The Origin is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

/oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

 composed by Richard Einhorn

Richard Einhorn

Richard Einhorn is a modern classical composer.Graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in New York City in 1975, studied composition and electronic music with Jack Beeson, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Mario Davidovsky....

 to a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Richard Einhorn and Catherine Barnett based on the writings of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

. The oratorio takes its title from Darwin's 1859 On the Origin of Species. The work was commissioned by the Artswego program and the Music Department of State University of New York at Oswego

State University of New York at Oswego

State University of New York at Oswego, also known as SUNY Oswego and Oswego State, is a public university in the City of Oswego and Town of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario...

 for the worldwide Darwin Bicentennial. The Origin had its world premiere on 6 February 2009 at the university's Waterman Theatre.

Premiere performance

The premiere performance of The Origin was conducted by Julie Pretzat and featured soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 Jacqueline Horner from the a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 quartet, Anonymous 4

Anonymous 4

Anonymous 4 is a female a cappella quartet, based in New York City. Their main performance genre is medieval music, although they have also premiered works by living composers such as John Tavener and Steve Reich...

; tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 Todd Graber; bass

Bass (voice type)

A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...

 Eric Johnson; the women's vocal ensemble, Kitka

Kitka

Kitka is an Oakland, California-based all-female vocal ensemble focused on "Eastern European women’s vocal traditions".Kitka is a professional vocal ensemble dedicated to producing concerts, recordings, and educational programs that develop new audiences for music rooted in Eastern European women’s...

; the SUNY Oswego College Choir; Oswego College-Community Orchestra; and the Oswego Festival Chorus. Of the over 200 performers, about 80 were students at SUNY Oswego. The projected video images which served as a backdrop to the performance were by filmmaker Bill Morrison

Bill Morrison (director)

Bill Morrison is a New York-based filmmaker and artist, best known for his experimental collage film Decasia . He is a member of Ridge Theater and the founder of Hypnotic Pictures...

.