By Joey Bargsten, Composer and Director of multimedia opera MelanchoLalaland™

I’ve just completed recording Katharine Goeldner singing the soundtrack for my film-Intermezzo “Casual (Sex) Friday”.

Katharine has established an international reputation as one of today’s finest mezzo-sopranos. She has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Savonlinna Festival, Welsh National Opera, Minnesota Opera, and with the opera houses of Madrid, Salzburg, Oviedo, Toulouse, Lyon, Paris, Dallas, Antwerp, Bilbao, Seville and Dresden. Upcoming performances include Herodias in Salome with Virginia Opera, Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Oxford (UK) Philomusica, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.

Katharine studied at The University of Iowa, where I taught her Freshman Music Theory class—a friendship which led to her collaboration with me on MelanchoLalaLand™. On the process of recording the Intermezzo, she says:

“This collaboration came about through the randomness of FaceBook, where I was able to re-connect with my Freshman theory professor. It’s been good to work together again – or actually, I think this is the first time I’ve performed one of (his) pieces. . . I have worked with living composers before and it’s interesting to learn each others languages – I have to learn the musical language of the particular composer and he or she has to become familiar with the individual characteristics of my voice. It’s exciting to be part of the creative process.”

My Intermezzo will be presented as a short film between the two acts of the (live) multimedia opera. With a stirring libretto by MelanchoLalaland™’s producer, Thea Zimmer, the piece is told through the internal monologue of a survivor of an office shooting. To evade the shooter, she hides in a cramped supply closet and tries to piece together the events of the shooting and the killer’s identity.

Katharine’s participation in MelanchoLaland™ was made possible in part through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and by the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters Advisory Board of Florida Atlantic University.