Activist Opera Company, White Snake Projects, Will Host Climate Change-Centric 2025 Season

Activist opera company White Snake Projects has announced the launch of its 2025 season of producing a climate change-themed series of performances, conversations, initiatives, and its first community opera. Dedicated to using the power of music theater and the arts to effect climate justice, WSP designed a distinct mix of classical and contemporary music inspired by today's climate crisis.

Over the past years, communities in America and around the world have been severely impacted by climate change - wildfires, floods, drought, extreme heat and cold; creating life-threatening, existential crises that test the strength of our people. White Snake Projects has chosen to address the urgent issue of climate in its 2025 season. For several years now, WSP has tried to practice greener company management techniques, implementing the idea of a circular economy, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. Designing sets and costumes that are made to last and reused in future productions is one of the basic ways WSP is applying circularity to its operations. WSP encourages both the practice of sustainability in opera, as well as promoting the adoption of a philosophy of sustainability that can be woven into every aspect of production, from libretto development to final performance.

"Our passion for the arts and our love for the planet are not mutually exclusive. For several years, White Snake Projects has been implementing environmentally friendlier practices off stage and beyond. This year, we are using opera's onstage platform to have an amplified conversation with audiences to better educate, advocate, and converse about climate change." - Cerise Lim Jacobs, WSP founder and librettist

Sing Out Strong: Environmental Voices

March 14, 2025 @ 8:00 a.m.
Josiah Elementary School, 885 Washington Street, Boston, MA
Tickets: FREE. No registration required.

Sing Out Strong is in the vanguard of WSP's mission, as it reaches out to the Boston and wider communities to source stories of relevance to a theme. Past years' themes have included Emancipated Voices, DeColonized Voices, Immigrant Voices, Incarcerated Voices, and more. Marking its eighth installment, this year's theme of Environmental Voices is in light of the climate crisis. Throughout the year, composers from all over the world - as well as from diverse socio-economic, gender and racial backgrounds - are selected from a Call for Entries. A panel narrows the submissions and the selected composers choose the texts that most resonate with them. The original works are then performed by local singers and musicians in this dynamic showcase. This year's Call for Entries posed the question: "What does climate change mean for your generation?".

Performers: Boston Music Project's Vivaldi Orchestra (Sebastién Ridoré conducting) and soprano (TBA)

To The People Like Us

June 28, 2025 @ 2:00 p.m. + 7:00 p.m.
The Strand Theatre, 543 Columbia Road, Dorchester, MA
Tickets go on sale spring 2025.

WSP returns to The Strand Theatre for the world premiere of To The People Like Us, the company's inaugural community opera. Collaboratively created by young writers at 826 Boston's Youth Literary Advisory Board, To The People Like Us is an original timely story exploring issues of gentrification, climate change, and development in Boston. Set to original music by Mexican-American composer Jorge Sosa, a quartet of singers will be accompanied by a local orchestra.

Composer: Jorge Sosa
Dramaturgs: Cerise Lim Jacobs and Andres Ballesteros
Musicians: Lilit Hartunian (violin), Colleen Brannen (violin), Justin Ouellet (viola), Linda Nwang (cello), Gillian Dana (bass), Dan Pelletier (percussion), David McGrory (piano)
Singers: Nina Evelyn Anderson (soprano), Linda Maritza Collazo (mezzo-soprano), Melisa Bonetti Luna (mezzo-soprano), Jesús Daniel Hernández (tenor)
Lyricists: 826 Boston Youth Literacy Advisory Board writers (names TBA)

White Raven, Black Dove

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