


Photo Credit: Steven Laxton

SEVEN SISTERS, a chamber opera
Music: Justine F. Chen
Libretto: Stephanie Fleischmann
Director: Aya Ogawa
Dramaturg: Cori Ellison
Music Director: Lidiya Yankovskaya
GRANTS: 2020 OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers, supported by Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
2020 WEST EDGE OPERA'S Aperture Portfolio
An unflinching, epic, funny exploration of the dysfunctions of family and the fallout of growing up Taiwanese-American. Juxtaposing the intensely personal with the sweeping presence of the universal, this boldly theatrical new chamber opera veers from the sublime awkwardness of caustic satire to wildly lyrical moments of emotional expansion, weaving together sounds ranging from the glamour of old Hollywood to Taiwanese folk music; Peking Opera; kinetic, pulse-racing rhythms; and a haunting emotional resonance rooted in the timeless struggle for agency and voice. Framed by the ritual of a Taiwanese funeral, and threaded through with the myth of the Pleiades reimagined, Seven Sisters looks at the hard truths of a culture that demeans and disempowers women and asks: How does the next generation move beyond this legacy, bridging a cultural chasm that privileges silence?
LIBRETTO WORKSHOP:
Oct. 23-28, 2020 - ZOOM - private
*Excerpts of Libretto Workshop Available upon Request.*
Stage Manager: Plato Seto
CAST:
The development of SEVEN SISTERS received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers Program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
JUSTINE F. CHEN
COMPOSER AND VIOLINIST
BREAKING NEWS:
HONORED and THRILLED to be featured at Ravinia this summer! Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to the singers of "to belong" at Ravinia August 7, 2023- Yvette Keong, Elissa Pfaender, and Yuntong Han!
BRAVA to the ever luminous Jen Zetlan and Nana Shi and their phenomenal performance of PHILOMEL in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn Heights! Thank you, BASS!
THANKS to Johnathan McCullough and Carol Wong for their charmingly hilarious performance of my Platform Anxiety song! Thanks to Carnegie Hall, Citywide!
THANK YOU to the cast and crew of THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF ALAN TURING!! Chicago Tribune COT Interview Out Chicago
What to do in Chicago
Crain's Business
The Economist
Chicago Tribune
CHECK OUT my Know Them Now video on YouTube! Thanks, BMI!
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