Celebrate Pride in St. Pete!
The Pleasing Recollection/A Cabaret Opera is thrilled to be a part of the 2022 St. Pete Pride Official Calendar lineup as A Palladium Pride Event!
Friday, June 24 at 8:00PM Sunday, June 26 at 2:00PM
At the Palladium Side Door
Death of Classical The Crypt Sessions
Blythe Gaissert performs my setting of Nous Deux (Paul Éluard) for mezzo-soprano and string quintet with Sybarite 5
Only on NOVEMBER 29, 2023 at 7PM
Church of the Intercession 550 W 155th St New York, NY 10032
Wine & Cheese Reception: 7:00 - 8:00PM
Concert: 8:00PM - 9:00PM
Fire Island Pines Art Project presents
The Pleasing Recollection/A Cabaret Opera
Sunday, May 29 at 6:00PM
at Whyte Hall
Cocktails on the Albert Lepage Pavilion beginning at 5:00PM
Starring MICHAEL KELLY
Feinstein's 54/Below APRIL 5 - 6, 2022
Music by Martin Hennessy
Libretto by Stephen Kitskos
Directed by Murphy Davis
Music director, Benedicte Jourdois
In the mid-1970s, a young man (portrayed by As One’s Michael Kelly) lands ashore in Manhattan without a map. Negotiating his way into a life in the performing arts, The Pleasing Recollection chronicles his musical adventures as he charmingly stumbles into some of the music and theater giants of the era including Larry Kert, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ludlum, and Aaron Copland. Librettist Stephen Kitsakos’s autobiographical story rolls forward with composer Martin Hennessy’s ingenious score. At the intersection of music and opera theater they create a playful, witty, and joyful tale.
Join us at Feinstein’s/54 Below for a performance that sings in the sensibility of contemporary musical theatre, but reminisces about a period in the lives of LGBTQ+ people that was both exhilarating and dangerous.
Buy tickets April 5, 2022 at 7PM
Buy tickets April 6, 2022 at 9:45PM
Praise for The Pleasing Recollection
"Weaving a range of musical genres together, leading from his classical background, Hennessy has come up with a unique and rather magical genre of his own. Landing in the space between art song and smoky supper club, The Pleasing Recollection is a classic song cycle performed as cabaret."
Sarah Downs, The Front Row Center
The Pleasing Recollection/A Cabaret Opera
Starring Michael Kelly with musical director, Benedicte Jourdois
Martin Hennessy, Music
Stephen Kitsakos, Libretto
Murphy Davis, DirectorFRI & SAT APR 1-2, 2022, 8PM/EVENTTICKETS COMING SOON
The Studios of Key WestHelmerich Theater, 533 Eaton Street
Praise from the Financial Times
"Other highlights include a loving couple in the warm embrace of a string quintet in Martin Hennessy’s “Nous Deux."
Release Date:
May 7, 2021 by award winning record label, Bright Shiny Things
HOME is a collection of new works by eight composers and librettists representing diverse backgrounds and musical styles writing for acclaimed mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert.
Included in this CD is Nous Deux, my setting of Paul Eluard's incantatory love poem, for mezzo-soprano and string quintet, commissioned by Blythe especially for this CD.