BREAKING NEWS!!! March 23-May 3, 2020 soprano (and WXXI Classical 91.5 announcer) Kearstin Piper Brown will sing the lead role of Esther in Ricky Ian Gordon's new opera Intimate Apparel in the upcoming Off-Broadway run at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. The opera, a co-production of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera is based on Lynn Nottage's play of the same name, as part of the Met/LCT New Works Program.
Set in turn of the century New York, Intimate Apparel tells the story of Esther, a lonely, single African-American woman who makes her living sewing beautiful corsets and ladies’ undergarments. Seeking love and romance, Esther embarks on a letter writing relationship with a mysterious suitor laboring on the Panama Canal, and comes to realize that only her self-reliance and certainty of her own worth will see her through life’s challenges.
Kearstin Piper Brown recently made her San Francisco Opera debut covering the role of Dame Shirley in the world premiere of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West. She has also appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Kazan, Utah Festival Opera, Skylight Music Theatre, and the Belarusian State Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
Intimate Apparel features music by Ricky Ian Gordon and a libretto by Lynn Nottage, based on her critically acclaimed play, which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for "Best Off-Broadway Play" after its 2004 premiere. This marks the first libretto written by the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. The Off-Broadway production is directed by Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher.
