Photograph of six Polaroid-style pictures with printed letters spelling 'SNAPSHOT,' arranged in a staggered row on a wooden surface.

“Fostering new opera is an expensive and difficult endeavor, and success can be elusive. Leave it to the fearless, small-budget West Edge Opera to wade in where other companies of its size barely dip a toe.”

-Michael Zweibach, SFChronicle.

Snapshot 2026

West Edge Opera is proud to support these four visionary new operas and creative teams in the 2026 edition of Snapshot, the company’s celebrated showcase of operatic works-in-progress. 

Collection of four presentation slides, each with a title and composer credits, laid on a wooden surface. The slides include titles 'Threshold of Brightness,' 'The Joining,' 'Cry Wolf,' and 'Case Closed.'

Meet the Creative Teams of Snapshot 2026

A woman in a red blazer speaking into a microphone, with a background featuring a painting of a football player wearing a helmet and holding a football, near a crashed car, with text overlaying the image that says 'CASE CLOSED' and credits to Martin Rokeach and Steven Blum.
A middle-aged man with gray hair holding glasses, looking to his left, against a cloudy sky backdrop.

Martin Rokeach. Composer

A middle-aged man with a bald head and gray beard standing outdoors in front of green foliage, wearing a teal sweater.

Steven Blum. Librettist

Michelle Ahearn is a local TV news reporter who is about to be aged out of a job. In one horrible moment she causes an accident that kills local football legend Case Stahl and then flees the scene; a story that she’s assigned to cover making her a star while the lie she’s chosen to live causes her to lose everyone she loves. 

A dark architectural corridor with columns and arches, overlaid by a graphic of a white open mouth with sharp teeth and pink text that reads "Cry, Wolf."
A woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing white eye makeup and glitter tears on her face, resting her chin on her hand against a background of pink glittery zigzag lines on a beige backdrop.

JL Marlor. Composer

A woman with black hair, glasses, and a plaid blazer smiling at the camera against a plain background.

Clare Fuyuko Bierman. Librettist

It's a gorgeous Friday night at UCLA but instead of going out, Austin and Zach are inside, online, comparing their jawlines to pictures of strangers and trying to become "wolves". Austin's little brother Ethan is visiting for the weekend and just can’t understand their new obsession. Cry, Wolf explores the ways these young men use love, friendship, and genuine care for one another to push themselves down darker and deeper ideological rabbit holes.

A woman in a beige shirt holding a tablet and touching her neck, with three people sitting in the background in a dark room with a large screen. The text reads 'Threshold of Brightness' and credits Niloufar Nourbakhsh as composer and Lisa Flanagan as librettist.
A woman with short hair, wearing a colorful patterned dress and glasses, smiling and sitting on the grass in a park with trees in the background.

Niloufar Nourbakhsh Composer

Close-up of a woman with short brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a light-colored headscarf and a pink top, outdoors in a blurred background.

Lisa Flanagan. Librettist

Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad defied convention to write about life, culture & sexuality as freely as a man would, becoming a pariah and cut-off from friends and family. On February 13, 1967, after a violent incident, she finds herself in her childhood home at the start of a Solstice feast.

Album cover titled 'The Joining' showing four iridescent holographic human arms reaching upward and inward, framing a view of tall apartment buildings against the sky.
Close-up portrait of a man with curly dark hair, wearing black glasses, and a light stubble. He has a gentle smile and is looking slightly to the side, with blurred lights in the background.

Isaac Io Schankler. Composer

A person with short brown hair, light skin, and tattoos on their arms smiling and resting their head on one hand, sitting at a table with a vintage electronic typewriter and a pink speech bubble keyboard.

Aiden K. Feltkamp. Librettist

In the world of The Joining, golems are common place artificial companions for the citizens of the Underground. When disaster strikes and traditions must break, can the Undergrounders rely on the prosperous Overland to use the golems for good? 

Snapshot 2026 Cast

Portrait of a smiling man in a dark suit, white shirt, and light-colored tie against a dark background.

Chad Somers

Black and white photo of a young man with curly hair, wearing a casual button-up shirt with shoulder epaulets, looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.

Matt Hidalgo

A woman with short curly hair wearing a red dress and a diamond necklace, standing in front of a wooden structure with red curtains.

Julia Hathaway

A woman with dark brown hair styled in loose waves, smiling and wearing a blue satin blouse, on a dark grey background.

Chelsea Hollow

A woman with dark, curly hair wearing a strapless black top, gold earrings, and red lipstick, touching her hair near her ear, with a neutral expression.

Mariya Kaganskaya

A close-up of a man with curly gray hair and a beard, looking off to the side outdoors.

Daniel Cilli

A woman with curly dark hair, wearing earrings and a lace black top, smiling at the camera.

Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai

A young man with short black hair, a beard, and a mustache, wearing a dark shirt and maroon blazer, sitting at a table with his hands clasped, smiling at the camera in an indoor setting with warm lighting.

Kyle Tingzon

Close-up headshot of a young man with light skin, blue eyes, dark brown curly hair, and light facial hair, wearing a blue T-shirt, outdoors with blurred background.

Eric Levintow

Portrait of a woman with light skin, wavy light brown hair, and blue eyes, wearing a royal blue dress against a dark background.

Leandra Ramm

Close-up photo of a smiling woman with long, wavy brown hair wearing a purple top and a necklace.

Mary Chun/Conductor

A middle-aged man with a curly gray beard and hair, wearing a dark suit and a blue shirt with a green patterned tie, smiling at the camera against a neutral background.

Jonathan Khuner/Conductor

About Snapshot

In collaboration with San Francisco–based Earplay (www.earplay.org)/ SNAPSHOT provides composers and librettists with something essential—and increasingly rare: institutional support at the earliest, most vulnerable stage of creation.

SNAPSHOT gives artists the opportunity to workshop short operatic works or excerpts of larger projects with world-class vocalists and instrumentalists, bringing new ideas off the page and onto their feet. These performances are presented to the public and reviewed by leading arts voices including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Classical Voice, KDFC, and KQED.

New operas don’t enter the canon overnight. They are built through experimentation, revision, and live performance. SNAPSHOT creates the space for that process—offering artists the time, resources, and professional environment needed to develop bold new work as it competes for a future on the operatic stage.

By investing in artists early, SNAPSHOT isn’t just presenting new music. It’s shaping the future of opera. 

All participating composers and librettists will also be provided a feedback session with leaders in the new opera field. Previous panelists have included Khori Dastoor (Houston Grand Opera), Bill Gorjance (Peer Music Publishing), Kip Cranna (San Francisco Opera Dramaturg Emeritus), and Joseph Marcheso (Opera San Jose Music Director).

SNAPSHOT ARCHIVE

2024
2024
2023
2023
2022
2022
2021
2021
2020
2020
2019
2019
2018
2018
2017
2017