Opera
Precipice
PRECIPICE sets an intimate story of a young woman’s struggle in the epic landscape of America’s mountain west. Like the land around her, her wild spirit is crushed by disregard. She escapes to the precipice and leaps, awakening mute in a wilderness in which she must fight to find her voice. The opera’s visual world is evoked by miniature dioramas and large-scale video. The score, inspired by American folk music, art song, and the sounds of nature, features seven singers, string quintet, piano and mandolin. By drawing parallels between environmental and emotional damage, PRECIPICE looks at how we are silenced and exiled, and how we find our way to connection, both with each other and the natural world.Composer Rima Fand, Libretto Karen Fischer, Concept, Set & Props Susan Zeeman Rogers, Video Yudam Hyung-Seok Jeon, Lighting Tyler Micholeau & Miranda Hardy, Costume Olivera Gaji.c, Music Director Mila Henry Performers: Alice Tolan Mee, Daisy Press, Julius Hollingworth, Lacey Rose, Gabriel Hernandez, Skye Zlatkin, Mila Henry. Leah Asher, Maya Bennardo, Carrie Frey, Julia Henderson, Eleanor Oppenhiem, Avi Fax-Rosen
Rainbird
Based on the novel Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room by the celebrated New Zealand author Janet Frame that tells the story of a middle-aged family man, Godfrey Rainbird, who gets hit by a car and is pronounced dead. After the funeral arrangements have been made and his belongings have been cleared from the house, he wakes up in the morgue. Rainbird is an allegory, both ordinary and mythic, about those who return from the dead, as Frame notes, their “unique point of view that is a nightmare, a treasure, and a lifelong possession—equal in its rapture and chilling exposure to ancient gods and goddesses.”Composer Aaron Seigel, Libretto Aaron Seigel and Mallory Catlett, Films by Andrew Denton, Set Peiyi Wong, Lighting Yuki Nakase Link, Props Oscar Escodedo, Costume Olivera Gajic, Projection Attilio Rigotti. Performers: Gelsey Bell, Chris DiMeglio, Katie Geissinger, Shurmi Dhar, Jeff Tobias, Andie Tanning, Jess Tsang and Sugar Vendil.
Echo Drift
Oscillating between the confines of a tiny cell and an expansive visual world of animation, the opera unravels a cycle of deceit, temptation, seduction, and fantastical perception.Composer Mikael Karlsson, Libretto Elle Kunnos de Voss & Kathryn Walat, Conductor Nicholas DeMaison, Set Designer Elle Kunnos de Voss, Lighting Designer Chris Kuhl, Prop & Costume Design Andreea Mnicic. Performers: Blythe Gaissert AND John Kelly, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
The Scarlet Ibis
Inspired by the 1960 short story by James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis explores two brothers struggle over the meaning of normal.
“its subject is subtly subversive, and its production groundbreaking.” - Wall Steel Journal
“an outstanding new chamber opera… a moving, intense and dignified creation.. it adds puppetry to opera’s basic elements in a completely organic way.” – The New York Times
HERE/Beth Morrison Productions/American Opera Projects in the Protoype Festival, NYC, 2015
Composer Stefan Weissman, Librettist David Cote, Music Director Steve Osgood, Puppetry Tom Lee, Set Design Joseph Silovsky, Lighting Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew Costumes Andreea Mincic, Performers: Eric S. Brenner, Hai-Ting Chinn, Abigail Fischer, Nicole Mitchell, Keith Phares. Puppeteers: Meghan Willliams, Eric Avery, Josh Rice. The American Modern Ensemble
Brother Brother
The relationship of Orville and Wilbur Wright following their first flights in 1903 is layered over a secondary story of intimacy and contemporary brotherhood
Experiments in Opera, Abrons Arts Center NYC, 2014
Composer Aaron Siegel, Libretto Aaron Siegel, Conductor David Bloom, Set Mimi Lien, Lighting Jeanette Yew, Costume Andreea Mnicic. Performers: Michele Kennedy, Patrick Fennig, Marc Day, Julian A. Rozzell, Danyon Davis, Marie Ortinau, Jamie Ehrenfeld, Billy Lowrimore, Adrian Rosas & Mantra Percussion & Cadillac Moon Ensemble