'Cooperstown' Opera to Debut in Museum as Part of Game Weekend Festivities

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(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – "Cooperstown" is headed home.

A jazz opera set in current-day baseball about an up-and-coming pitcher struggling with fame, fortune and love, "Cooperstown" will make its world premiere on Saturday, May 19 at 8 p.m. in the Hall of Fame's Grandstand Theater.

Tickets are $10 and must be reserved in advance by calling 607-547-0397. Cooperstown resident Sasha Matson composed the score, and Matson, along with Mark Miller, wrote the libretto. Utilizing an on-stage jazz quintet and a cast of five principal vocalists, "Cooperstown" explores, with the tools of opera, musical theater and jazz, professional baseball's inherent dramatic range and power. The show's characters enact the uniquely American yearning for accomplishment and esteem, wealth and fame, true love and an enduring legacy.

Matson, a lecturer at the State University of New York, College at Oneonta, has composed extensively for the motion picture industry, producing the music scores for a dozen dramatic feature films, in addition to performing and recording concert works in a variety of genres. Miller, a Los Angeles resident, has spent more than 25 years as a writer, including authoring the original screenplay for "Mr. Baseball," a 1992 theatrical release starring Tom Selleck about former American major leaguers playing professionally in Japan. Charles Schneider, the music director of the Catskill, Utica and Schenectady Symphonies, serves as music director and conductor for "Cooperstown." Schneider was the founding music director for Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown.