun.
March 11 – 20
Numinous City / The Drapchi Songs
A multimedia chamber opera by Pete Wyer
ROH2 Workshop Commission
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Linbury Studio Theatre | London, UK
Based on a true story, Numinous City / The Drapchi Songs follows the journey of Haren (a nun – played by Adey Grummet) and Ben (a monk – played by Daniel Neer) who have been arrested while attending a peaceful Tibetan demonstration. While imprisoned, they suffer the consequences of torture when a tape of their songs is smuggled out of the prison, reaching the hands of the Western media. Amid the backdrop of America’s justification and re-qualification of torture, a game of political chess determines who lives and who dies, as elements of the corporeal and spiritual world exist separately and meld together in one voice. Multitalented composer and writer Pete Wyer is joined by award-winning videographer Tobin Rothlein. This work-in-progress is a Royal Opera House development commission. To follow the progress of its development, please visit the Numinous City Blog for regular updates.
 
March 11
The 21c Salon Series – Art Song Forward: Unplugged
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation & The Phoenix Concerts
Galapagos Art Space | Brooklyn, NY
Martha Guth, Nicole Mitchell and Daniel Neer were joined by pianist Michael Fennelly, who presented songs by Stephen Dembski, Aaron Alon, Kris Becker, Chandler Carter, Ryan Thomas Gee, Daron Hagen, Jocelyn Hagen, Gilda Lyons, Russell Platt, Ned Rorem, Larry Alan Smith, Damien Top and Craig Urquhart. Curated and produced by Beth Morrison Projects.
February 28
Scenes from Strange Fruit
by composer Chandler Carter and librettist Joan Ross Sorkin
Bleecker Street Opera | NYC
The Opera Composers Forum lecture/concert sponsored by Bleecker Street Opera offers the exciting opportunity to hear new work as composers discuss their inspiration and motivation of works-in-progress. Chandler Carter and Joan Ross Sorkin’s Strange Fruit, which has received workshop readings at both Long Leaf Opera Festival and Harlem School of the Arts, is featured.
February 20
The Survival Show, by Steve Aprahamian
Five Words In A Line series
Theatre 80, St. Marks | NYC
World Premiere performance of composer Steve Aprahamian’s The Survival Show, set to text from a US Army Survival manual as well as Sanskrit poetry. Sponsored by the arts collective Five Words in A Line, The Survival Show is set as a 1940’s radio call-in show, this satirical music-theatre piece is scored for tenor, contrabass, percussion and assistant. Directed by Ted Gorodetzky.
  
February 11
Anaïs, an Opera in one act
Center for Contemporary Opera
The Cell Theatre | NYC
Cast: Daniel Neer and Charlotte Cohn
Music and Libretto by Susan Hundley
  
Inspired by the life and writings of the noted diarist Anaïs Nin, this opera is a psychological drama of obsessive love during the last minutes of life. Anaïs attempts to come to terms with her impending death in the presence of her lover and long-time companion, Rupert Pole. In what amounts to a test of his devotion, she seeks his understanding but also clearly enjoys shocking him as she revisits and reveals some of the strongest memories of her life — innumerable infidelities, incestuous relations and her violent rejection of motherhood. Rupert is unable to forgive Anaïs for these dark secrets before she struggles out of bed and then collapses, alone, to the floor. This production is sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Opera atelier series. For more information, visit The Cell Theatre and Center for Contemporary Opera.
November 22, 2009
Beethoven Mass in C Major, Opus 86
Westchester Oratorio Society
I will be tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, which has long been referred to as his underrated masterpiece, under the baton of Artistic Director Benjamin Niemczyk. For more information, visit: Westchester Oratorio Society.
October 23 and 23, 2009
The Secret Agent, Opera in two acts
Center for Contemporary Opera
The Cell Theatre | NYC
Based on the novel by Joseph Conrad, with music by Michael Dellaira and libretto by J.D. McClatchy, this first full reading is sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Opera atelier series. For more information, visit www.thecelltheatre.org and www.conopera.org.
October 12, 2009
Ellen Craft, a new American Opera
Blackboard Reading Series
The Cell Theatre | NYC
Conceived by Sherry Boone with co-creator Sean Jeremy Palmer, Ellen Craft is a new American opera based on one of the most fantastic slave escapes of all time. As the offspring of a white slave-owner and a black slave, Ellen Craft escapes to freedom by disguising herself as a white man while her darker-skinned lover William poses as “his” slave. For more information, visit www.sherryboone.com and also www.blackboardplays.com.
  
September 7, 2009 (Labor Day 2009)
James A. Dick Mighty Musical Monday Concert Series
The Historic Tennessee Theatre | Knoxville, Tennessee
Sit back, relax and enjoy a noon concert of 1930’s Operetta, Music Hall and Vaudeville hits with good friend Elizabeth Peterson in an exquisite national landmark – the historic Tennessee Theatre! Dr. Bill Snyder, the theatre’s house organist since 1979, will be accompanying on the Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. Bring your lunch from home, or grab some popcorn and soda from the lobby. Admission is free. For more information, visit: Tennessee Theatre
  
June 19 and 21, 2009
Mercury Falling, music by Chandler Carter, libretto by Daniel Neer
Workshop Premiere at Long Leaf Opera Festival
Stewart Theatre | Raleigh, NC
Long Leaf Opera will present fully-staged workshop performances of Mercury Falling on June 19, 2009 at 8 pm and June 21 at 2 pm at the Stewart Theatre in Raleigh, NC. Singer/librettist Daniel Neer will be joined by dancer Jake Szczypek under the direction of Ted Gorodetzky with choreography by Jody Oberfelder.
  
Mercury Falling, monodrama for tenor, solo dancer and chamber ensemble, is a fanciful interpretation of the last night in the life of Parisian sculptor Jean-Louis Brian (1805-1864). In the winter of early 1864, Brian attempted to protect his clay statue of Mercury in Repose from the bitter cold by covering it with his only blankets – and subsequently froze to death beside it. Mercury Falling depicts Brian’s feverish attempts to finish his sculpture for the impending Salon exhibition. As the temperature drops and he succumbs to hypothermic hallucinations, he is lured into a fantasy world in which the god Mercury comes to life. Incorporating themes of the artist’s struggle for meaning, recognition and even survival, Mercury Falling is a monologue that shifts between reality and an allegorical fantasy world. The vocalist portrays the artist through vignettes of music and text (both sung and spoken) in free-association. Accompanying him on stage is a dancer/model portraying the life-sized Mercury. The chamber ensemble alternately evokes the freezing, desperate climate of the artist’s studio and his increasingly grandiose expectations for his work of art.
For more information, visit: the Mercury Falling webpage
For ticket information, visit: Long Leaf Opera Festival
Join Mercury Falling on facebook
on broadway:
Baz Luhrmann’s critically acclaimed production of Puccini’s 'La Bohème', conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos, at The Broadway Theatre
| The National Theatre’s production of 'Coram Boy', by Helen Edmundson (after the book by Jamila Gavin), directed by Melly Still at The Imperial Theatre
legitimate stage:
'The Head of Mary' by Tanaka Chikao, for The Hiroshima Project | 'The Elephant' by Minor Betsuyaku, directed by Sonoko Kawahara, New York Theater Workshop | Robert Fagle’s translation of Homer’s 'The Iliad and The Odyssey' for Santa Fe’s Lensic Theatre, directed by Kathryn Walker | Diedre Murray and Sonoko Kawara’s reading of 'The Rose Project', Music Theatre Group at The Flea Theatre | 'Fangs' by Diedre Murray and Cornelius Eddy at The Apollo Theatre Salon Series | 'Untitled 10-minute Christmas Play' by Marina Barry, 'Kid Stuff' and 'Swinging Blindly' both by Ted Gorodetzky, for ToteM Gambol | 'Marvels' by Conrad & Elizabeth Bishop, 72nd Street Theatre Workshop
musical theater/operetta/opera:
'Mercury Falling' (librettist and performer), directed by Ted Gorodetzky, Long Leaf Opera Festival | 'Strange Fruit' at Harlem School for the Arts, in association with New York City Opera | Benvenuto Cellini in Kurt Weill’s 'The Firebrand of Florence' | Aeneas in 'Dido and Aeneas' | Tevye in 'Fiddler on the Roof' | Carl Linden in Noel Coward’s 'Bitter Sweet' | Danilo in Lehar’s 'The Merry Widow' | Kander and Ebb’s 'The World Goes ‘Round' | Monteverdi’s 'Il Combatimento di Tancredi e Clorinda' (Director and Testo) for Metropolis Ensemble | Figaro in Rossini’s 'Il Barbiere di Siviglia' | Lutz in 'The Student Prince' | Marcello and Schaunard in Puccini’s 'La Bohème' | Eisenstein in 'Die Fledermaus' | Dancairo in 'Carmen' | King Hildabrand in 'Princess Ida' | Testaccio in 'A Night in Venice' | Silvio in 'Pagliacci' | Pimprinette in 'The Bayadere' | Bumerli in 'The Chocolate Soldier' | Prince Basil in 'The Count of Luxembourg' | Robert in 'The New Moon' | Sergeant Meryll in 'The Yeomen of the Guard' | Don Medigua in Sousa’s 'El Capitan' | Peppi in 'Song of Norway' | Sid in 'Albert Herring' | Page in 'Merry Wives of Windsor' | Paul Fontaine in 'The Desert Song' | Julian in 'La Verbena de la Paloma' | Bartley in 'Riders to the Sea' | Ludwig in 'The Grand Duke' | Thespis in 'Thespis' (Gilbert, Sullivan and Quade Winter) | Olson in 'Too Many Sopranos' by Edwin Penhorwood
concert hall:
Mozart 'Coronation Mass' at Carnegie Hall with New York Chamber Ensemble | Haydn 'Lord Nelson Mass' at Carnegie Hall | Benjamin Britten’s 'Serenade for Tenor and Horn', Inaugural Concert of the Metropolis Ensemble | 'Mozart Requiem', Riverside Symphonia | Mozart 'Missa Brevis' and 'Regina Coeli', Alice Tully Hall | 'Song of the Whale' by John Cage, the “When Morty Met John…” Festival | Handel 'Messiah', Gotham City Baroque Orchestra | Bach 'Mass in B Minor', Gotham City Baroque Orchestra | Haydn 'Missa St. Bernardi von Offida', Rebel Baroque Orchestra | Mozart 'Great Mass in C Minor', Rebel Baroque Orchestra | Bach 'St. John Passion', Gotham City Baroque Orchestra | Handel 'Messiah' with Charlotte Symphony | 'Duruflé Requiem' with Windsor Symphony Orchestra | 'Historia di Job' by Carissimi at Aspen Music Festival | Hayden 'Heiligmesse' at Berkshire Choral Festival | 'Italienisches Liederbuch' by Hugo Wolf, Royal Academy of Music | 'Charm Me Asleep' by Daniel Pinkham at Aspen Music Festival | 'Psyche' by Manuel de Falla, Aspen Music Festival | Soloist with 'VOX Vocal Ensemble' conducted by George Steel at The Guggenheim
new music:
'Mercury Falling' (librettist and performer), composed by Chandler Carter, Long Leaf Opera Festival | Stephen Schwartz’s new opera 'Séance on a Wet Afternoon' at American Opera Projects | 'The Kallyope Yell' by Jonathan David, C4 | John Zorn’s 'Hermeticum Sacrum' at Miller Theatre | 'Senbazuru' by Pete Wyer in Juilliard’s Peter J. Sharp Theatre | 'Heebie Jeebies' by Laura Karpman in Alice Tully Hall | 'Songs of Bygone Days' by Stephen Danker, at Aspen Music Festival | Douglas Cuomo’s 'Arjuna’s Dilemma' for Vox on the Edge at The Skirball Center | The Kitchen’s workshop production of 'Shangri-La', with music by Susie Ibarra and libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa, conducted by Tania León | Joseph Diebes 'Strange Birds' first at Gale Gates et al. in DUMBO, then at The Tramway in Glasgow | 'The Walled-Up Wife' by Gilda Lyons for American Opera Projects | 'The Golden Gate' by Conrad Cummings at American Opera Projects | 'Reflections of the Watermoon' by Patricia Burgess, Merkin Concert Hall | 'Cymbeline' by Chris Berg, Greenwich House Music School | 'The Iliad/The Odyssey' by Diedre Murray, Santa Fe’s Lensic Theatre
jazz/cabaret:
'Vaudeville Hits' with Bill Snyder and The Mighty Wurlitzer, Knoxville's Historic Tennessee Theatre | Frontman of the original 'Jazz Fauré Project', Triad Theater, and Detour jazz club NYC | Art Institute of Chicago Summer Garden Series in McKinlock Court | 'The Age of Elegance', SoHo Grand Hotel | 'Six Monologues of a Young Man' in Dublin, Ohio
tv/radio/discography:
2004 American Theatre Wing Tony Awards, Radio City Music Hall | 'Everything Old is New Again – The Name Game' WBAI-FM | 'The Chocolate Soldier', 'The Arcadians', 'The Bayadere', 'A Night in Venice' for Newport Classic Records | 'La Verbena de la Paloma' for Albany Records | Baz Luhrmann’s production of Puccini’s 'La Bohème' for Dreamworks Records
“…it is Daniel Neer as Prince Basil who steals the show whenever he comes on. Usually on the verge of near hysteria about being in love, Neer has a whole trunkful of perfectly timed gestures and expressions, accompanied by a wide-ranging voice that keeps the audience in stitches.”
- The Alliance Review
“..the outstanding Daniel Neer commanded high praise, his strong, distinctive baritone comfortably combining with graceful, inventive acting and comic timing...”
- Opera News
“Rarely have I seen such an “over-the-top” performance as that of Daniel Neer as Thespis. The man was absolutely manic with energy; chewing the scenery, clawing the air, all stops out. It was a stunning performance that amazed all, exhausting with laughter.”
- Opera Magazine
“Daniel Neer creates a flamboyant character prone to overdoing every inflection, something of a cross between Dom DeLuise and Steve Martin.”
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Dominating the stage with a flick of a raised eye-brow or a supercilious sneer, the mulit-talented Daniel Neer made the wily Smith/Simplicitas into a comic masterpiece…he was also impressive with his healthy, bright baritone.”
- Opera Magazine
“Daniel Neer here shows formidable gifts as a comic. His performance almost goes over the top, blending bits of Frank Morgan and Rip Taylor with Nathan Lane – style antics, but he is a high energy delight.”
- The Clevaland Plain Dealer
“Daniel Neer, singing a blustery Cellini, easily caught the artist’s pride in his art and, with a fine touch of comedy, Cellini’s self importance. For the serious, romantic side of the character, Neer warmed up his bright, strong baritone with telling effect.”
- The American Record Guide
“Daniel Neer, who plays the prissy and pompous valet to the prince, only gets better as the night moves along…a virtuoso high-camp performance.”
- Akron Beacon Journal
“Daniel Neer plays Carl Linden with matinee-idol authority. Neer’s baritone is free and open, superbly suited to the music’s romance.”
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“As the warrior smitten with chocolate, Daniel Neer drop quips with delightful nonchalance and fulfills the music’s rich demands. His light touch at key moments helps keep the proceedings on their exuberant forward course.”
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Daniel Neer stole the show with a boldly sung Lt. Bumerli, as charming and heroic a chocolate soldier as one could wish.”
- Opera Magazine
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