Photographs of white 3D letters spelling out 'SNAPSHOT' scattered on a dark wooden surface.

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 promotional images for different performances or events, each featuring a title and credits to composers and librettists. The titles are 'Threshold of Brightness,' 'The Joining,' 'Cry Wolf,' and 'Case Closed.'

February 28, 2026 at 3pm

First Congregational Church, Berkeley

2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

March 1, 2026 at 3pm

Taube Atrium Theater, San Francisco

Veterans Building 401 Van Ness Avenue
(at McAllister) San Francisco

General Seating: $42.50 online. $40 at the Door.

Underwriter Seats: $252.50 online. $250 at the Door.

Underwriters enjoy premium seating and will be acknowledged publicly. Support goes directly toward artists in the program.

Meet the Creative Teams of Snapshot 2026

Poster for a show titled 'Case Closed' featuring a woman with dark hair in a red blazer holding a microphone, and an illustration of a football player in a blue uniform number 11 running with a football, with a crashing blue car in the background.
A middle-aged man with gray hair in a dark blue shirt holding a pair of glasses, looking to his right, against a blue background.

Martin Rokeach. Composer

A middle-aged man with a beard and shaved head standing in front of green leafy bushes, wearing a teal-green sweater with a zipper and a blue shirt underneath.

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. 

Artwork featuring a stylized wolf's open mouth with sharp teeth, with the words 'CRY, WOLF' in bright pink letters across the teeth. Background of a covered walkway with columns, possibly part of a historic building.
Close-up of a woman's face with glitter makeup and teardrop-shaped sequins near her eye, with pink glittery curly letters spelling 'LOVE' overlayed on the image.

JL Marlor. Composer

A young woman with black hair, wearing glasses, a beige striped shirt, and a plaid blazer, smiling softly against a light gray background.

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

A woman in a tan shirt reading from a tablet during a performance on stage, with children seated behind her. The text Overlaid reads 'Threshold of Brightness.'
A woman sitting on grass outdoors, smiling and wearing a colorful patterned dress, with glasses on her head and a necklace.

Niloufar Nourbakhsh. Composer

Close-up of a woman with fair skin, green eyes, wearing a checkered headband and a red linen shirt, smiling outdoors.

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.

An outdoor view looking up at sky framed by tall apartment buildings, with three holographic hands and a heart floating in the center, and the text 'The Joining'.
Close-up of a man with curly dark hair, wearing black glasses, and a slight smile, with a blurred background.

Isaac Io Schankler. Composer

A smiling person with short brown hair, blue eyes, and tattoos on arms, sitting at a table with a keyboard and a black electronic device, in a room with wooden floors and a pink shirt with small purple heart patterns.

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? 

Aiden K. Feltkamp. Librettist

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
2023
2022
2020
2021
2019
2018
2017