World Premiere of the new film
PRESS RELEASE – The world premiere of the new film, The Face on the Barroom Floor: The Poem, the Place, the Opera will be screened at the Gilpin Historical Society Annual Dinner on Thursday, June 27th at 6 p.m. The event will be held in the Lava Room at the Reserve Casino Hotel, 321 Gregory Street, Central City, CO 80527. Tickets for Dinner and the Movie are $35 and can be bought by calling The Gilpin Historical Society at 303-582-5283.
The film will examine the history of the iconic American poem, written in 1887 by Hugh Antoine d’Arcy which was inspired by an actual happening at Joe Smith’s saloon at Fourth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan. First published in the New York Dispatch, it gained instant popularity. Many versions have appeared in the ensuing years, including a film starring Charlie Chaplin in 1914.
The opera, with a score by Henry Mollicone and a libretto by John S. Bowman, was commissioned by the Central City Opera in 1978 and has been performed almost every year since its premiere. It’s an apt location for the opera given its relevance to Central City, where a face on the barroom floor of the Teller House is adjacent to the Opera House (and is one of the locations where the documentary was made). The Opera House is the centerpiece of that historic gold mining town and is the nation’s fifth oldest opera company.
Henry Mollicone’s one-act operas, Emperor Norton, Starbird, and The Mask of Evil, commissioned by the Central City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Minnesota Opera, have been performed extensively. The Face on the Barroom Floor, a recipient of the American Composers’ Recording Award, is one of America’s most oft-performed contemporary operas. Mollicone’s full-length opera Coyote Tales (libretto by Sheldon Harnick), commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, premiered there in March, 1998. His full-length opera Hotel Eden premiered at Opera San Jose in 1989, and has since been produced in New York and Baltimore.
The film, which features appearances by Gunther Schuller, Sheldon Harnick, David del Tredici, Julius Rudel, Erie Mills and Frederica von Stade, was Produced and Directed by Lawrence Kraman, who has executive produced PDQ Bach in Houston, produced and directed the critically acclaimed DVD of Carlisle Floyd’s modern opera Willie Stark, and the 10 DVD set of The Newport Music Festival 2007. His latest documentary, David Amram: The First 80 Years premiered last November at the Pete and Toshi Seeger Power of Song Award Concert at Symphony Space in New York City.
The film was written by David Patrick Stearns, edited by Dillon Poole, produced by Pelham Pearce and Dave Forsyth, and executive produced by Shelley Kraman.
For information and advance DVD screenings contact Lawrence Kraman at newportclassic@gmail.com. For information on the event, contact Dave Forsyth at gilpinhistory@live.com.