OPERA America Awards Professor Deborah Brevoort the Campbell Opera Librettist Prize
Adjunct Associate Professor Deborah Brevoort is the recipient of the 2023 Campbell Opera Librettist Prize.
Presented by OPERA America and conceived and funded by acclaimed librettist and lyricist Mark Campbell, the prize is the first award in the history of American opera created specifically to honor the work of opera librettists. As this year’s recipient, Brevoort was selected from an applicant pool of over 30 librettists by a panel of industry leaders to receive an award of $7,000 in support of her creative development and career advancement.
“Deborah Brevoort is an ideal choice for this year’s prize,” said Mark Campbell via press release. “She has a history of writing librettos that connect directly with audiences and a profound understanding of the craft that goes into this very specialized art form. She has also shown strong support for the writing community, and I couldn’t be more pleased that she will be succeeding me as co-chair of the Dramatists Guild Opera Committee.”
Brevoort is an alumna of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program, and has written the librettos for many operas, including The Knock (The Glimmerglass Festival, Cincinnati Opera), Quamino’s Map (Chicago Opera Theater), Murasaki’s Moon (On Site Opera, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ALT), Embedded (ALT, Fort Worth Opera, Fargo Moorhead Opera), Steal a Pencil for Me (Opera Colorado), and Dinner 4 3 (Decameron Opera Coalition). She has also penned new adaptations of Mozart’s The Impresario and Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Anchorage Opera).
“I’m simply over the moon at being selected for this honor,” Brevoort said. “Mark Campbell is a mensch. To lift up other opera librettists through this award is such a generous, gracious thing to do. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, OPERA America.”
Read more about the prize and OPERA America’s other initiatives here.
Deborah Brevoort writes plays, musicals, and opera librettos. She is best known for her play, The Women of Lockerbie, which is produced all over the world. Her latest play, My Lord, What a Night, about Marian Anderson and Albert Einstein, was produced at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC and has been optioned for productions on the West End and Broadway in 2023. She is the librettist for 10 operas that have been commissioned and produced at leading opera companies in the US. Brevoort is also a three-time winner of the Frontier’s Competition at Ft. Worth Opera and a two-time winner of the Frederick Loewe award in musical theatre for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, with Scott Davenport Richards, and King Island Christmas with David Friedman. Current musical projects include: book and lyrics for Loving, about Loving vs. State of Virginia, with composer Diedre Murray; book and co-lyrics for Tiffany Girls, about Clara Driscoll, the true creator of the Tiffany Lamp, with composer/lyricist Julianne Wick Davis; The Red Thread, an opera about American adoptions of Chinese girls, with composer Wang Lu; and The Dowry, a Nigerian/American opera with Shawn E. Okpebholo. She teaches in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program at NYU and the Theatre Program at Columbia University.