ANSWER
THE
CALL
The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti
An opera buffa in one act,
with a modern twist
The Telephone
The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois, is an one-act English-language comic opera written and composed by Gian Carlo Menotti. The Telephone premiered in New York City in 1947.
In The Telephone, Ben is trying to ask Lucy a very important question before he leaves, but she is forever on calls.
Our Production
As the COVID-19 pandemic set in, director Brendan Hartnett was inspired to re-envision Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telephone for our current moment and explore in form and function the piece’s ideas about how technology brings us together.
This production is performed by soprano Jamie Chamberlin Granner and tenor Nathan Granner and remotely directed and co-produced over Zoom by Brendan Hartnett. The film was shot, co-produced and edited by Nathan Granner’s production company, Astroblab_Labs.
Our Team
Brendan Hartnett
Brendan Hartnett is an accomplished educator, director, and singer. Brendan directed up and down the coast of California with companies including Opera Parallele and the Pacific Opera Project. As an educator, he has been a Lecturer in Music at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and has taught undergraduate acting and directing at UCLA. As a singer, Brendan has enjoyed performing with many San Francisco Bay Area companies and ensembles, such as Pocket Opera. Most recently, he directed and sang in The Gondoliers with the Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company.
Jamie Chamberlin-Granner
Praised for her “shimmering tones” and “star struck vulnerability” by Opera News, Greek-American Soprano Jamie Chamberlin Granner has sung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is a frequent performer with LA Opera and Long Beach Opera. In 2015, Chamberlin garnered national attention when she was selected to portray Marilyn Monroe in the US Premiere of Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever in a haunting production by LBO’s visionary Artistic Director, Andreas Mitisek.
Nathan Granner
World-renowned leading tenor Nathan Granner gained chart-topping success as a founding member of The American Tenors and has originated numerous roles in world premieres, including Korey Wise in Anthony Davis' Pulitzer Prize-winning The Central Park Five. Mr. Granner also uses his skills as a producing artist to create engaging video performances, including “Sing Out Loud," a popular web series for LA Opera.
Zach Neufeld
Zach Neufeld is a composer of a diverse range of work, including choral, orchestral, chamber, and electronic music. He is equally active as a pianist, organist, teacher, and conductor, and is in demand as a collaborative pianist for singers. Recent performances include selections from Winterreise with tenor Thomas Segen for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Inside the Music series at Disney Hall, the piano-four-hands arrangement of Barber of Seville with Pacific Opera Project, and masterclasses with Susan Graham, John Bucchino, and Speranza Scappucci.
A Lab Studios
The mission of Astroblab_Labs is to further the reach of opera by creating visually and musically sensational unique & thoughtful works of theater, made for the screen.
Sounding Point
Sounding Point is a boutique LA-based creative & marketing agency specializing in cultivating individualized strategies for performing and fine arts institutions
Make it stand out.
-
Ashley McGinnis - Margaret
After graduating with her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance in 2011, Ashley taught private lessons, glee classes, early childhood classes, and camps at Village Center for the Arts in Pleasant Hill, CA. She also led after school enrichment classes in Bay Area elementary schools, and worked as a music editor/arranger for local composers.
Ashley and Brendan (director Brendan Hartnett) realized one of their greatest dreams by opening Midgarden Music in Wanamassa in March 2020. They named the studio in honor of Ashley’s grandmother, Evelyn Midgarden, who was instrumental in her musical development. They hope to do the name proud by bringing people together and by inspiring the same love and dedication to music that Grandma Evie demonstrated everyday.https://midgardenmusic.com/
-
Daniel Abraham Stevens - George
'm an actor, a teacher, a partner, a human, a nerd, a writer, a reader, etc
Born in San Diego, I ended up doing the majority of my growing up in Eastern Panhandle West Virginia.
After college, life took me hopping around the eastern seaboard, following what work I could book, and ended up, as we all must, starving and struggling in Brooklyn, NYC.
From Brooklyn I BS'd my way into the brand new UCLA MFA program, which was all the excuse I needed to hurl my life across the damn country and land with my back against the Pacific, and my eyes on the world at my fingertips.
http://www.danielstevensisanactor.com/ -
Veronica Shea - Pamela
Veronica is the Executive Director and Founder of Eccentric Theater Company (ETC.), a collection of artists dedicated to pushing the boundaries of a standard theater company. We believe that the lines between different facets of art are currently too rigid, and we aspire to create a space where an audience member can experience a play, a jazz club, an art gallery, and sometimes all three at the same time!
https://www.veronicashea.com/
Our Partners
Contact us.
For production inquiries, contact:
Nathan Granner ngranner@gmail.com
For press & sponsorship inquiries, contact: Adrienne Andisheh adrienne@soundingpoint.la