Hannah Lash is a young and rising composer, whose body of works is impressive considering her age.  Her most recent piece, a chamber opera entitled “Blood Rose” and based on the tale of “Beauty and the Beast” will be premiered in New York City tomorrow, September 24th.

The New York Times ran a short story on the composer and her work, found here. The work, which is written for alto, countertenor, and string quartet, will be heard at Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan.

I am especially intrigued by Lash’s basis for this piece; the story of Beauty and the Beast, like most folk/fairy tales has long stirred conversation among the feminist-minded regarding gender roles and expectations.  Lash explains in the NYT article:

“I wanted to write about the co-dependency and intermingling of two characters: this emotional kind of cannibalism, in a way…I took the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ legend for that reason, because it seemed to me as though you could go so many different directions in interpreting it. It had such a fertile field for double meanings of words, and just different ways of looking at it.”

The concert will also be performed on Saturday, September 25th.  To buy tickets and hear for yourself go here.