In early 2023 MassOpera brought the three arias workshopped in the summer of 2022 to perform at Opera America’s New Works Forum in New York City on January 11, 2023. The Forum is a multi-day conference for producers and creators of new operas across North America.  Several company representatives were interested in talking more about bringing Caravana to their cities. We are looking forward to forming a commissioning consortium and giving Caravana a rolling premiere across North America. 

We are grateful for Opera America’s support in helping us present at this event and to Longy School of Music at Bard College and Chelsea Theatre Works for providing space to bring Caravana this far!

You will notice that 7 of our 8 finalist applicants are listed below.  One of our finalists requested to remain anonymous, and out of respect for their artistic integrity and privacy, we are honoring that request.

IT RAINED ON SHAKOPEE

Cast: 5 women, 1 man

In 2017, The composer and I became mentors at Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee, a women-only state prison. This opera is inspired by our experience inside the prison. Our story follows the self-redemption of two inmates who are rejected by their families, and looks into the incarceration system in Minnesota, where the number of women in prison has increased 1029% since 1980.   

On a street corner, Little Girl is bullied because of her incarcerated mother. Inside a correctional facility, Mother Inmate anxiously waits for her daughter’s annual visit on Mother’s Day. But the daughter fails to show up.  The Prison Guard escorts a Young Inmate to her cell. Her parents failed to show up as well.  The Young Inmate and Mother Inmate bond through the shared experience of abandonment.

CITY OF SPECTERS

Cast: 2 women, 1 man

Believed to be the first work by a North Korean dissident smuggled out of the country, Bandi’s collection of short stories – The Accusation– provides arguably the most frank and intimate look into the daily lives of North Koreans.  In “City of Specters,” a young mother uses the giant portrait of Marx in the city square as an instrument of fear to hush her sickly son from crying by likening the Communist icon to the O-bi, a fearful mythical creature.  The story focuses on an initially fearless woman who puts her immediate personal needs (taking care of her son) above any blind duty to the State. All other characters chastise and “awaken” her to the reality that to survive in this totalitarian society, she needs to exercise caution and fear.– “City of Specters” exposes the plight of North Koreans and warns about the dangers of blind subordination to political proclamations that even we in the United States ought to fear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhJSXyD8fQ4&ab_channel=TheoPopov

[UNTITLED]

Alicia Hall Moran has asked us to keep her proposal confidential.  Below is a brief biography on Alicia:

Alicia Hall Moran, whose talents crisscross the artistic map, sings (from the Village Vanguard to Carnegie Hall, Opera of the North to Broadway), writes (Tidal Magazine, Amsterdam News, Princeton University Press), educates (Inaugural Chamber Music Artist in Residence at Frost School of Music and Creative Associate at Juilliard), collaborates (currently on view at Guggenheim: “Breakdown” with Simone Leigh & Liz Magic Laser and recently, Lee Mingwei with Bill T. Jones for “My Labyrinth” at Metropolitan Museum of Art), composes (her acclaimed albums Heavy Blue and Here Today), and is commissioned by festivals (Venice Biennial and Whitney Biennial to Poetry Society of America and Brooklyn Youth Chorus) to bring forth newly-inspired work that evokes the depth of the past.  As Ford Foundation Art for Change Fellow, Isabella Stewart Gardner Artist in Residence, Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Hayden Visiting Artist at Yale, or the inaugural artist resident award winner at National Sawdust, Ms. Moran is known worldwide for her no-holds-barred style of urgent art-making and contemporary, classical, and American vocal practice.

THE CHALLENGER

Cast: 2 women, 3-6 mixed chorus/ensemble

January 28, 1986. The Challenger spaceship is preparing for take-off. The nation watches in awe as seven brave astronauts board the spaceship. Among them is teacher Christa McAuliffe, selected from over 11,000 applicants to the new Teacher in Space project and set to become the first teacher in space. Barbara Morgan, also a teacher, watches the launch with anticipation. She was Christa’s back-up, second in line to be onboard. Seventy-three seconds after launch, the Challenger suddenly explodes in mid-air. Barbara is devastated at the loss of the shuttle, the loss of her dear friend, and the realization of how close she came to meeting the same fate. The Teacher in Space program is cancelled permanently. In a series of flashbacks, Barbara recalls memories of Christa. Barbara is determined to still make it to space herself.  With the cancellation of the Teacher in Space program, Barbara has no option but to go through full training; she embarks on a 12-year journey to join NASA as an astronaut. In 2007, Barbara finds herself in Christa McAuliffe’s exact seat on a new spaceship, STS-118, and successfully makes the journey into space.