The AOP Mixtape #1: No More! Live at Joe's Pub | We made this for you.
A live, handwritten love letter of music, featuring world premiere songs from seven contemporary American operas. It’s all our emotions in a playlist.
It’s the latest in music theater and contemporary opera performed by incredible artists, introduced by Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas.***

April 14, 2022 at 7pm ET
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York, NY 10003

***Due to unforeseen circumstances, our host, John C. Hume will be unable to join us for tonight’s event. He will be missed.

SIDE A

Track #1: “Sudden Blood”
Vocals
David Merino
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello)

LINER NOTES from composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone and librettist Karen Russell:
All across America, people on the brink of despair begin to have the same nightmare. A song will not leave their heads—a terribly beautiful music. Its victims include Felisberto Robles, a closeted Queens, NY teenager whose boyfriend has recently died. In this selection from The Night Falls, Felisberto relives the vertigo of falling in love and the pain of losing the one person who truly knew him.

Track #2: “Dee’s Aria”
Vocals
Aaron Casey
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums)

LINER NOTES from composer Joseph Rubinstein:
This is a fierce aria in which Dee Legendary - the Mother of the House of Legendary - reminds her drag children why she is the mother of the house, and why they joined the group in the first place. If they have doubts now, this should dispel them.

Track #3: “Olha’s Aria”
Vocals
Andrea Jones-Sojola
Band
Mila Henry (piano)

LINER NOTES from librettist John de los Santos:
Based on a Ukrainian folktale where spider webs are hung on holiday trees (not doing so brings bad luck). This legendary spider spins webs on an undecorated tree, which sparkles in the light of dawn (thus creating the first strands of tinsel). The generosity of a creature that most people would fear sets in motion the most special holiday. In our story, a poor woodcutter, who raises his children on his own, cannot afford to pay the rent to their histrionic landlady. Here we see her complain about the hardships of having too much! While we won’t hear it tonight, the father then pleads leniency for his children, establishing the dire circumstances the family faces at a time when many others have so much given to them. 

Track #4: “Dream Day”
Vocals
Alice Tolan-Mee and Rima Fand
Band
Grey McMurray (mandolin)

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Track #5: “Earth Spirit Dream”
Vocals
Rima Fand, Daisy Press and Alice Tolan-Mee
Band
Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello)

LINER NOTES from composer Rima Fand:
In the song, “Dream Day,” Ana as a child plays in nature, and feels herself to be the landscape. In the song “Earth Spirit Dream,” Ana dreams of climbing to the precipice, where she is confronted by an otherworldly Earth Spirit who appears as a reflection in the polluted lake. The Earth Spirit demands that Ana speak for herself. As she does, the forested world spins out of control and the earth trembles. Since the Earth Spirit is a mythological character who emerges from the American landscape, I tapped into my experiences playing fiddle music in the Appalachians.

Track #6: “The Dancers”
Vocals
Caitlin McKechney
Band
Leah Asher (violin), Andrew Yee (cello)

LINER NOTES from librettist Susan Werbe:
This song sets to music a poem by British writer Edith Sitwell, written perhaps in reaction to the 1916 Battle of the Somme when 20,000 British soldiers died on the first day of conflict. The poem’s speaker is imagined feverishly dancing each night to keep the horrors of the war at a distance.

Track #7: “Resist”
Vocals
Stephanie Chou
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Lauren Siess (viola), Matt Evans (drums), Stephanie Chou (sax), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Andrew Yee (cello)

LINER NOTES from composer Stephanie Chou:
Comfort Girl is a jazz-opera examining the lives of 'comfort women’, a cruel euphemism for the more than 400,000 women who were abducted into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during WWII. It's a tribute to these young women’s incandescent courage, not only while in captivity during the War, but also—in a cruel irony—when they returned home to their families, who didn’t always welcome them back with open arms. More than half of the victims were Chinese girls, imprisoned in their own homeland, as war raged throughout Japanese-occupied China. Most died or were killed during the war. The few who survived stayed silent about their horrifying ordeal, because it was seen as shameful, even treasonous. Their story remains relevant today, as survivors continue fighting for justice, historical revisionism threatens progress, and human trafficking remains a global issue. The music is inspired by survivor testimony.

SIDE B

Track #8: “My Name is Caroline”
Vocals
Justine Aronson, Gelsey Bell, Christian Mark Gibbs, Amy Justman, Paul Pinto
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums), Grey McMurray (guitar)

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Track #9: “Write On”
Vocals
Gelsey Bell, Justine Aronson, Amy Justman
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums), Grey McMurray (guitar)

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Track #10: “On Repeat”
Vocals
Justine Aronson, Gelsey Bell, Christian Mark Gibbs, Amy Justman, Paul Pinto
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums), Grey McMurray (guitar)

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Track #11: “I Met Dennis Wilson Once”
Vocals
Amy Justman
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums), Grey McMurray (guitar)

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Track #12: “Green for What is Seen”
Vocals
Christian Mark Gibbs, Justine Aronson
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums), Grey McMurray (guitar)

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Track #13: “No More”
Vocals
Paul Pinto, Justine Aronson, Gelsey Bell, Christian Mark Gibbs, Amy Justman
Band
Mila Henry (piano), Marina Kifferstein (violin), Leah Asher (violin), Lauren Siess (viola), Andrew Yee (cello), Matt Evans (drums), Grey McMurray (guitar)

LINER NOTES from librettist Kelley Rourke:
In the heyday of the seventies underground, Bobby DeSoto and Mary Whittaker – passionate, idealistic, and in love – design a series of radical protests against the Vietnam War. When one action goes wrong, the two must erase their past, forge new identities, and never see one another again. Fast-forward to the 1990s. Mary lives in the suburbs with her fifteen-year-old son, Jason, who spends hours immersed in the music of his mother’s generation. She has no idea where Bobby is, whether he is alive or dead.  A few towns away, an aging hippie calling himself Nash presides over an anarchist bookstore, drawing the disaffected youth of the next generation into a shifting series of “groups” and “collectives.”  

Shifting between the protests in the 1970s and the consequences of those choices in the 1990s, Eat the Document explores the connection between the two eras — their language, technology, music, and activism.

ARTISTS

Christian Mark Gibbs is appearing courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera.

CREATIVE TEAMS

PRODUCTION TEAM

Mila Henry / Music Director
Andrew Yee / Band Contractor
Mike Gurfield / Recording Producer
W. Wilson Jones / Stage Manager
Kirk Baltzell / Assistant Stage Manager
Ashley Soliman (Terrible Boogie) / Graphic Design
Meagan Brus / Creative Content Producer
Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas / Introduction and Closing
Marky Hinojosa / Joe’s Pub Performance Coordinator
Maria De Barros / Joe’s Pub Performance Coordinator
Ania Washington / Lighting & Technical Supervisor
Jon Shriver / Production Manager
Jessie Moore / Artist Relations and Operations Manager
Jill Pangallo / Interim Artist Relations and Operations Manager

SPECIAL THANKS

Joe’s Pub
John Glover and Kaufman Music Center
John C. Hume
Kyle Pfortmiller
Jonathan Woody
Steven Pisano / Photographer

ABOUT THE AMERICAN OPERA PROJECT

AOP's mission is to develop and present new and innovative works of lyric theater, provide a creative home to emerging and established artists, and engage contemporary communities in a transformative operatic experience.  

In 2019, American Opera Projects became The American Opera Project. But we are still AOP. As AOP, we continue a proud legacy of being at the forefront of the contemporary opera movement for over thirty years through the commissioning, developing, and producing of opera and lyric theater projects, training programs for student and emerging composers and librettists, and community engagement.

AOP is recognized for its cross-genre experimentation in works such as the dance chamber opera Hagoromo starring Wendy Whelan (BAM, 2015) and the interdisciplinary work Darkling (East 13th Street Theatre, 2006), which combines poetry, music and projection; stories of African-American history including The Summer King (Pittsburgh Opera, 2017) and Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom (Irondale, 2014); and numerous groundbreaking works on LGBTQ themes like Paul’s Case (UrbanArias, 2015), based on the short story by Willa Cather, Patience & Sarah (Lincoln Center Festival, 1998), the first opera about a lesbian relationship, and the chamber opera As One (BAM, 2014), the first opera about a transgender person. As One, which was developed and premiered by AOP, has since become the most-produced opera written in the 21st century, with over two dozen separate productions.

Additional AOP world premieres include Today It Rains (co-production with Opera Parallèle, 2019), Savage Winter (co-production with Pittsburgh Opera, 2018), The Echo Drift (co-production with PROTOTYPE, 2018) and The Blind (co-production with Lincoln Center Festival, 2013).

Operas that were developed by AOP and premiered with partner organizations include The Summer King (Michigan Opera Theatre, 2018 and Pittsburgh Opera, 2017), Lucy (UrbanArias, 2017 and Milwaukee Opera Theatre, 2014), Independence Eve (UrbanArias, 2017), The Scarlet Ibis (PROTOTYPE, 2015), Paul's Case (PROTOTYPE and Pittsburgh Opera, 2014; UrbanArias, 2013), Séance on a Wet Afternoon (New York City Opera, 2011), Before Night Falls (Fort Worth Opera, 2010) and Heart of Darkness (Opera Parallèle, 2015 and London's Royal Opera House, 2011).  

AOP further expands the operatic field through its training programs The NYU Opera Lab, in partnership with NYU and for students and alumni in The NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and Composers & the Voice, AOP’s in-house, two-year fellowship program for emerging composers and librettists. 

STAFF

Matt Gray General Director
Mila Henry Artistic Director 
Meagan Brus Director of Marketing and Communications
Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas Director of Development
Joel Kalow Associate General Manager
Charles Jarden Director of Strategic Planning 
Yuriko Shibata Administrative Assistant
Rosamund Dyer Administrative Assistant
Jay St. Flono Administrative Assistant
Naomi Ramirez Accounting Consultant
W. Wilson Jones Resident Production Stage Manager and Database Administrator
Caitlin Mead Grant Writer
Alexa Dexa Grant Writer
Adrienne Danrich Executive Producer and Creator of Music as the Message original series

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sarah Moulton Faux, J. David Jackson, Charles Jarden, W. Wilson Jones, Mark Kalow, Emily Manzo, Christina B. Murphy, Kevin R. Myers (President), Norman Ryan

ARTISTIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Mark Campbell, Thom Collins, Sasha Cooke, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Alexandra Enyart, Susan Gonzalez, Briana Hunter, J. David Jackson, Laura Kaminsky (Chair), Jessie Montgomery, David Michalek, Ravi Rajan, Kimberly Reed, Huang Ruo, Craig Zobel

Help us kick off our Spring Fundraiser with a donation to the AOP Mixtape!

FUNDING AND SUPPORT

THE CHRISTMAS SPIDER
Developed by The American Opera Project. The Christmas Spider is currently seeking co-commissioners and presenting partners.

COMFORT GIRL
Comfort Girl was made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation. The first two previews and premiere performance of Comfort Girl were made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. LMCC empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Manhattan and beyond.

The audio recording/CD of Comfort Girl has been made possible by funding from generous individual donors, and from the Puffin Foundation.

The "5-min promo” presentation, part of OPERA America’s New Works Forum, was made possible, in part, by a generous and deeply appreciated grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The development of Comfort Girl as a chamber opera is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

EAT THE DOCUMENT
Eat the Document is currently in development with The American Opera Project, and received previous development at Milwaukee Opera Theater. Eat the Document is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

HOUSE OF LEGENDARY
House of Legendary is currently in development with The American Opera Project, in association with Seagle Music Colony. It has received development workshops and support from AOP’s Composers & the Voice program, Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Showcase, and The Hermitage Artist Retreat. AOP is currently seeking co-commissioners and producers for the World Premiere.

The development of House of Legendary is supported in part by a Repertoire Development Grant from OPERA America’s Opera Fund.

LETTERS THAT YOU WILL NOT GET: WOMEN’S VOICES FROM THE GREAT WAR
Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War was developed by The American Opera Project and is currently seeking co-commissioners and presenting partners. The original 25-minute song cycle version of Letters (for three sopranos, one mezzo-soprano, violin and cello) was commissioned by Susan Werbe and written for Opera Cowgirls and Hotel Elefant.

The development of Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Recording of the 2022 World Premiere of Letters is made possible in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.

Letters That You Will Not Get is made possible through the generous leadership gifts of Lauren Adelman, Carrie Baldwin-Sayre, John Bates, Christina Bott Murphy, Marni Davis, Pegeen Rubinstein, Barbara Suter, Jean Telljohann, Denise VanLeuven, and the late Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

THE NIGHT FALLS

The Night Falls is currently in development with The American Opera Project and has received generous project support from New Music USA and BalletCollective. The Night Falls was commissioned by BalletCollective and developed during a Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals 2018 residency.

The Night Falls, a dance opera, was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Howard Gilman Foundation, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. Funding for the creation The Night Falls was provided by BalletCollective.

PRECIPICE
Precipice is currently in development with The American Opera Project. Participating organizations that have helped to develop Precipice are New Georges and Paper River, LLC. The commissioning of Rima Fand for Precipice received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. The commissioning of Susan Zeeman Rogers for Precipice was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The development of Precipice received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

The American Opera Project’s current season is made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Amphion Foundation, The BMI Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

AOP is a member of OPERA America, Fort Greene Association, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, the New York Opera Alliance, and Alliance of Resident Theatres/ New York (A.R.T./NY).

The American Opera Project (American Opera Projects, Inc.) is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.