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Synopsis
Peggy and Jackson is about the visionary collector and art patron Peggy Guggenheim and the iconic painter Jackson Pollock, and how their relationship changed the course of modern art. In 1943, Peggy commissioned Jackson to create Mural, an enormous painting for the entrance of her building in New York City. It was a pivotal work for Pollock, as well as for the art world. When Guggenheim commissioned Mural, Pollock was beginning to challenge traditional notions of painting, experimenting with real and mythical imagery, dynamic gestures, and new techniques.
This one-act opera will explore these two very operatic characters and their unique patron/artist relationship, drawing inspiration not only from the dynamic between Peggy and Jackson, but also from the musicality, rhythm, and movement in Pollock’s work. Their spirited conversation, which takes place in the afterlife, will include how Peggy “freed” Jackson from working at her uncle’s museum; Jackson’s innovative painting techniques and what inspired them; and how the iconic Mural traveled from Peggy’s New York City home to Iowa, where it was almost destroyed in the great flood of 2008. The painting is now exhibited at the University of Iowa Art Museum, in the venue in which the opera will be performed.
OPERA America/Opera.ca Grants Awarded
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| GRANT NAME | YEAR | Opera Grants for Women Composers: Discovery Grants | 2023 |
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Title Information
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