November 2 at 8 pm: Center for Contemporary Opera is producing the first half of The News from Poems in a gently staged reading at The Cell Theater, 338 w. 23rd street. Sara Jobin, music director for CCO, is conducting; Laura Alley Dietrich is the stage director. The reading is part of National Opera Week. For tickets (it will sell out, buy ahead)  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/489486

A word about the opera:

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963):  modernist poet/dedicated physician to the largely unwashed.  Florence Williams: doctor’s wife and poet’s wife — an epic double whammy. Ezra Pound, mentor and friend to Williams, leader of the great migration of arts and letters to Europe in the early 1920’s.  Williams wants to grab poetry around the neck and fling it into the 20th century here, in America, the land his immigrant parents gave him.  Ezra wants Williams to move to Europe where art and poetry actually matter.  Floss wants to find a way to matter to her husband, to live with and stay with this mercurial, philandering, shy, passionate man.

Also, under the heading: Serendipity!, check out this blog, written by poet Daniel Nester and posted on the Best American Poetry site Oct. 25.

Principal singers for this reading are:
William Carlos Williams: Joshua Jeremiah, baritone
Florence (Flossie) Williams: Kara Cornell, mezzo
Ezra Pound: Aaron Theno, bass-baritone
Multi-role tenor: David Gordon

Plus an ensemble of 9. Peter Fancovic is the fantastic pianist. Yana Tiefbenkel, from Moscow, the administrative assistant and extra pair of hands on the keyboard.