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
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?
WORKSHOPS:
Libretto: Oct. 23-28, 2020 - ZOOM - private
- Libretto Reading Workshop Preview available upon request
Music: May 17, 2021 - NYC - location tba
CAST:
Sister 1: Dramatic Soprano Sister 2: Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano
Sister 4: Lyric Soprano Sister 5: Lyric Mezzo-Soprano
Sister 6: Soubrette Sister 7: Coloratura
Mina/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.