Snapshot 2026
West Edge Opera is proud to announce the four visionary new operas and creative teams selected for the 2026 edition of Snapshot, the company’s celebrated annual showcase of operatic works-in-progress.
Tickets on Sale January 2026
First Congregational Church, Berkeley, February 28, 2026 @ 3pm
San Francisco, The Taube Atrium Theater, March 1, 2026 @ 3pm
Martin Rokeach Composer
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.
JL Marlor Composer
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.
Clare Fuyuko Bierman. Librettist
Niloufar Nourbakhsh Composer
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.
Issac lo Schankler Composer
Aiden K. Feltkeamp Librettist
Collaborating with San Francisco-based Earplay (www.earplay.org) as the instrumental ensemble, SNAPSHOT is an opportunity for Composers and Librettists to put shorter works or excerpts of longer works on their feet with world class vocalists and instrumentalists. The performances are attended by the general public and are profiled and reviewed by high profile publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Classical Voice, KDFC, and KQED.
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).
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?