Deborah Drattell has been praised as “a remarkably original voice” by Opera news. Her one-act opera “The Festival of Regrets” with a libretto by playwright Wendy Wasserstein, was premiered at the Glimmerglass Opera in 1999 and subsequently at the New York City Opera as part of the “Central Park Trilogy” and was seen nationally on television that same year. Her first full-length opera “Lilith” with a libretto by David Cohen and dealing with the biblical figure of Adam’s first wife, before Eve, was first heard in concert form at Glimmerglass in 1998 and proved so successful that it was stage-premiered at the New York City Opera during the fall season of 2001, where it played to sold-out houses. Her next full-length opera, “Nicholas and Alexandra,” with a libretto by Nicholas Von Hoffman and commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera, had its world premiere at that company in September of 2003, with Placido Domingo as Rasputin, singing his 120th role. In May of 2003, Ms. Drattell’s one-act chamber opera “Marina,” to a libretto by poet Annie Finch, dealing with the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, had its New York world premiere in an American Opera Projects presentation at the Off-Broadway D.R.2 Theatre. In 2005, she had another collaboration with Ms. Wasserstein, called “Best Friends’ and is a satire on the present-day New York world of society and the Arts.
During her tenure as Composer-in-Residence at the Denver Symphony and the New York City Opera, Drattell composed several notable works, including “Sorrow is not Melancholy” for string orchestra; an orchestral suite “Lilith,” commissioned by Meet the Composer and premiered by the New York Philharmonic; “Fire Dances,” commissioned by clarinetist David Shifrin; “The Fire Within,” a flute concerto for Ransom Wilson, commissioned by the Barlow Foundation and premiered by the New Orleans Symphony. All these works were recorded by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony for a CD of Delos Records. Other works have been performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Tanglewood and Caramoor Music Festivals, among others.
Among the honors awarded her are commissions from the Fromm Foundation and the Concert Artists Guild, in addition to the commissions mentioned above; First Prize, International Women’s Brass Conference; the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship in Composition at Tanglewood; the Vermont Composers Fellowship; and a Yaddo Fellowship. She is the recipient of an NEA grant, meet the Composer grants, ASCAP awards, and grants from the Louisiana Arts Councel and the American Music Center.