Composer and Soprano
Opera
Current Project: Violetta
Libretto by Leo Balkovetz
An adaptation of Guiseppe Verdi's La Traviata set in 1989 in NYC. Violetta is a transwoman singer/songwriter. Alfredo is a transman writing for an independent queer magazine and son of a wealthy man who does not approve of his new life and the woman he chooses to be with. All the while Violetta is dying from HIV/AIDS.
Wanting: 3 Mini Operas about Queer Dating and Relationships
The Misperception 10 min
The Date 16 min
Epilogue 5 min
Instrumentation: 2 sopranos, 2 trans-identifying singers, violin, viola, and piano
Full Staged Premiere May 16, 2021
Livestreamed from Pickman Hall, Cambridge MA
Kristen Marion, Idina
Julia Marcus, Tasha
Soren Austenfeld, Asher
Scott Scarlett Kluger, Billie
Tuan Nguyen violin
Yuek Sze (Zoe) Chau viola
Luping (Robyn) Xu and Jules Frenette piano.
Video Premiere of The Misperception
May 7, 2020
Kristen Marion, Idina
Cortlin Presley, Tasha
Written as an expansion of The Misperception. The Date depicts two people who meet on a dating app and are on their first in-person date. Billie is so shy she can't bring herself to interact. Asher is so anxious they can't stop talking and calm down. In Epilogue, it is revealed that Tasha, from The Misperception, and Billie, from The Date, are roommates and they talk about what's happened to them in their day.
Riven Driftwood
Libretto by Louise Edwards
Premiered: December 7, 2014. Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall
Original Cast and Ensemble:
Christine Jay soprano, Mother
Sarah Kahn straight-tone soprano, Son
Quinn Gutman soprano, Moon
Brendan Case baritone, Sea
Caterina Yetto violin, Hannah Dara viola, Nicholas Loucks bass gamba, Jessica Bieniarz cello, Casey Karr bass, Randal Chaves-Camacho and Carson Frattus percussion, Ana Nelson clarinet, Jacob Blizard guitar, and Aida Baladian and I-Lin Tsai piano.
Duration: 32:02
A mother and son travel to their country's new land to be reunited with the father. The gods of the moon and sea have seen this land and its people destroyed by the hands of the father and other people from his country. Their anger develops into a storm that sends the mother and son's ship astray and crash on a deserted island. The mother dies from the shipwreck and her ghosts helps to comfort her son on this island until he dies.