21C Unruly Sun

A dramatic song cycle composed by Matthew Ricketts, with libretto by Mark Campbell, starring tenor Karim Sulayman. Unruly Sun is inspired by the life of filmmaker and queer activist Derek Jarman and his popular memoir, Modern Nature. Across 18 songs, the work celebrates Jarman as an artist and a person living with AIDS – and his efforts to create a garden at Prospect Cottage, a fisherman’s cabin on the unforgiving southern coast of England. This world premiere project is a co-commission with the 21C Music Festival, L’Orchestre classique de Montréal, and Brott Opera (Hamilton).

New York City-based Canadian composer Matthew Ricketts, a 2020 Gaudeamus Finalist and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, is noted for his “effervescent and at times prickly sounds … hypnotically churning exploration of melody” (ICareIfYouListen) as well as “tart harmonies and perky sputterings” (The New York Times). His music, which moves from extremes of presence and absence, from clamor to quietude, at once reticent and flamboyant, has been called “lyrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced” (The American Academy of Arts and Letters).

A native of Chicago, Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention for his sensitive and intelligent musicianship, riveting stage presence, and beautiful voice. Named Critic’s Choice by Opera News, and praised for his “lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma” by BBC Music magazine, he won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His second solo album, Where Only Stars Can Hear Us, of Schubert Lieder with fortepianist Yi-heng Yang, was released on AVIE in March 2020, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart, and has received widespread critical acclaim, including on The New York Times’ Best Classical Music of 2020.

A prolific writer, librettist Mark Campbell has created 40 opera librettos, lyrics for seven musicals, and the text for seven song cycles and four oratorios. Mark’s best-known work is Silent Night, which received a Pulitzer Prize in Music and, along with his opera As One, is one of the most frequently produced operas in recent history. The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, an audience favorite, received a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. He has received many other prestigious prizes for his work, including the first Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricist, three Grammy nominations for Best Classical Recording, two Richard Rodgers Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, three Drama Desk nominations, and a grant from the New York State Council of the Arts, among others.

Presented in association with Pride Toronto.

Matthew Ricketts, music

Mark Campbell, libretto

Karim Sulayman, tenor

Michel-Alexandre Broekaert, music director & piano

Michel-Maxime Legault, stage director

Anne-Catherine Simard-Deraspe, lighting designer

String Quintet from the Brott Music Festival

Mark Skazinetsky, violin

Sharon Lee, violin

Caitlin Boyle, viola

Dobrochna Zubek, cello

Blake Martin, bass

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