Preview by Anchorage Daily News
Opera eyes turn to Anchorage for premiere of ‘Mrs. President’
“Victoria Woodhull, the subject of “Mrs. President,” looms large in American history. The Wall Street tycoon and progressive publisher was the first woman to run for president of the United States – well before the Constitution allowed women to vote.” Read full article.
Review by Alaska Dispatch News
Opera About First Woman To Run For President Debuts in Anchorage
“The music, while modern, is not at all abrasive and, in fact, finds room for agreeable melodic gestures. The plot, drawn from a fascinating episode of American history, raises socio-political issues that remain resonant. The principal singers are all superb.” Read full article.
Review by New York Times
Different Players, but the Same Election Year Drama
“Obscure historical characters often yield good opera subjects, and in that regard the composer and conductor Victoria Bond has struck gold in the story of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for the American presidency, in 1872. Her opera about Woodhull, “Mrs. President,” in the works for more than a decade, will have its first performance with full orchestra and chorus (but in a concert reading) in October at the Anchorage Opera. Ms. Bond presented a preview, with piano accompaniment and without dramatically important choral passages, at Symphony Space on Monday evening.” Read full article.
Mrs. President, an Opera by Victoria Bond
“The premiere of Victoria Bond’s Mrs President, in a semi-staged production by Anchorage Opera at the Discovery Theatre (October 5 and 7), was greeted with decidedly more enthusiasm than last year’s dull concert reading of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath.” Read full article.
Mrs. President, an opera by Victoria Bond and Hilary Bell
“At Guild Hall we heard the world premiere of Mrs. President, an opera about Victoria Woodhull by Victoria Bond, with a libretto by Hilary Bell. It was a feature of the “Festival of Women’s Voices” series at Guild Hall.” Read full article.
Mrs. President Goes To New York (A Review of The Preview)
“Mrs. President, the fully-staged opera, is bound to be an American opera classic.”
Read full article.
On The New York Preview of Mrs. President
“Composer-conductor Victoria Bond had some time to talk to me via Skype about, among other great things in her music history as both a composer and performer.”
Read full article.
PRESS RELEASE:
Anchorage Opera performs world premiere of Mrs. President, the opera, in October 2012
In 19th century America, women didn’t have the right to vote, much less run for president. But in 1872, Victoria Woodhull did just that, and, much more recently, has inspired an opera based on her life. [Download Press Release.]
Interview with Victoria Bond on Classical Classroom:
Victoria Bond Talks About Victoria Woodhull:
Museum Celebrates the Women of Wall Street
“These past two years have not been kind to the women on Wall Street. Of course, they have not been very kind to anyone. But women executives, a minority in this male-dominated world, have suffered some especially high-profile setbacks.” Read full article.
The X Factor
“If the Presidential election were held today, Hillary Clinton would deliver her acceptance speech sometime before midnight tonight. Last week, a Times/CBS News poll found that a whopping eighty-two per cent of Democrats picked Clinton over both Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. Last month, a Quinnipiac poll reported that registered voters in Ohio chose Clinton over six possible Republican candidates: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich. “If the election were tomorrow,” John McCain said, “Hillary Clinton would most likely be the President.”” Read full article.