One Ounce Opera will present the World Premiere of The Cookies Call: A Tragic Tragedy during the 4th Annual Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Opera showcase, March 22-24 and 29-31, 2019. This quick romp through a sticky situation features singers Shelley Burton (Emmy), Jake Jacobsen (Cookies), Dalton Flake (The Director), and a Cookies Chorus (Rebekah Staley, Kaylie Warfield, and Andy Fleming), with choreography (yes — choreography!) by local guest artist Laura Walberg (Austin Playhouse, Tapestry Dance, et al). The cast asked Emily Roller, librettist and Peter “Mike” von der Nahmer, composer (who returns for his SECOND FSOO — previously featured in 2017) the following questions, here answered by Emily:
What was your creative process? Did you both work together to create the opera, or was it more like 2 separate puzzle pieces coming together?
Mike and I met at the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU Tisch. We were there to work on musicals, but Mike very quickly started trying to convince me to try my hand at opera libretti as well. I was hesitant. I hadn’t seen many, and the art form struck me as a bit snooty. Just before a long weekend at school, Mike asked me if I could take a look at an opera that he had written to a German libretto. He said he always liked the music, but he would love to have an English version. I spoke a little German—enough to understand the basic plot. I really liked the music, but I thought that the story was heavy-handed and really just heavy in general. I didn’t want to translate it, but I said that I would re-write the libretto to the music that he had already written—just for the fun of it. (I took piano lessons for many years, and while I did not practice enough to play well, I can read rhythm and music enough to write music-first.) He happily agreed to let me try, and I wrote the first draft over that weekend. It was fun! And luckily he did not mind that I turned his “demon†character into personified cookies.
Was irony your main motivation when writing this?
So as you might guess from my answer above, I definitely approached this project with a sense of irony and, to some degree, skepticism for opera as an art form. But the most ironic thing is that this piece launched me into the opera world. I had so much fun writing this piece that I began seriously pursuing other opera opportunities—and I have grown to love and appreciate opera (both the traditional rep and the potential for new American opera) as much as I love musical theater. That said, the general message of the piece still rings true for me. I very much believe in blending “high†and “low†art—and in writing theater that is not just “good for you†but also captivating. I think American opera has the exciting opportunity to integrate forms of vernacular music and updated (dare I say, more entertaining) storylines—while still taking advantage of the power of the classically-trained voice to convey emotion and character and the dramatic side of our human existence.
Was the chorus representative of something else? Our id perhaps?Â
I can definitely understand an interpretation of the chorus as our id. I was thinking of them more as representative of society in general—and the mixed messages we receive. At the time, I was trying to navigate the artistic world of New York, which felt worlds away from the Ozarks (where I grew up). I think New York simultaneously tells us to give into temptation and to withstand temptation. Have another round, but don’t gain that extra pound.
Were “cookies” always meant to be symbolic, or did one of you struggle with giving into cookies on a more personal basis?
Ha! Well, cookies were certainly my combined apple/serpent in the Garden of Eden. But probably the paper that I’m most proud of writing in college was one in which I used my inability to say no to the peanut butter cookies that were always at the dining hall to disprove Plato’s theory about the inexistence of weakness of will. Plato believed that weakness of will does not exist because we always actually make decisions that we believe (deep down) will benefit us. I argued that I knew for certain that that inevitable peanut butter cookie did me no good on any level. (It wasn’t even my favorite dessert, as I am much more of an ice cream woman.) But I still always took and ate one (or two). So I suppose I associate them with our complex human condition. I will also say that the cookies helped me win Mike over on the idea, as his wife is also particularly fond of cookies and closely identified with the heroine of the piece.
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Emily (E. J.) Roller is a writer, librettist, and educator. Read more of her essays, anecdotes, prose, and fiction at http://www.ejroller.com/
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Peter Michael von der Nahmer (“Mike”) is a composer, sound researcher and maker of transformative theater based in New York City. His American/German/Cuban heritage influences the questions of identity, complexity, and transcendent connection that shape his music. He has written over 30 works for musical theater, opera and dance, and over 100 works for concert and film; many have received national/international awards and been performed around the world. His 2018 work of musical theatre, WELCOME TO HELL, premiered in Berlin to critical acclaim and  currently nominated for the most popular new musical of 2018 in Germany. Mike holds a B.A. in composition from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Munich and an M.A. in Music Therapy from the University of Augsburg. He holds certificates in Film Scoring from the UCLA, and in Music Pain Treatment from the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. In May 2015, he received an M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University. Mike’s barrier-breaking, eclectic background explains his passion for music both as artistic expression and as a means to connect disparate cultures. His desire to be an agent of radical connection – to literally create harmony out of apparent dissonance – is his defining motivation.
Most recently he was awarded the 2016 McKnight Visiting composer residency, where he created a 4-hour long musical theater festival with new works by composers and writers from New Ulm, MN based on topics about the German-American heritage. In June 2017 he received an honorable mentioned in the New World Composition Challenge with his piano piece “From Here to Thereâ€, organized by the New York Philharmonic. In 2018 he was the artistic director of the MUSICAL TALES CONCERTO FESTIVAL which was awarded a Small Arts Project Grant as well as his GROWING WISE music theater and science camp for teenagers that received funding from the Optimist Club International “Bringing out the best in children†in Minnesota. He was also awarded a SU-CASA Residency in Queens (supported by the New York City Council, Department of Cultural Affairs, the department for the Aging and the Queens Arts Council)  for his GROWING YOUNG project that deals with questions about transgenerational conflicts, stereotypes of ageism, cultural heritage and social justice and retells the stories of the elderly population when they were teenagers so we can look through their eyes, appreciate and learn from their wealth of experience. https://growingyoung.mutadra.com/behind-growing-young/
Current projects include “Where is the Stillness†commissioned for the “250 piano pieces for Beethoven†to be premiered this Summer in Germany, a new towns hymn for the city of New Ulm, Minnesota to be premiered in October 2019, a new orchestral suite for the Leopold Mozart Zentrum Augsburg/Germany, the dramatic choral piece “Be the Hero†for the youth symphony and choir of the prestigious Camerloher High School Freising/Germany about the “Fridays for Future†movement, the videopera “When Falling…Dive†to be filmed in Fall 2019 in New York and full length opera “The Ayes Have it†about Lucretia Mott and the birth of the women’s movement with librettist Marianna Mott Newirth to be premiered in New York in 2020/21.  www.petermichaelvondernahmer.