New Voices
On April 15, Little Opera Theatre of New York presented an excerpt of my new work-in-progress, Flash of Recognition. This was part of their New Voices presentation featuring works-in-progress by three composers, Kim Sherman, Inessa Zaretsky and yours truly.
Flash of Recognition is inspired by the work of the American photographer Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959). Disfarmer's quirky, deeply intuitive and sometimes tragic photographs document the lives of the inhabitants of Depression and WWII era Herber Springs, Arkansas. The opera imagines a series of interior monologue arias by Disframer that start to reveal his intimate desires and the motivations behind his haunting photographic images.
This work continues in the vein of Context of Love Lives, diving head-first into remix culture to explore the status of gays and lesbians is society across different times and through different personas. This is the second installment in what will be a trilogy focusing on public versus private outcomes of three major themes of the gay/lesbian experience: self-destruction, isolation and repression.
