SONGS OF SUFFRAGE (2019-20)

On the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote, AOP commissioned Emmy-nominated composer Kathryn Bostic (Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am) to create "Her Sovereign Blackness a Beautiful Light," a song expressing the injustice and disenfranchisement Black women faced during the Women’s Suffrage Movement. The new work joins songs by composer Jessica Rudman, and composer Tony Solitro with librettist Alice Eve Cohen, that premiered under the title "Songs of Suffrage," commemorating the 2020 Women's Suffrage Centennial, and acknowledging the complex history of the fight for progress.

Rudman's “Beyond the Power of Any to Deny” uses text from Susan B. Anthony’s 1872 speech voicing the right of all citizens to vote. “Revolution Begins in the Bedroom,” by Solitro and librettist Cohen, depicts Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President, who was arrested and jailed just before the election of 1872. Both composers created their selections during their fellowship in the 2019-2021 cycle of AOP’s opera writing training program Composers & the Voice.

Video direction, editing and 16mm cinematography by Lesley Steele
Audio engineering by Brett Parnell at Bear in a Barn
Additional audio/VIDEO recording by Chris Comfort
Filmed on location in artists' homes and in New York City.

"Her Sovereign Blackness A Beautiful Light" was commissioned by The American Opera Project. "Beyond the Power of Any to Deny" and "The Revolution Begins in the Bedroom" were created through The American Opera Project's Composers & the Voice program, a two-year, tuition-free fellowship for composers and librettists that provides experience writing for the voice and opera stage. To learn more, visit aopopera.org/composers-voice

Working Women: Songs of Suffering and Suffrage is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The development of Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, as well as general funding from The Howard Gilman Foundation. Composers & the Voice is supported by a multi-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Premiere: Online 2020 / The American Opera Project / Eve Gigliotti, mezzo-soprano; Jasmine Muhammad, soprano; Lori Phillips, soprano; Mila Henry, pianist and music director

• Instrumentation: voice and piano

• Text: see above

Brooklyn Cinderella

Composed by Nkeiru Okoye

Commissioned in 2011 and premiered in 2012 on the I Hear America Singing program, Brooklyn Cinderella is based on the poetry of three Brooklyn children, in classes headed by local poet Angeli Rasbury.

Inspired by the poem by Walt Whitman, I Hear America Singing is a new music initiative that commissions composers to create operatic songs based on the poetry and prose of Americans of all ages and all walks of life. Created by American Opera Projects and the Walt Whitman Project in 2009, I Hear America Singing seeks to express the varied thoughts, feelings, and stories of the people of our nation into a communal voice that will resonate for all.

"Kindergarten, Part I"- Najaya Royal
"Brooklyn Cinderella" - Tristan Regist
"If I Were a Doll" - Aliah Gilkes
"Kindergarten, Part II"- Najaya Royal

The third commissioned work of IHAS, "Brooklyn Cinderella" is a setting of poems by three Brooklyn children written in poetry workshops led by Brooklyn writer Angeli Rasbury. Brooklyn Cinderella is a co-commission from AOP and The Walt Whitman Project. Made possible, in part, with funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Premiere: Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC /THE VOICE OF BROOKLYN, part of Make Music NY / American Opera Projects, Fort Greene Park Conservancy and The Walt Whitman Project. / Adrienne Danrich, soprano; Mila Henry, pianist

• Instrumentation: voice and piano

• Text: poems by children from Brooklyn

Songs from the F Train

Composed by Gilda Lyons

Songs from the F Train is a compilation of poems written by three Brooklyn school children. The students were participants in a poetry workshop led by Brooklyn writer Angeli Rasbury in Fort Greene. This composition is the first commissioned work of American Opera Projects' program I Hear America Singing. Inspired by the poem by Walt Whitman, I Hear America Singing is a new music initiative that commissions composers to create operatic songs based on the poetry and prose of Americans of all ages and all walks of life. Created by American Opera Projects and the Walt Whitman Project in 2009, I Hear America Singing seeks to express the varied thoughts, feelings, and stories of the people of our nation into a communal voice that will resonate for all.

“I’m Smart” - Alexis Cummings, age 12
“I am From The Ghetto ‘Brooklyn’” - Najaya Royal, age 12
“When Randa wears red” - Samori Covington, age 9

Premiere: Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC / Make Music New York / American Opera Projects, Fort Greene Park Conservancy and The Walt Whitman Project. / Nicole Mitchell, mezzo soprano; Tom Bagwell, pianist

• Instrumentation: voice and piano

• Text: poems by children from Brooklyn

Songs from the A Train

Composed by Gilda Lyons

"Sometimes i get tired of Brooklyn"- Keanu Stowe, age 6
“A Billionaire” - Tyler Forsythe, age 12
"Mama is so jazz" - Tristan Regist, age 10

The second commissioned work of IHAS, "Songs from the A Train" is a setting of poems by three Brooklyn boys - Keanu Stowe (age 6), Tristan Regist (age 10), and Tyler Forsythe (age 12). The poems were written in poetry workshops led by Brooklyn writer Angeli Rasbury. Songs from the A Train is a co-commission from AOP and The Walt Whitman Project. Made possible, in part, with funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Premiere: Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC / BEAT Festival / American Opera Projects, Fort Greene Park Conservancy and The Walt Whitman Project. / Jorell Williams, baritone; Mila Henry, pianist

• Instrumentation: mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano

• Text: poems by children from Brooklyn