A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
Music by Sheila Silver
Libretto by Stephen Kitsakos
Based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini
a THOUSAND
SPLENDID SUNS
“I wanted to write an opera about these women because I fell in love with them – their courage, their heroism, and the depth of their humanity.
I see A Thousand Splendid Suns as a universal story of love. Audiences will identify with these women as they discover that the
human spirit can survive and transcend the most challenging of circumstances.”
- Sheila Silver
A Thousand Splendid Suns is set in Afghanistan from the mid-1960’s thru the emergence of the fundamentalist Taliban in the late 1990’s. It tells the story of two Muslim women, born a generation apart, one an uneducated bastard child and the other an educated modern beauty, who are each forced into marriage with the same brutal man, 20 years apart. Cold to one another at first, they bond in a loving mother-daughter relationship and make heroic sacrifices for one another as war surrounds them and their husband’s abuse mounts. A story of love and passion, the two heroines emerge not only as symbols of the universal bond that exists between women, but as women who defy victimhood.
The opera in two acts is composed for 11 singers and 2 children (one of whom is a singing role) and no chorus. It is scored for an orchestra of 28-40, including bansuri (bamboo flute) and tabla (Indian drums). Silver’s music is infused with the color of raga based North Indian classical music, which is at the heart of the music of Afghanistan.
Khaled Hosseini’s novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns have sold more than 10 million copies in the United States and more than 38 million copies worldwide in over 70 countries. His other works include And The Mountains Echoed & Sea Prayer.
A Thousand Splendid Suns will have its world premiere at Seattle Opera in February and March 2023.
Developed and co-commissioned by American Opera Projects with a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works. Libretto commissioned by American Opera Project with a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional development support provided by the Martha Boschen Porter Fund, a Fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Sheila Silver has received a Guggenheim as well as a 2014 Opera America Discovery Grant for Female Composers (funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation) to support the opera.
Commissioned by Seattle Opera, with support from an Opera America Commissioning Grant (funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation). Libretto commissioned by The American Opera Project with a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
CREATORS
PRESS
“Only a few composers in any generation will enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary. “
- Wetterauer Zeitung Germany
“A Thousand Splendid Suns is more than a story of survival in the fact of what seem to be insurmountable odds. It is a story of the unconquerable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two indomitable women.”
- Contemporary Literature
Information
Duration 75' / no intermission
Commission Developed and co-commissioned by American Opera Projects with a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works. Libretto commissioned by American Opera Project with a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional development support provided by the Martha Boschen Porter Fund, a Fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Sheila Silver has received a Guggenheim as well as a 2014 Opera America Discovery Grant for Female Composers (funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation) to support the opera.
Commissioned by Seattle Opera, with support from an Opera America Commissioning Grant (funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation). Libretto commissioned by The American Opera Project with a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Development Partners Seattle Opera, Hudson Area Library, The Studios of Key West, OPERA America (in association with NOVUS NY orchestra as part of the OPERA America New Works Forum)
Development artists: Maya Lahyani, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Deanne Meek, Ron Lloyd, Thor Arbjornnson, Ian McCuen, Matthew Scolin, Steve Gorn, Jonathan Singer, Sara Jobin, Leslie Swackhamer, Randall Scarlata, Kendra Broom, Deanne Meek, Vira Slywotzky, Risa Renae Harman, Nicholas Masters, Tandy Cronyn, Anne-Sophie Andersen, Hikaru Tamaki, Frank Cohen, Christopher Cooley
Premiere A Thousand Splendid Suns will have its world premiere at Seattle Opera in February and March 2023.
Publisher Staged performances of this work require licensing through the composer.
Additional website: https://www.sheilasilver.com/1000-splendid-suns-3/