Photo Credit: Steven Laxton
SEVEN SISTERS, a chamber opera
Music: Justine F. Chen
Libretto: Stephanie Fleischmann
Director: Aya Ogawa
Dramaturg: Cori Ellison Seven Sisters Videos
Music Director: Kelly Kuo Short Trailer Aria "Childless"
GRANTS: 2021 OPERA America's New Works Exploration
2020 OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers
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; Chinese 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?
WORKSHOPS:
- Libretto Reading Workshop Preview available upon request
Piano Vocal: 4.08.2022 - NYC - Manhattan School of Music
- PV workshop available upon request
CAST:
Sister 1: Lyric Soprano Sister 2: Lyric Mezzo-Soprano
Sister 4: Soprano Sister 5: Mezzo-Soprano
Sister 6: Soubrette Sister 7: Coloratura Soprano
Maggie/Young Matriarch: Spinto
ORCHESTRATION: 3 vln/ 3 va/ 3 vc/ 1 db/ 1 perc
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:
Gearing up for my upcoming workshop with Maryland Opera Studio for their New Work Reading: a new opera with librettist Jacqueline Goldfinger! TWA - Feb 17, 2023!
Thrilled to announce the world premiere of Iridescent Gest, my piece for the mighty Matt Haimovitz at the Israel Conservatory of Music! 2/28/23
GET YOUR TICKETS to the long-awaited WORLD PREMIERE of my opera with librettist David Simpatico, THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF ALAN TURING!! COT, and director Peter Rothstein and Maestra Lidiya Yankovskaya! March 23 & 25 2023! Tickets here! ALT Tour info here!
Check out my Know Them Now video on YouTube! Thanks, BMI!
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most images and sound files, is ©Copyright 2023 by Justine Fang Chen.