Tenth Anniversary and Big News
A decade ago tonight, August 23, 2022, in a sexy, sweaty bar on E. 7th Street, One Ounce Opera artists poured their hearts and souls (amid skinned knees and torn zippers) into a raucous, vaudevillian-style showcase that officially launched the company.
In the decade since, we’ve poured ounces of opera into the hearts and souls of our sweet, sweet community. How did we get here?
You. We’re here because you supported the idea of the region’s first micro-opera festival, and then came out despite the ice. Or heat. Or rain. Or cold. You were more reliable than the US MAIL.
You jumped at the chance to drink beer with us while we serenaded and soothed, in lovely gardens or tiny clubs, in living rooms or beer halls.
You brought friends. Or relatives. Or both. And sometimes, those friends became relatives (how many couples met because of OOO?)!
But more than anything, you supported us and our punk-rock hearts, brave enough to boast that “opera isn’t obsolete, popular opinion of opera is.”
And you proved us right time and time again.
And now, with your support, the next ten years will be bigger, better, and brighter, using opera as our vehicle for deepening connection and community.
OOO nominated for five B. Iden Payne Awards
Yesterday was a great day!😎
We're thrilled to announce the following five (!!!) B. Iden Payne Awards Council nominations for the 5th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera showcase held February 2020 at The Museum of Human Achievement:
- The "Non Motus" Cast, Crew, and Production Team for Outstanding Production of Musical Theatre
- "Non Motus" creators Marc Hoffeditz and Ilana Fogelson for Outstanding Original Score
- Cristina Flores: Outstanding Featured Actress-Musical Theatre for her role in "The Stranger" by Rain Nox, as Delilah
- Julie Fiore: Outstanding Direction of Musical Theatre for her stage direction of "Non Motus"
- Graham Yates: Outstanding Musical Direction for the full run of Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera 2020.
👏👏👏 We're so proud y'all!
Re-live the experience and watch the nominated pieces here!
https://youtu.be/Fri-D8P_Jxs
FSOO Creator Spotlight: Eva Conley Kendrick & Mark Harvey Levine
Introducing the 5th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera showcase winners Eva Conley Kendrick (composer) and Mark Harvey Levine (librettist), creators of the micro-opera Misfortune, in its Regional Premiere.
Performing and producing new works by living composers and librettists offers artists the opportunity for real-time communication. After spending time with the scores and their characters, cast members Maureen Broy Papovich, Jake Jacobsen and Julia Watkins-Davis had these questions for the creators:
What is your interpretation of what goes on in this story? Is there something supernatural at work here with these cookies? Were they meant for Barry?
Eva Conley Kendrick [ECK]: Mark will be the one to answer this but I like to think there is something supernatural at work here.
Mark Harvey Levine [MHL]: There is definitely something supernatural at work here -- I always like a little touch of magic in my plays. As to the last question -- well, that's answered at the end.
Were you drawn to this story or inspired by it based on a personal experience?
ECK: I have had many eerie coincidences occur in my life, and at least one has involved a fortune cookie. I did get the same fortune cookie two nights in a row at two different Chinese restaurants on two different sides of San Francisco, when I lived there. Possibly the most eerie coincidence occurred many years ago when my family and i were dropping my sister off at the Boston Amtrak at South Station to go seek her fortune as a cartoon animator on the TV show Animaniacs, where she'd just been hired. We discovered that our car had been towed. In my 14 year old despair I turned to my sister and said "I wish Paul S_____" was here. Paul was an opera singer I'd worked in the summer before and just happened to be the first person who came to my mind because he was the only person I knew who lived in Boston (actually, I discovered later he actually lived in Revere but worked in Boston). No sooner than the words were uttered, my sister and I looked up the road and there was Paul S_____ strolling towards us. He helped my parents locate the lot where our car had been towed to and he snuck us through the turnstile to get to the train with his pass which was helpful since my parents just had about enough money to get the car out of the lot. So Paul did save the day after all, and did I summon him with my words? Was it the biggest coincidence ever in a city with a population over 600K? Maybe...we'll never know, just like the fortune cookie.
MHL: I've drawn from personal experience -- I've eaten at a lot of Chinese restaurants. I love Chinese restaurants. Anything can happen at a Chinese restaurant.
The weirdest coincidence that ever happened to me ALSO took place in Boston. Why do these things always happen in Boston? I was visiting a friend there, and wanted to cross the street. As I stepped off the corner, I saw a vehicle coming out of the corner of my eye, so I jumped up back onto the curb so I wouldn't get run over.
The vehicle was a hearse. A hearse with my name on it.
"Levine", it said, in big letters on the side.
Question for Eva Conley Kendrick: I've always wondered how a composer goes about setting conversational texts. It seems so tricky!
ECK: In setting texts I think of the natural rhythm of the spoken phrase and also the dramatic intent behind the words. If I was setting a sentence of text to music and it was uttered as a question, a statement or an exclamation, I would set the sentence musically three different ways. The register—or the range of how high or low it would fall in the singers voice—also depends on the mood or dramatic intent. If someone is demanding something, for example, it would probably be lower and louder, more assertive, whereas if someone was wheedling, it would be higher and softer, just as it would be if it were spoken. I greatly enjoy writing recitative sections of music or the sung dialogue sections because it can transport a commonplace or intense conversation into an operatic world of sound.
Question for Mark Harvey Levine: I see that on your website, you are a playwright. How is writing a libretto different for you? It seems as though it would be a very different style.
MHL: I would think it would be a different style to write one, but Eva was incredibly generous. See, "Misfortune" is a ten minute play of mine. I thought she was going to ask for all sorts of changes, cuts and rewrites to turn it into an Opera. But no, she simply set it to her wonderful music, without asking me to change anything. I was very grateful.
Watch this preview with the cast of Misfortune!
FSOO Creator Spotlight: Marc Hoffeditz and Ilana Fogelson
Introducing the 5th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera showcase winners Marc Hoffeditz (composer) and Ilana Fogelson (librettist), creators of the micro-opera Non Motus, in its World Premiere. You may remember Marc’s short opera Ne'er Part I from the 2nd Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Art Song concert (2017).
Performing and producing new works by living composers and librettists offers artists the opportunity for real-time communication. After spending time with the scores and their characters, cast members Carmen Johnson, Allyssa Kemp, Cristina Flores, and Elise Leung Kotara had these questions for the creators (answered by both!):
Hannah is a nice comic relief to Non Motus. What was the inspiration behind the character?
We started the process of developing this piece by simply considering the kinds of individuals you might find stuck in traffic like this and what sort of specific (but ultimately universal) crises they might be experiencing. We’ve all been in the situation where basic human needs have become so intense that they overwhelm all the existential drowning we tend to do when we have nothing else to distract us. Hannah is all of us boiled down to our most fundamental level. We had no choice but to include her. In this way, despite her being the comic relief, we view Hannah as perhaps the most honest portrayal of the human condition in the opera. She is base human need, she doesn’t need a backstory, she doesn’t need a past trauma, all she needs to be is hyper-present in order to provide a sense of urgency and forward motion to the story.
In the car, Child seems frustrated with her mother because her mother isn't present around her. Is this coming from a place where Child doesn't feel validated or understood in their relationship and her mother is really like her grandmother? Or is Child just a pain in the butt because she can't see anything that's not black and white?
Child and her mother are a reflection of her mother and grandmother. Sure, she views the world through an adolescent lens, and perhaps that lens is more black and white and less inclined to acknowledge gray areas, but the real crux of the conflict between Child and her mother is ultimately this similarity between the two generational relationships. Child asks legitimate questions, but because she is a child and often repeats herself until she is understood or given what she views as a satisfactory answer, she is dismissed out of hand as nothing more than a nuisance. What we don’t know is whether this dismissal is common on the part of her mother, or if she is behaving this way because she is under an inordinate amount of stress. Is their relationship always this fraught or is there something about being on the highway heading toward the funeral that have turned it into something unusual?
Based on the dialogue, it seems that the Hannah/Gerry crash at the end actually occurs chronologically at the beginning of the opera. Can you share some insight into whether it's a "Tarantino-style" setup where you start from the end and then work backwards", or is it a Groundhog Day scenario where they really are all "stuck in a loop"?
You know, it could be viewed as either. What matters is that the characters feel as though they are stuck in a loop or in an inescapable stretch of life that is miserable, but also the best they’ve got. Whether time operates linearly or cyclically, the sentiment remains the same — the characters themselves feel as though they are going in circles.
The only speaking part for Deborah is when she is quoting/speaking for her mom. Is there a particular reason why you chose to have that spoken as opposed to sung and do you imagine a certain tone or timbre for the spoken sections?
Whenever I'm working on an opera, it's always a challenge to balance the musical languages of multiple characters and simultaneous situations: Gerry sings the same cyclic motives ad nauseam, Child and Deborah switch between bouts of recitative and lyricism, and Hannah is full of ornaments and melismas. While the relationship between Deborah and her mother is reflected in the conversations with Child, I didn't necessarily think that the grandmother needed to be intertwined into the harmonic language. She's the only non-present character in the story and I think depending on how it is it interpreted, it could be rather jarring to have these brief bits of spoken text. In terms of a specific tone or timbre, I'd leave that up to the performers and creative team to decide how to they would like to portray those moments. Each performance of the opera so far has resulted in very different characterizations and it's always fun to hear something new!
Watch this preview with the cast of Non Motus!
FSOO Creator Spotlight: Rain Nox
Introducing the 5th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera showcase winner Rain Nox, creator of the micro-opera The Stranger, in its World Premiere. You may remember Rain's short opera Problems (2017) from the 2nd Annual FSOO.
Performing and producing new works by living composers and librettists offers artists the opportunity for real-time communication. After spending time with the scores and their characters, cast members Cristina Flores, Andy Fleming, Dana Lewis, and Jake Jacobsen had these questions for the creator:
Delilah seems to be torn between wanting Melanie to be happy and thinking her new beau is a douchebag. Is this because she and Frampton think Melanie has an unhealthy pattern of prioritizing mediocre guys she dates, or because Frampton is possessive of Melanie and Delilah is easily manipulated because of her people pleasing nature? Is it more that Guy is mediocre or that the pets have a jealousy complex? I feel like they are going to try and terrorize anyone who might threaten to take away Melanie’s attention.
Rain Nox (RN): I’d like to leave the interpretation up to the audience and performers, but I will say Delilah is the more naïve of the two, so when faced with the negative outcomes Frampton suggests that makes her rethink her position. I have an awesome cat named Chance, and although he’s not quite a Frampton, he can be possessive, but I like to think he wants me to be happy. Even though he never wants me to work on music…
Melanie is written as such a three dimensional character. We get to know her so well within a short period of time. What is your process for creating and developing such vivid and rich characters?
RN: I’m glad you feel that way! I always just knew who Melanie was from the very beginning of the project. I knew she was confident, caring, intelligent, and comfortable with her sexuality, but also struggling with societal expectations of not “having it all” because she doesn’t have a spouse and kids. I tried to use multiple methods of revealing her to the audience (having the animals talk about her, having her talk about herself, and allowing the audience to observe her interactions with the animals and Guy).
The act of taking an idea and following through to create a finished product is no easy task, especially with such a brilliant finished product like this micro opera! How do you stay committed and motivated to take action and write until you complete an entire piece like The Stranger
RN: Since I actually came up with the idea about a year and a half ago but didn’t write it until just before the submittal due date I’m probably not the best person to talk about this. I would say I am very deadline motivated. But there is a certain amount of in the background preparation that happens between when I come up with an idea and when I actually put pen to paper that is indispensable so I try to not be too hard on myself and accept that it is part of my process. Also, an opportunity for a performance by such a great group as One Ounce Opera is highly motivating!
The Stranger is written in movements, 6 in total. They seamlessly weave from one into the other to tell the story, yet each is its own moment. Why did you choose to write this micro opera in movements and how did composing and writing this way inform your creative process?
RN: This probably comes from my musical theatre influence, where there tends to be discrete songs with dialogue in between, only in opera the would be dialogue is part of the songs. For The Stranger, I thought a lot about how much stage time each character should have- for instance Guy has the least amount because he’s just “some guy”. I also thought about making the voice combinations (solo, duet, trio, quartet) varied to make it more interesting for the audience.
Watch this preview with the cast of The Stranger!
FSOO Creator Spotlight: Timothy Peterson and Sara Fetherolf
Introducing the 5th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera showcase winners Timothy Peterson and Sara Fetherolf, creators of the micro-opera The Seance, in its Texas Premiere.
Performing and producing new works by living composers and librettists offers artists the opportunity for real-time communication. After spending time with the scores and their characters, cast members Carol Brown, Jaimie Lowe, Carmen Johnson, Brian Minnick, and Julius Young had these questions for the creators:
What inspired the libretto? The text is pretty heavy.
Timothy Peterson, composer (TP): When New Opera Works invited Sara and me to compose this scene in 2018 for their showcase of premieres by students at the University of Southern California, we were given the parameter that it take place in one time and place. Sara had the idea of setting the scene as a seance both to satisfy this practical need and allow us to explore themes that interested us, such as our need to name and define things in order to understand and accept them, even when our vocabularies fail us. My first collaboration with Sara was a song cycle inspired by the Greek myth of Philomela, so we also have a shared interest in surreal and fantastic storylines!
Sara Fetherolf, librettist (SF): I was thinking a lot about the threat of anthropogenic climate change, and how the earth’s landscapes, animals, and peoples have been drastically affected by industrialization and colonization. Science can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to climate change—scientists have identified the ways human activity is killing the planet, and they are working to mitigate the damage. Real scientists, I think, are full of humility and curiosity. Even so, a lot of the technologies that got us into this mess were a result of a toxic combination of imperialism and scientific hubris. I was interested in exploring these themes in the context of a séance, and to specifically riff on Mr. More’s “man of science” attitude, which I see as connected to his assumption that the dead—many of whom have never gotten to speak before—would behave as he wanted them to. I guess those are some pretty heavy themes!
We definitely feel the characters have a lot of back-story. How long ago the siblings’ mother die? After our first read through the opera, we thought that would be an influence in the plot, although maybe it isn’t. Is there something Mr. More is hoping the Medium -- or the Dead -- will say?
SF: I thought a lot about this—not because it directly affects the plot, but because I wanted believable and developed characters, even in this short scene. In my head, the backstory was that the More parents died when Katherine (Mrs. Foster) was very young, so she doesn’t remember them much. The Mores are old money, and she was raised by nannies and boarding schools. She’s grown up to be a practical, no-nonsense woman who is not particularly close to her brother. Mr. More, however, was a teenager when his parents died, and the grief of losing them—especially his mother—has made him crave explanations about death and the afterlife. Unfortunately, he thinks he can buy the answer instead of accepting the mystery. I think he wants a séance where he gets all the reassurances he needs from his dead loved ones.
But this is just one possible backstory! Ultimately, I wanted to leave it open enough that the audience and the performers could fill in the characters’ histories and motives for themselves.
Where did the inspiration for the personality of The Dead come from? It seems to be more than just the ghost of an Egyptian woman.
TP: When we think of our relationship to the dead, we often think of our lost loved ones. In the historical seances that inspired our scene, spiritualists were most interested in communicating with the spirits of those whom they knew personally. Sara and I were interested in exploring what it might mean if we viewed death as something that concerns more than humans in the present, especially our loved ones. What if we considered the deaths of strangers from the distant past and honored death as a phenomenon that affects the natural world as well, especially due to harmful human activity? In our scene, the Voice of the Dead represents this more expansive embodiment of death.
SF: Yes to all of that. Death is so much bigger than how we often think about it. It’s a natural process that allows for regeneration and new life, and it’s also an injustice that has been inflicted on people and living things that stand in the way of “human progress.” I imagined the Voice of the Dead as a composite of all the many plants, animals, and people who have died and are desperate to say something about it. They have finally been invited to speak to someone who has never bothered to consider their stories, and so they take the opportunity.
Timothy, we're curious whose music influences your composition style the most. What composers inspire you?
TP: I’ve always loved the music of 20th-century French composers. Some of the music that I composed for the Voice of the Dead’s character was inspired by Milhaud’s L'Orestie d'Eschyle, especially his setting of Athena’s supernatural voice in harmony distributed among multiple voice parts. Living composers whose vocal music inspires me include Christopher Cerrone, Elliot Cole, Caroline Shaw, and Ellen Reid.
Watch a preview with the cast of Seance below!
5th Annual Call for Short Operas!
NOTE: The 2019-2020 competition is now closed.
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ONE OUNCE OPERA’S 5th ANNUAL CALL FOR SHORT OPERA SUBMISSIONS!
Composers and librettists: We’d like to formally invite you to submit work to our 5th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera Competition. Winning pieces will be produced and performed by One Ounce Opera in Austin, Texas, as part of the first – and only – short opera showcase in the state.
THE 2019-20 COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
This will be the 5th annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera (FSOO) – the premier short opera showcase of Texas. The popular, award-nominated event celebrates new works and contemporary voices. Creators who identify with a historically underrepresented group (women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, etc.) are highly encouraged to apply.
In addition to having works produced, fully staged, and performed in Austin by a cast of professional singers, One Ounce Opera spotlights each composer/librettist in an informal interview that includes questions from the cast. Each work is highlighted in our newsletter and on social media, and each winner receives a professionally-edited live video and audio recording. At each performance, attending composers/librettists will be acknowledged and awarded a certificate (and some swag).
See composer spotlights and videos from 2018’s 3rd annual FSOO.
Creator spotlights for 4th Annual FSOO are here. Videos from the 4th Annual FSOO are here.
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FAQ:
Where can I see the official rules for the FSOO competition? Guidelines appear on the entry form. The application link is live between June 1st- August 1st, 2019. Please review the rules in detail before submitting any work. Works that do not fit within the guidelines will not be considered.*
When are the performances? FSOO will be two weekends in late February/early March 2020. Exact dates will be posted soon.
Where do you stage the shows? One Ounce Opera transforms a raw, flexible artists’ warehouse in East Austin into an unexpected space for opera performance. The vibe is laid back, accessible, and inclusive.
How do I submit my files? On the entry form, you will supply a link to an online folder. We must be able to download the score, libretto, and an mp3 of the work. For accuracy, please convert all text/score files to PDF and all MIDI files to mp3 before sending. Example of what/where to upload and link to: Dropbox folder, Google Drive, YouTube, SoundCloud, other storage methods that can be accessed via link. The required materials are listed on the form. Please note: direct email of materials will not be accepted.
Will you perform my work with orchestra? FSOO performances are with piano only. We will perform from your piano/vocal score, so make sure it’s performance-ready before submitting.
Am I allowed to submit more than one work? YES! As long as each submitted work follows the guidelines of the competition, we welcome multiple entries. Guidelines can be found on the form.
I submitted more than one opera. Could they BOTH be chosen? YES! However, it is highly likely only one would be chosen.
You guys have chosen my work before. Could I enter again this year? YES. Past winners are welcome to submit new work.
How will I know if my work was chosen? Winning works will be announced via Facebook and a post on this site, and the winners will be notified shortly thereafter. Copies of all parts and any revisions will be due at that time.
How do I keep up with any new developments in the competition? For the latest details, we strongly suggest following One Ounce Opera on Facebook, and adding yourself to the Facebook event page. We will add you to our FSOO newsletter, as well.
Once again, when exactly is the deadline? The hard-and-fast deadline for entry into FSOO was 11:59pm on August 1st, 2019. Only complete applications — with all required materials received as requested by the deadline — will be considered.
I have a question not answered here. How do I get in touch? Click here to send us a message about the competition!
*Note: the competition in 2019-20 is for short operas only. Art songs and song cycles are not being reviewed this fiscal year.
FSOO Creator Spotlight - Pedro Finisterra and Edward Einhorn
As part of the 4th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera, One Ounce Opera is happy to announce the American Premiere of The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Robot, from composer Pedro Finisterra and librettist Edward Einhorn (both of which will be in the house opening night!). The cast -- Julie Silva (Orgo), Robert LeBas (Kingo), Angela Irving (Calco), Brian Minnick (Cleano) and Carmen Johnson (Sally) -- wiggled out of their robot gear to pen these questions for the creators:
Can you tell us how this whole story started, the forms that it took along the way (in searching, we noticed a puppet show!), and how all that happened?
Edward: I originally wrote the puppet play version of this story for a festival called NEUROfest, held in New York in 2006. The idea was that Orgo was a boy on the spectrum, or as it was more commonly called at the time, he had Asperger's. It was performed as part of the NEOROfest and then performed again as part of an evening called Brains and Puppets, which included another puppet play about synesthesia. When Pedro and I were pitching ideas for our Opera Writing Masters degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, we picked this as one of our ideas. There were a few reasons--I knew Pedro was interested in stories for children and stories with a sci fi element. Pedro also was diagnosed with Asperger's when young, so I felt he would be the perfect composer for it. The staff chose this idea for our project, and we went from there. The origin of the story is sort of hidden beneath it, but the story is just a story...it can live on its own, with or without the subtext about being on the spectrum.
Pedro: “The Boy Who Wanted to be a Robot” is the final project of a Master’s degree in Opera Making & Writing that Edward (as a librettist) and I (as a composer) did at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, United Kingdom, during the academic year of 2017/2018. After some time brainstorming ideas, we came up with four (some of them later on were used by Edward in some of his other projects) that we pitched to the heads of Guildhall’s opera department and they picked this one.Even though this piece is an adaptation of Edward’s puppet play, it almost feels to me as a reboot of a media franchise, as this version adds new characters and recycles some important plot events in different ways while still maintaining its essence (yes, Edward and I talked a lot about comic books, movies and video game franchises while brainstorming ideas for this project, as reboots are very common in these mediums). To add up to this, this is a piano version of the opera we presented in London, as the original one made use of an ensemble of 10 performers.
In both the opera and the play that seems to have inspired it, physical contact is not allowed between humans and robots (although Kingo seems to be exempt from that rule), and the robots seem to hold humans in lower regard. Is this simply a byproduct of their logical nature and emotional incompetence as robots, or is there something that happened in their world before this that led to this sort of hierarchical setup?
Edward: For me, the physical contact aspect of the story was partially inspired by the fact that children on the spectrum often have difficulty with physical contact. Temple Grandin famously created a hug machine for herself, so she fulfill her desire to be hugged without the discomfort. In the robot world, hugs are connected to an emotional element they simply find unnecessary. Much like the Wild Child who grew up in the forest, Orgo grows up unused to physical contact, which makes it uncomfortable for him. I was also playing off the trope of the robots or puppets who long to be human, because being human is superior (sometimes we call the show a Pinnochio story in reverse). So in my story, it is the robots who feel themselves to be obviously superior. And of course Orgo, as a child, wants to be like everyone around him, so he sees them as superior as well.
Pedro: Well... even though robots are in control of the world during the events of this opera, they are not necessarily “antagonists” to humanity. On the contrary: they have been trying to save humanity through eugenics because humanity almost got extinct. What is not clear is why they are doing it, as they do not rule themselves by human moral codes, nor feel emotions. Because humans feel emotions and robots are not programmed to comprehend them, only to behave and process information logically, they see these emotions as barriers for logic reasoning. A good example to illustrate this “amoral code” would be why Kingo (SPOILER ALERT) changes his mind regarding Orgo, as to him it’s more important not to create a “broken organic unit” than to save humanity. Although, him changing his mind about something reveals about him an almost human side... Who knows if Kingo is not a cyborg himself?! Or a robot upgraded with organic features. That could explain his motivations...Regarding physical contact, it’s not that touch isn’t permitted between humans and robots, but because human physical contact is heavily driven by emotional reasons (comfort, protection, empathy, sensuality, love, etc.), there is no point for robots to share physical contact for those reasons. I imagine that physical contact in robot society could be motivated more probably for the exchange of information/data, just like ants touch their antennas to transmit hormones that contain useful information for the rest of the colony’ survival.
Sally references there only being 500 humans left. Are those spread out across somewhere or are they all in the same location? Is she the only "real human" living in our story's current location?
Edward: I always envisioned that there was a large outpost of humans in a few days walking distance away, and maybe a few others scattered around the planet. But of course that is fully up to interpretation.Pedro: If humans are not living all in the same location, I assume they at least have to live in a few communities that are aware of each others’ existences. That would be the reason why Sally is able to give a number to Orgo. There might be other surviving humans living in isolated communities, in which case this number would be higher, but there would be no way to know how much higher. I don’t know if she is the only human living in this story’s location, but I am sure that, if the robots chose her for this task, that must mean that, according to their algorithms, she alone is indeed the best shot for getting around this boy’s stubbornness!
Sally seems to be seeking connection as much as, or even more than, Orgo. What did you intend to be the primary drivers of that search?
Edward: Sally is looking for a connection, but even more essentially, she's hoping for the survival of the human race. She wants Orgo to connect to her, because by doing so, he becomes incorporated into the human race. She is trying to demonstrate what it is to be human, and a large part of that is emotional connection.
Pedro: I see Sally as a person divided between her duty towards humanity, but at the same side thrilled to finally meet a new human, even if a genetically engineered one. Just like Kingo has an agenda, so does she. However, she gets attached to this fascinating and eccentric child, which is probably why (SPOILER ALERT AGAIN), in the end, she lets Orgo get transformed, at the cost of her completely loosing hope on humanity’s salvation. She is the character that suffers and looses the most in this opera, as she has witnessed the fall of humanity (or at the very least has been living its consequences), and then, when she was finally given hope (through Orgo, even if he had this childish dream of becoming a robot himself), she ultimately fails on changing his mind and preventing the robots transforming him. She not only seeks connection, but in a way, salvation. That is what Orgo means to her.
Even though the end of the opera is (in humanity’s perspective) sad and/or nihilistic, because we are following Orgo’s perspective (which is, as any normal child his age, self centered), it is functionally a happy ending. Orgo doesn’t get exactly what he wanted, but gets close to it (as he is turned into a cyborg instead of a “full robot”), and by accepting it he is finally able to feel happiness and a genuine connection to both Sally and the robots. In the original puppet play, because he is actually turned into a robot, I don’t think that in the end he is happy. I would say that he just... is.
Edward Einhorn is a playwright, director, translator, librettist, and novelist. His work has been performed in New York venues such as La MaMa, 3LD Art & Technology Center, HERE Arts Center, The New Ohio, St. Ann's Warehouse, the Walter Bruno Theater at Lincoln Center, and the Bohemian National Hall. Outside of New York, his work has been done at Peckham Asylum Chapel (London), Wigmore Hall (London), Milton Court at the Barbican (London), Forth Worth Opera (Fort Worth, Texas), Sacred Fools (Los Angeles), and the Czech Embassy (Washington, DC). He is the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company No. 61: A Theater of Ideas – a New York independent theater company.
Recent shows include The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein, a comic farce about the lives of Stein and Toklas, which received a Critic’s Pick from the co-chief reviewer of The New York Times, Jesse Green; The Neurology of the Soul, which examined the nexus between neuroscience, marketing, art, and love; The Iron Heel, an adaptation of Jack London’s socialist dystopic novel from 1908; City of Glass, an adaptation of the neo-noir novel by Paul Auster; Money Lab, an economic vaudeville combining multiple performance disciplines (dance, opera, puppetry, cabaret, clowning, and interactive games); The Velvet Oratorio, an opera/theater piece commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution; The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig, an adaptation of Havel's final theatrical work; Rudolf II, a play about the 16th Century Holy Roman Emperor in Prague; The God Projekt, a puppet play about the origin of monotheism; and a stage adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The New York Times has called his work "exquisitely ingenious", “dramatically shrewd,” and "almost unbearably funny"; Time Out has called it "challenging, thought-provoking," “mesmerizing,” and “startlingly intense”; and The Village Voice has called it “hilarious, provocative,” and "Inspired absurdist comedy". He has received a Sloan Grant, SEED Magazine’s Revolutionary Mind Award, The NY Innovative Theater Award for Best Performance Art Production of the Year, NYTheater.com’s Person of the Year Award and placement in their Indie Theater Hall of Fame, 2nd Prize from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundations Playwriting Competition, a fellowship from American Opera Projects, and Critic’s Picks in Time Out, The Village Voice, and The New York Times.
He has a BA in Writing from Johns Hopkins and an MA in Opera Writing – Librettos from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. www.edwardeinhorn.com
Born in 1994, Lisbon, Portugal, Pedro Finisterra studied Guitar, Piano, Singing, Double Bass and Composition (with Jorge Pereira) at Conservatório de Música de Santarém, having concluded his secondary studies on Musical Theory in 2013. He did his Undergraduate in Composition at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (2013-16), studying under Carlos Marecos, Carlos Caires and Luís Tinoco. He also had classes with António Pinho Vargas, Sérgio Azevedo, João Madureira and José Luís Ferreira. In 2018 he finished his MA on Opera Making & Writing - Composition Path, at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London, United Kingdom, having studied under Julian Philips. He also had compositions workshops and masterclass with Luigi Abbate, Achim Bornhöft, Guilhermo Klein, Ivan Moody, Apostolos Paraskevas, Ansgar Beste, Julian Anderson, Stephen McNeff, Tapio Tuomela, Ofer Ben-Amots and Jan Jirásek.
He studied Jazz at Hot Club de Portugal (Electric Bass and Combo, with Massimo Cavalli and Gonçalo Marques, respectively) and was a member of Big Band Júnior (2010-14), conducted by Claus Nymark. His composition “Hora de Ponta”, written for this ensemble, is part of their album “Pegadas Azuis”. Since 2017 he has been working with the Portuguese A Capella ensemble “The Spell”, writing arrangements of popular songs for them.
His works have been performed in Portugal, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Australia. Some of his most relevant pieces are: “Prjkt.Hrp” (2015, for Harp and Live Electronics), “¡¿Lamento?!”, (2016, for small ensemble, based on Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas”), “Contos da Criação: Lilith” (2016, an oratorio for Narrador, Soprano, Baritone and Small Wind Orchestra, with libretto by Nuno Cruz, based on the relationship between Adam and Lilith according to the Talmud and the Alfabet of Ben Sirach), “@ctb.exp#1” (2017, for solo double bass, comissioned by the Portuguese state radio and television Antena 2/RTP for the 31st edition of the “Prémio Jovens Músicos” music festival), “Multidão - I. Primeiro” (2017, first act of a monodrama for countertenor and ensemble about a person that suffers from multiple personality disorder, with libretto by Nuno Cruz), “Nymphus – Mithraic Initiation Rite Number Two” (2017, short opera scene for Mezzo Soprano, Tenor, Baritone and Piano, based on the second iniciation ritual of the cult of the god Mithras, with libretto by Edward Einhorn) and “La vojaĝo” (2019, for mixed ensemble, written for the Ensemble Offspring during the Noosa ISAM in Australia). He is also one of the producers of the festival “Peças Frescas – Edição Açores” (Fresh Pieces – Azores Edition), a festival of Portuguese contemporary music that happens since 2014 in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel, Azores. www.pedroffinisterra.com
Admission and info for FSOO here.
FSOO Creator Spotlight - Robert Paterson and Mark Campbell
One Ounce Opera is thrilled to present the Regional Premiere of award-winning composer Robert Paterson and award-winning librettist Mark Campbell's The Whole Truth: A Chamber Opera in Seven Scenes, based on a story by Stephen McCauley, as part of the 4th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera. It is an honor to produce their work! Singers Elise Leung Kotara (Megan A), Allyssa Kemp (Megan B), and Jake Jacobsen (The Man) had these questions for the creators, answered here by Composer Robert Paterson (with a nod of approval from Mark). :)
What are the challenges of composing one role for two voices, and writing comedy?
For me, when composing music with more than multiple vocal parts—operas, for example—the challenge, and I would even say the goal, is to make sure to utilize voice types that compliment each other. In The Whole Truth, Mark’s libretto calls for two female singers, Megan A and Megan B, who represent the “bifurcated soul” of a young married woman. Megan A represents her her outer self (at least the way I viewed her), and Megan B, her inner voice, so to speak. I cast Megan A as a soprano, and Megan B as a mezzo-soprano, primarily because Megan A’s personality seemed brighter, so I associated her brighter personality with a
brighter voice-type. Megan B is a bit more sarcastic, with a somewhat darker, biting sense of humor, so to me, for variety, and because it seemed to work well in a timbral sense, I thought it would be effective to have her role performed by a mezzo-soprano. I could have cast them both as the same voice type, but even for a short opera, it’s nice to have a little more sonic variety via different voices, if only to give the ear a break once in a while by alternating from one voice type to another. Also, since there are moments when they sing together as one, two different voice types make it a little easier to distinguish the voices when they are singing intervals, and that was an important factor to consider.
Regarding composing a comic opera, or at least, one that contains elements of humor, the main challenge is to get out of the librettist’s way, or at least to work with and not against the librettist! Having a sense of comedic timing is critical. It’s incredibly easy to ruin a joke if you’re not careful, but far more difficult to make sure it lands correctly. Often times, critics will comment that sections of comic operas sound too conversational, or have too many recitative sections that don’t flow or whatever, but it’s usually extremely difficult to make humorous moments work if you compose through them and not with them. Mark’s libretti are always so economically-written and so incredibly clear, in the best possible way, so it’s obvious when there are humorous moments. He is masterful at getting out of the way of the composer, which is great, but then the pressure is on even more to “bring it” and make sure his words are humorous when they need to be, with the music! Mark always gives plenty of room for that, which is fantastic.
What elements of Stephen McCauley's story inspired you to turn it into an opera?
Mark introduced Stephen's story to me, and I fell in love with it right away. Initially I was a little hesitant, since I had already written an opera entitled Three Way, three one-act operas about a woman and her android lover, a dominatrix and her client, and a swinger party, respectively, and I didn’t want to become known as “the sex composer”! Or at least, the composer who already writes about people and their complicated sex lives! However, it is a great story, and who would ever turn down an opportunity to do anything with Mark, especially a story like this? It was a win-win all around.
What lead you to change certain things in the original story for the opera, specifically how you created the scene with the carpenter?
Interestingly, Mark had initially written the libretto with less text for the male voice, and no aria or song. I suggested that we include at least one song, and we decided that it might be fun to have him sing a sort of country ballad, or at least, with the simple elegance of Mark’s text, that’s how I set it. It’s a fairly light setting, but then again, he’s a fairly light character!
We're curious about the decision to write two characters for Megan, the woman, and one for all the male characters. Tell us about it!
This was Mark’s idea from the beginning, and I was totally game. I think having one baritone sing all of the male parts gives a fantastic vehicle for that singer. There are a lot of characters, and they are all quite different, so it’s a lot of fun. Also, and perhaps this is the elephant in the room, having only three singers makes this opera very approachable from a logistical and financial perspective. Since the male roles are so small, yet so varied, it seemed to make sense to use one singer for all of them. Also, since the male characters never appear together, yet the female (Megan A and B) are always together, it made sense to use two singers for Megan, and one for all of the male characters.
What message do you hope for the audience to receive, if any?
Personally, I just hope that the audience (and musicians!) have fun with it. Although there are definitely reflective and even serious moments throughout the opera, especially at the end, what’s beautiful about both Stephen's story and Mark’s libretto is how much it represents the human condition. We’ve all experienced the stress of trying to keep it all together, the occasional monotony of relationships, and wanting something more out of life. In this case, we experience it through the lens of a woman who seems to want it all, at least as far as relationships are concerned, yet she can’t keep it all together. I hope audience members leave thinking that this is what contemporary opera can be, and what makes it so wonderful: the possibility of experiencing something fresh—Fresh Squeezed!—and potentially about characters and stories that are of our time, characters and stories we can relate to. Ultimately, I hope your audiences fall in love with our opera and leave wanting more!
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Robert Paterson has won awards for his music in virtually every classical genre, and he has been called a “modern day master” (AXS), and “the highlight of the program” (The New York Times). Gramophone recently noted that Paterson “could probably set a telephone book to music and create something that captivates...” Named The Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation, his music is featured on over twenty albums and his works have been performed internationally by over one hundred ensembles, including the Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and the Albany Symphony, as well as Shreveport Opera and Opera Orlando, among others. This past season’s highlights included performances by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Delaware Symphony, and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, as well as the critically acclaimed Nashville Opera world premiere of Three Way and the New York premiere at BAM. Notable awards include the Copland Award, the Utah Arts Festival award, and a three-year Music Alive! grant from the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA. Paterson’s most recent award is the Alfred I. DuPont Composers Award from the Delaware Symphony, given to a distinguished American composer or conductor who has made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary classical music. Paterson’s works are published by Bill Holab Music. For more information, visit robertpaterson.com.
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Mark Campbell’s work as a librettist is at the forefront of the current contemporary opera scene in this country. A prolific writer, Mark has produced 28 opera librettos, lyrics for 7 musicals, text for 5 song cycles and one oratorio and his works for the stage have been performed at more than 60 venues around the world. The composers with whom he collaborates represent a roster of the most eminent composers in classical music and include three Pulitzer Prize winners. Mark’s best-known work is Silent Night, which received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music and was produced at Wexford in 2014.
Other successful operas include Elizabeth Cree, As One, The Shining, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Later the Same Evening, The Manchurian Candidate, Volpone, Rappahannock County, Approaching Ali, Bastianello/Lucrezia, and The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare. Awards include: a Grammy nomination, the first Kleban Award for Lyricist, two Richard Rodgers Awards, a Larson Foundation Award, and a NYFA Playwriting Fellowship. In addition to his writing, Mark mentors for the next generation of librettists through such organizations as American Opera Projects, American Lyric Theatre, and the American Opera Initiative. Upcoming premieres include: Stonewall for New York City Opera, Today It Rains for Opera Paralléle, Edward Tulane for Minnesota Opera and the book for the musical Les Girls at Théâtre Du Châtelet. www.markcampbellwords.com
Admission and info for FSOO here.