SNAPSHOT 2023

March 18, 7 PM, Hillside Club in Berkeley

March 19, 3 PM, Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco

“Snapshot” also serves as a reminder of how far-reaching and diverse opera can be in its approach and subject matter...that leaves you repeatedly thinking, “Oh, I want to see that when it opens!' - Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle

“ranging widely in subject from historical to futuristic, ...from lyrical to stridently modernist...sometimes poetic and at other times starkly prosaic.... Some tinged with comedy, while others fiercely confrontational...a stimulating laboratory." -Nicholas Jones, SFCV

Three different places, three different times: Ying Ying Chang reads Hansel and Gretel to her young daughter Iris, while the older Iris, now a journalist, learns of the horrors of the Rape of Nanking, and the old Japanese soldier Shiro Azuma recalls his own part in that tragedy.

A woman with shoulder-length black hair sitting at a piano, smiling at the camera.
Close-up of a middle-aged man with a beard and short hair, wearing a dark patterned shirt, smiling softly.

Shuying Li, Composer ; Julian Crouch, Librettist

A woman with long dark hair, wearing a white shirt and a beaded necklace, standing in front of a rustic wooden background.

A complex relationship develops between the mother of a kidnapped journalist and her son’s young minder, who, after the son’s death in captivity, connects with the mother and is lured into federal custody in the West.

A smiling woman with short, wavy brown hair wearing a black spaghetti strap top and a gold necklace, standing in a colorful indoor setting.

Luna Pearl Woolf, Composer; Andrea Michelle Stolowitz, Librettist

Set in a post-tech San Francisco, Cal and Gal develop avatars Kal and Qal to explore Port City: where neurological systems are turned into memory maps.

Close-up portrait of an Asian man with long black hair, slight beard, wearing a black zip-up jacket, against a gray background.
Close-up of a young man with short, dark, curly hair, wearing a red jacket, in an indoor setting.

Byron Au Yong, Composer; Christopher Chen, Librettist

Portrait of a woman with curly brown hair, wearing a light-colored floral top and earrings, standing outdoors with green foliage background.

Tonight, the musicians of the Morpheus Quartet are perfectly in sync – in their dreams! – as the verbal counterpoint of their subconscious desires yields a surprising kind of bed-chamber music.

A man with glasses, short curly hair, and a beard, wearing a black shirt, smiling at the camera against a dark background.

Beth Ratay, Composer; John Glore, Librettist

1939. Surrealist Claude Cahun, who has just moved into a new home on the Isle of Jersey—in retreat from the rise of Fascism—writes a letter to André Breton. As Claude’s partner Marcel joins in Claude’s reflections, Charlotte, their young local housekeeper, unwittingly intervenes.

Close-up portrait of a middle-aged woman with glasses, gray hair, wearing a blue patterned shirt, smiling softly, standing against a plain white background.
Young man with dark hair, beard, wearing a white shirt and blue blazer, standing outdoors in front of a building with light-colored wall.

Stephanie Fleischmann, Librettist; Matthew Recio, Composer