For the sixth year in a row, West Edge Opera and Earplay chamber music ensemble has announced the lineup for their showcase of new opera works, SNAPSHOT.
SNAPSHOT is an opportunity to get new operas on their feet, and give audiences a first look at developing works from West Coast composers and librettists.
Over the 2021 summer, Earplay and West Edge Opera announced a “call for scores” from composers and librettists through academic programs, arts institutions, and artistic circles from composers and librettists.
“Since its inception in 2017, Snapshot has developed into a terrific platform to help West Coast opera-makers perfect their craft. This year’s selections especially reveal an embarrassment of riches from our vibrant new work community here in California” says Earplay conductor Mary Chun.
This year’s SNAPSHOT program will take place at The Taube Atrium Theater on Saturday, April 9th at 7pm, and Sunday, April 10th at 3pm. Tickets are $40.00 and will be available for purchase in February from the West Edge Opera.
The 2022 SNAPSHOT line up includes The Dark Horse – a music-theatrical treatment of Enzo Ferrari’s rise to success – by composer Cesar Cancino and librettist Scott DeTurk, both Bay Area artists.
Lilith by Oakland based composer/librettist Michael Kaulkin is a setting of J.R. Salamanca’s 1961 novel about a recovering WW2 vet who interacts tragically with a primordially seductive patient at a mental institution.
Also exploring the margins of love is Cristina Doesn’t Need Saving by composer/librettist Gabrielle Rosse, about a 15-year-old girl, estranged from her home, who seeks love and community in an uncertain environment of drugs and predation.
Remembrance by composer/librettist Jean Ahn centers on a Korean boy who has lost his mother and sister in the Korean war. Bewildered, he cries and reminisces.
And finally The School for Girls who Lost Everything in the Fire by composer Ryan Suleiman and librettist Cristina Friès, is about three girls, homeless and held hostage after a terrible fire, seeking love and adventure amid fear of the unknown adult world. Suleiman and Fríes participated in SNAPSHOT 2019 with Moon, Bride, Dogs.