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THE MAIDEN TOWER

chamber opera

EXCERPT - Overture: Key to Pronunciation (02:45)


music and text by Justine F. Chen
performed live by actress Elizabeth Raetz, bass Matt Boehler, and soprano Jennifer Zetlan.
 

​Picture yourself in a darkened auditorium, the lights come up and there are three microphones at the front of the stage with three people behind them.  As they step up to the microphones and begin speaking, their voices surround you.

 

synopsis:

It is some time in the post-apocalyptic future, after a great war.  The only houses left standing are those built by The Guild. This story focuses on Abraham and Miranda, father and daughter -- and IAGA, the computer who runs their home (a spectacular creation of The Guild).

Both scared to a paranoid degree of the war-ravaged and contaminated world outside their house, Abraham and Miranda have not left their house for the last seventeen years.  Mason, a rebuilder (an employee of The Guild) sent to look at the house computer, enters their strange and secluded environment.

THE MAIDEN TOWER (2005) was first performed at The Juilliard School, and has been performed in NYCO's VOX 2006, and in Montréal by Chants Libres. 

For program notes on this opera, click here.

For instrumentation/technical requirements click here

JUSTINE F. CHEN

COMPOSER AND VIOLINIST

BREAKING NEWS:
BEST WORLD PREMIERE 2023!
Our "Fantastical, evocative, and nuanced" opera THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF ALAN TURING was just named BEST WORLD PREMIERE of 2023 by Chicago Tribune today! Thank you, David Simpatico, Chicago Opera Theater, and American Lyric Theater!!!!

SAVE THE DATE! - THE CROSSING CD releases our creation to the world: SHALLOW BREATH AND STEALTH! APRIL 5, 2024!

Check out my spotify track for Mighty Matt Haimovitz's extraordinary performance of IRIDESCENT GEST!


Come Join Us!
March 25, 2024 - THE FORUM, Columbia's gorgeous concert venue! The Harlem Chamber Players will be performing my string quartet
6:30 PM! 


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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most images and sound files, is ©Copyright 2023 by Justine Fang Chen.

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