Letters that you will not get:
women’s voices from the great war

Composed by kirsten volness
libretto by kate holland and susan werbe

Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War gives voice to American, British, European, Asian, African and Caribbean women affected by WWI through a series of vignettes that share their responses to the war—from enthusiasm to resignation; support to opposition; the war’s beginning to its end. Combining powerful contemporary music with excerpts from women’s writings on both sides of the conflict, Letters tells the story of the Great War as experienced by the women who lived through it.    

CREATive team

PREMIERE PERFORMERS

MEDIA

PRESS

ARTIST INTERVIEW - “Kate Holland, Susan Werbe, and Sifting Through The Great War” Words First Podcast, July 2022

ARTIST INTERVIEW - “Composer Kirsten Volness and the Opera RBG Supported” Cultural Attaché, July 28, 2022

ARTIST INTERVIEW - “OPERA America Discovery Grant 2020 Recipients” Indie Opera Podcast, June 9, 2022

ARTIST INTERVIEW - “Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War” Visualizing War Podcast, June 30, 2021

ARTIST INTERVIEW - “Suffrage Grant Spotlight: Letters That You Will Not Get” NEA Blog, August 28, 2020

Information

Duration 75’ / no intermission

Commission Commissioned and developed by The American Opera Project. Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War 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.

Premiere July 29 - August 7, 2022 - Irondale Theater, Brooklyn, NY

Roles 6 Singers (3 sopranos, 3 mezzo-sopranos)

Instrumentation String quintet

Development Artists Sarah Beckham-Turner, Briana Hunter, Angel Desai, Maria Maxfield, Caitlin McKechney, Jessica Sandidge; Quintet: Meaghan Burke, Mimi Jones, Elena Moon Park, Andie Tanning, Melissa Tong

Funding 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.