J. Smith-Cameron and Joe Morton to Narrate MasterVoices’ The Grapes of Wrath

Emmy nominee J. Smith-Cameron (Succession) and Emmy Award winner Joe Morton (Scandal) will co-narrate MasterVoices’ revised concert version of The Grapes of Wrath, the 2007 opera by composer Ricky Ian Gordon (Intimate Apparel) and librettist Michael Korie (Flying Over Sunset) based on John Steinbeck’s novel, on April 17 at Carnegie Hall.

The Grapes of Wrath was given its New York City premiere by MasterVoices in 2010 and was the first work artistic director Ted Sperling brought to the group. This revival, presented as part of Sperling’s tenth season anniversary as artistic director, features new revisions and music exclusive to this performance, with a focus on choral elements. In addition to revisions in the orchestration by Gordon and Bruce Coughlin, Gordon and Korie have added a new scene to the story about the Joad family, Oklahoma sharecroppers who, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, along with thousands of others, become refugees in their own country.

Sperling conducts the 120-member MasterVoices chorus, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and a cast that includes soprano Mikaela Bennett (Micaëla in MasterVoices’ 2022 staging of Carmen), baritone John Brancy (Escamillo in Carmen), baritone Nathan Gunn (2010 MasterVoices The Grapes of Wrath), Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore, baritone Malcolm MacKenzie, Bryonha Marie (Prince of Broadway), baritone Kyle Oliver, bass-baritone Christian Pursell, tenor Victor Starsky, and baritone Schyler Vargas.

The design team includes sound designer Scott Lehrer, costume designer Tracy Christensen, lighting designer Brian Tovar, and projection designer Wendall K. Harrington, who created the projections for the Minnesota Opera premiere as well as the MasterVoices 2010 concert.

The Grapes of Wrath will also mark the inauguration of the MasterVoices’ Three in Six program, a new series committed to producing three contemporary American operas over the next six years.