Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River is one of Britten’s three parables for church performance and is Pittsburgh Opera’s first production of 2026.
Based on the Japanese Noh play Sumidagawa River. In Curlew River, a woman driven mad by the mystery of her lost son learns her boy’s unfortunate fate from a chance encounter with a Ferryman while crossing a river. These will be its first-ever performances in Pittsburgh.
Britten and his librettist, William Plomer, in their quest to adapt the play, decided on the medieval ‘Miracle Play’ as their theatrical form. Miracle Plays are intended to be performed in churches, not traditional theaters. Pittsburgh Opera will be performing Curlew River at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside. As Opera Now explains, “All the roles in the parable are sung by men, following both the Japanese and English medieval performing traditions.” Antony Walker conducts; Dana Kinney directs.
Chris Cox provided onStage Pittsburgh with this exclusive interview with Soibelman:
Chris Cox: Matt Soibelman, welcome. Thank you for chatting with me today.
Matt Soibelman: Happy to be here.
CC: Could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and your background, and how you became an opera singer?
Matt Soibelman: When I was going through puberty, my voice got lower, and I got a lot of the shtick of, “Oh, wow, you’ve got a good voice. You should go into radio. Surely there’s money in radio. There’s got to be money in radio.” There’s no money in radio.
I graduated High School early via the CHSPE; after that, I went to Los Angeles Valley College to start, getting some credits as a broadcast communication major while I was figuring out what I wanted to do. Alongside working at the campus radio station, I wanted to learn how to be a voice actor. One of the bits of advice I got was, “If you want to be a voice actor or if you want to work with your voice, learn to sing.”
So I joined the choir there and at the same time found my parents’ old Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Rat Pack albums, and fell in love with them and thought, “I could do that. That sounds fun.” I ended up getting a few voice lessons with my younger sister’s voice teacher, who then pointed me to Reid Bruton, a private teacher with the LA Opera Chorus. He threw Sarastro’s Aria [from The Magic Flute] at me, and I fell in love with the music. I fell in love with the process, and I’ve been at it ever since.
CC: This is now the second half of your second season as a Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist. What would you say are some of the highlights of your residency so far?
MS: On a grand scale, this has been a time for a lot of personal growth. The music staff here has been very, very helpful with helping me realize what I need to work on and how to actually work on it. Having coaches as effective and sharp as they are, with so much experience working with young artists, has helped me refine my internal language.
CC: Let’s talk a little about Curlew River. Is this your first time singing something composed by Benjamin Britten?
MS: I’ve sung some excerpts and arias, like at Pittsburgh Opera’s Song Shop concerts and with DMMO [Des Moines Metro Opera], but this is my first full production of his. Britten has his own rhythmic trickiness that certainly makes him interesting to work with, and it’s not something that just clicks right away.
CC: Can you tell us about your character, the Abbot?
MS: The Abbot is the officiator. He’s in charge of the group of monks who put on a mystery play. He has to move the action along from almost a Greek chorus perspective.
CC: Some patrons may be surprised to hear that this production is being performed in a church, not a theater.
MS: It does feel like this piece was meant to be performed in the church. The way that the music is put together acoustically, it feels like Britten took the echoes of the church into account. The fact that it’s using an organ and an otherwise pretty small orchestra, feels like it was really, really meant for this space. With the subject matter and the music, I can’t think of a better place for it to be performed.
CC: What does the audience have to look forward to?
MS: I think they’re going to be moved.
The pacing of the story and the way that it is set make it feel like an out-of-body experience. The music itself feels like controlled chaos. There’s a proper tension that is built up in the music, in the pacing of the story, that when there’s finally a… well, I don’t want to spoil the ending.
Britten really succeeded at combining an Anglican parable with Japanese Noh theater. The soundscape of Noh meshes perfectly; it fits exactly where it needs to. The way that he was able to tell the story is honestly incredible. It’s a fascinating piece to work on, and I’m surprised it’s not done more.
The way that characters interact with either the fourth wall or the audience itself, and the way they interact with each other, is very pointed. It’s a way that I don’t think a lot of people will be used to seeing in American or even European theater, but it works incredibly well.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
A full synopsis, cast listings and further details are available at pittsburghopera.org/curlew.
Performances are at Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside on Saturday, January 24, 2026 at 7:00 pm, Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 7:00 pm (audio commentary available for patrons with visual impairments), Friday, January 30, 2026 at 7:00 and Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 4:00 PM
For tickets visit: https://opera.culturaldistrict.org/production/99238/curlew-river?_ga=2.232770015.1922868274.1768848634-696658696.1762531605
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Show Previews
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