Lohengrin at Nuremberg : a play reading
Date
6:30 PM | Program
7:30 PM | Dinner
Location
Sponsors
Admission
Eventbrite RSVP required
Program is FREE to attend
About the Event
Salmagundi members are invited to join The Coffee House Club for a play reading, featuring author Stephen Kennedy Murphy and actor Jenne Vath as Maria Zhorella Fedorova. As always, the conversation and conviviality will continue over dinner after the program.
Maria Zhorella Fedorova was a leading Austrian-born lyric soprano at the Vienna State Opera in the 1940s as well as a political activist, vigorously opposing Nazism in Europe during World War II. Then, for three decades, she was a singing instructor in New York City. Her students have included Coffee House members Stephen Kennedy Murphy and Steve Ross.
“To study voice with Maria was to be entrusted with her memories of being a prisoner of the Nazis in WWII, which she shared with me as she set out to make me into a singer of Wagner,” Mr. Murphy says.
A remarkable survivor who lived for much of the twentieth century, Madame Zhorella remained active until a few weeks before her death on April 21, 2017, at the age of 101.
Check out this New York Times profile of Maria Zhorella Fedorova.
About the Speakers
Stephen Kennedy Murphy is a stage director of theatre and opera. Murphy founded the Eugene O’Neill Festival in New York City. Festival highlights have included appearances by Liam Neeson and Al Pacino. In the Festival, he staged dozens of performances including the first productions of two O’Neill plays, Bread and Butter and The Personal Equation (with Ralph Waite). He is also a director of opera, a career begun with a production of Madama Butterfly at Los Angeles Opera starring tenor Placido Domingo. He is a former member of the directing staff of New York City Opera. He trained with Frank Corsaro at The Actors Studio and The Juilliard School, where he has staged performances at Alice Tully Hall, including his adaptation of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale.
Jenne Vath has been involved with New York Theatre: La MaMa ETC, Red Bull Theater, Theater for the New City, Ridiculous Theatrical Company, The Living Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Metropolitan Playhouse, Regeneration Theatre, Days of the Giants. Most recently played Jane Jacobs in an excerpt from Peculiar Works Project’s Manahatta in celebraton of PWP’s 30 year Anniversary. Previous Acker and NYIT Award Nominee. Member of the performance group The Experimentals created by Director George Ferencz and in residence at La MaMa. Vath is honored to be a part of this evening celebrating Maria Zhorella Fedorova.
Hungry?
Ticketed guests are welcome to stay for dinner by indicating so in their Eventbrite RSVP.
There will be an a la carte menu to choose from. You can pay for your meal with a card or your membership account (no cash).