American Female Opera Composers
Quarantine Opera is thrilled to highlight female composers during the month of March. Please note, there are so many wonderful composers blowing up the opera scene today that we indeed have missed many names. We encourage you to keep exploring and celebrating all the great artists out there.
Names to know!
Many contemporary composers are exploring the opera genre in new ways. They are telling new stories and uncovering untold stories, they are exploring new sounds, especially in the electronic realm, and they are bringing a new perspective to opera. Missy Mazzoli is one of the “Female Composers Shaking up the Opera World”, read her blog of the same title at Opera Philadelphia. Contemporary female composers are also creating in other classical music genres, here is a list of composers to watch from All Classical Portland.
A Deeper Dive!
Libby Larsen
Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. With a massive catalogue (over 500 works) she has created for every genre of classical music, including 15 operas/chamber operas. In 1973, she co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum with colleague Stephan Paulus, today that organization is known as the American Composers Forum with a goal to make music creators, and their music, a vibrant and integral part of human culture. Learn more about Libby Larsen at her webpage.
Music exists in an infinity of sound. I think of all music as existing in the substance of the air itself. It is the composer’s task to order and make sense of sound, in time and space, to communicate something about being alive through music. ~ Libby Larsen
Larsen’s 5 song cycle: “Songs from Letters: Calamity Jane to her daughter Janey, 1880-1902”
Missy Mazzoli
Mazzoli is a critically acclaimed composer, the New York Times described her as“one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York.” She is currently a Composer-in-Residence at the the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after previously being composer-in-residence for Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre-Group. She composes for multiple genres, including TV and film (you may have heard her music in the Amazon TV show Mozart in the Jungle). In the Opera genre, Mazzoli has composed five operas/micro-operas, including Breaking the Waves for Opera Philadelphia and Proving Up for Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and Miller Theatre. Read more about Missy Mazzoli from her website.
Listen to the trailer for Proving Up
Listen to the trailer for Breaking the Waves
Kamala Sankaram
Kamala Sankaram is a vocalist, playwright and actress, who creates freely between the worlds of experimental music, creative music, and contemporary opera. Her works have been commissioned by Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Opera on Tap. Sankaram has composed 11 operas/chamber operas/ children operas including the critically acclaimed Taking Up Serpents and Looking at You. Read more about Kamala Sankaram from her website.
Listen to the “Geek Trio” and “The Algorithm Learns” from Looking at You, both excerpts can be found here.
Nkeiru Okoye
“A Musical storyteller, researcher, and historian, Okoye’s best-known works incorporate social science themes, while combining a wealth of influences and styles.” Musical influences include Gilbert and Sullivan, the Gershwins, Sondheim, Copland, gospel, jazz, and Schoenberg. She is best known for her opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed the Line to Freedom and “sung story” Invitation to a Die-In. Read more about Nkeiru Okoye from her website.
Learn more about as well as hear excerpts from Okeye’s Opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed the Line to Freedom here.
Listen to the premiere of Invitation to a Die-In
Here’s to the ladies who… compose!
A play on Sondheim’s lyrics aside, we would like to toast the great female composers with a cocktail inspired by great women leading amazing companies. Our cocktail is an Uncle Nearest Paper Plane, made with Uncle Nearest Small Batch and Amaro Nonino, both spirits are from companies lead by amazing women. Read about the founder of Uncle Nearest and the sister team leading Grappa Nonino and watch John build the cocktail here.
Ingredients: 3/4 oz Uncle Nearest Small Batch Whiskey, 3/4 oz Amaro Nonino, 3/4 oz Aperol, 3/4 oz Lemon Juice, Lemon Peel for Garnish Directions: Place all the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake, double strain into a chilled coupe, garnish with a lemon peel. Enjoy!