Rarely Performed Weill One Act Opera to Receive American East Premiere in Fire Island Pines

The Fire Island Opera Festival and the management team for the properties controlled by Fire Island Pines Ventures are proud to announce that the American east coast premiere of Kurt Weill's first opera "Der Protagonist"(The Protagonist) will be presented Saturday, August 23 at 9:00 PM and Sunday, August 24 at 2:00 PM at the Pavilion Night Club.

Written in 1926 and presented in one act, "The Protagonist" is an expressionistic operatic thriller that features a disturbing tragicomic story set in Elizabethan England about an actor who fails to distinguish fantasy from reality. With a libretto by Georg Kaiser, it was was Weill's first foray into writing an opera score. His later pieces "Street Scene", "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" and "The Threepenny Opera" would all enjoy critical and commercial success and go on to become standards in both theatrical and opera house stages.

The Fire Island Opera Festival performances of "The Protagonist" will be performed as a site specific production inside of Fire Island Pines' legendary disco, The Pavilion. The production will see the nightclub space transformed into a wild, dream world by Marfa-based installation artist, Charles Mary Kubricht, and "Project Runway" finalist and former Mark Morris Dance Company member choreographer/costume designer, Bradon McDonald.

"The Protagonist," will be produced in a 'cabaret interruptus' adaptation directed by Edwin Cahill, accompanied in a concert piano version by music director Bradley Moore. The performance will climax in a Kurt Weill inspired Haus music dance party!

Tickets are $50 and can be bought online at www.artful.ly/fire-island-opera-festival

The Fire Island Opera Festival commissions new one-act American operas and pairs them with revivals of forgotten works. Top artists from the world of opera, theater, classical music, dance, fashion and visual art unite at a Pines beach mansion and the newly rebuilt Pavilion on Fire Island Pines, converted into a beach 'opera house' by Marfa-based installation artist Charles Mary Kubricht. The result is an intimate exchange between art and nature that will transport the audience to a singular theatrical and musical experience. www.fireislandopera.org

FIP Ventures LLC, owns the majority of the commercial district in Fire Island Pines, NY. The properties include the famed Pavilion nightclub complex, the Blue Whale and Cultured Elephant restaurants, the Botel, the Pool Deck and numerous retail and residential spaces. www.thepinesfireisland.com