


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
SAVE THE DATE:
June 1st Honored to be part of Opera Saratoga's GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK featuring my subway Odyssey, Platform Anxiety. Come for dinner and a show!
December 1-3, 2025, ELIZABETH PROJECT
@The Flea, NYC. STAY TUNED
Check out our rave review from Gramophone of SHALLOW BREATH AND STEALTH
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BEST WORLD PREMIERE!
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