Welcome to Opera Nova / Works in Progress NYC! Join for two days of opera at Saint John’s in the Village. Be among the first to preview the development of new works through pure voice and piano.

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Experience arias from new operas by:

Sarah Wald (USA) and Andrea Fineberg (USA)

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda is a free adaptation of Luigi Pirandello’s Henry IV. The title character is a woman who, while reenacting Empress Matilda’s struggle for the English throne, suffers a head injury and wakes up believing that she is Empress Matilda in the year 1143. Two of her friends enlist the help of a quack doctor to bring her back to the present day. Matilda later reveals her awareness that her current life is a facade, but her overall lucidity is still in question. The doctor’s plan eventually goes awry, and the final scene is chaos.

Jacob Elkin (USA)

The Snake

The Snake is a satirical opera in one act based on the events of the 2nd presidential debate between and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016. This darkly humorous chamber opera recounts the events of the debate, word for word, and casts a critical eye on the right, the left and the media.

João MacDowell (Brazil/USA)

and Nina Smart (Romania/Sierra Leone/USA)

Wild Flower

Young Geanina is asked to choose between her Romanian family and a stranger, her biological father, a diplomat from Africa. Her choices send her spiraling towards initiation into a secret society. While in Africa, Nigeria teaches her how to be rebellious, Sierra Leone tests her courage, and Geanina carves her destiny by fleeing to America. Wild Flower is the true story of the opera’s librettist and human rights activist, Nina Smart, and explores themes of power in tradition, patriarchy, race, heritage, love, womanhood, West/Non-West, migration, and body politics.

Yunxuan Zhu (China/Singapore),

Courage Barda (USA), ShangYang Fang (China)

Burying the Mountain

Burying the Mountain is a song cycle composed by Courage Barda for tenor Yunxuan Zhu that sets three poems from award-winning poet ShangYang Fang’s 2021 book of the same name. Barda’s music captures the themes of grief, identity, memory, and consolation present in Fang’s poetry, observing the depth of narrative in each of the song cycle’s movements. Barda, Fang, and Zhu bring their own cultural heritage to this interdisciplinary collaboration, examining the human experience from their unique perspectives.

Sombrio da Silva (Brazil), Guilherme Cobelo (Brazil) Vanesa Liberato (Brazil)

Imperfect Decisions

An intimate story about love and the struggle to make sense of life through the eyes of Clara, a Brazillian writer in her early 30s. A hopeless romantic since her teenage years, she finds herself in a very vulnerable position after going through a violent divorce and is forced to reevaluate her values and priorities.

Trey Walton (USA)

A Bloody Sunday

“Ain’t Gon Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” from an opera called “A Bloody Sunday,” refers to March 7, 1965, when civil rights activists, led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams, marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand voting rights. They were brutally confronted by law enforcement at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, resulting in severe violence and injuries. The event garnered national attention, highlighting the struggle for civil rights and leading to greater support for the Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law later that year. This scene is after the death of Martin Luther King! Sarah is upset and is putting her foot down to white supremacy.

Presented by the International Brazilian Opera Company.

www.iboc.nyc

IBOC is a recipient of the Opera America Gilman Grant and supported by institutional and commercial partners: Consulate General of Brazil NYC, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, Brazilian Endowment for the Arts, IF Studio NYC, Sossego Modern Brazilian Design, and WireLOS Inc.

Canaviais Cachaça and Paris Baguette sponsor Saturday’s 5-7 pm reception.