Purchase Opera World Premiere of CONFESSION April 23, 2009

To celebrate its tenth anniversary season, Purchase Opera created its first world premiere opera “Confession,” a one-act opera to complement the revival of the productions of “Gianni Schicchi” and “Suor Angelica” which were performed when Purchase Opera presented its first season.
“After an exhaustive search for an appropriate opera, nothing suitable was found to complement the two Puccini favorites,” said Jacque Trussel, Director of the Purchase Opera. It occurred to Trussel that he had always wondered what was the behind the story of how the Suor Angelica came to be a nun.
Within days he had concocted the story for what was to become the prequel to “Suor Angelica.” A young Frenchman Raphael Lucas, who was studying composition, impressed Trussel and Hugh Murphy, conductor of the Purchase Opera and asked him about composing a scene from the opera. The two men worked with Raphael on text scan, dramatic intention, musical timings, textural accents, etc. and the music grew from promising to stunning.

Purchase Opera is directed by Jacque Trussel, an internationally renowned tenor who has performed leading roles with more than 50 opera companies throughout the world including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and l’Opéra de la Bastille in Paris. His solo recording of scenes and arias entitled Sounds and Sweet Airs was nominated for a Grammy Award. As a director he has staged more than a dozen new productions in the U.S., and made his directorial debut in Europe with a much-heralded new production of Strauss’ Salome. At Purchase College, he has directed twelve productions including The Marriage of Figaro, The Merry Widow and Don Giovanni, as well as the award-winning productions.

Hugh Murphy has been coaching professional singers for over 20 years, preparing them to record and perform with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. He made his New York City conducting debut in 1995, and has conducted numerous regional opera companies. He currently holds the position of music director and conductor with two New York City ensembles, Opera Semplice, which presents young professional singers in performances of standard operatic repertoire, and Apollo's Banquet, an ensemble presenting concerts of notated 18th-century court and theater dances to consistently high critical acclaim. He was the conductor of all four Purchase Opera award-winning productions.