CIM Opera Theater to Present Nico Muhly's DARK SISTERS in February

CIM Opera Theater will present Dark Sisters, a 2009 opera by Nico Muhly about a woman’s attempt to escape from a repressive religious sect. 

“The opportunity to stage an amazing work by a composer who is very hot at the moment was one I couldn’t pass up,” said JJ Hudson, interim artistic director of CIM Opera Theater and director of the production.

“CIM is the perfect place to do a work like this, and doing this will help our students build the confidence they’ll need when they enter the professional world.” 

Performances of Dark Sisters take place at 2pm Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 1 and 2, in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland. Tickets, $15 and $18, are available now.

The contrast between L’Étoile and Dark Sisters could hardly be starker. Where the former is a comedy designed to entertain, the latter is a weighty drama certain to spark serious thought and discussion. 

Consider the cast of characters. Instead of mad kings, lovesick princesses, and delusional astrologers in a fictional universe, students in Dark Sisters will portray complex, realistic figures: a cult prophet and his several wives, each of whom is struggling in her own way.

Specifically, the tale traces the emotional and spiritual awakening of Eliza as she pulls away from the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, a sect that broke from the mainstream Mormon church over the practice of polygamy. The opera draws on facts from the real-life raids of FLDS compounds and the true stories of women who lived in them. 

“I feel a responsibility to do it justice and be faithful and respectful in my portrayal of what they’ve been through,” said soprano Lisl Wangermann, who will share the role of Eliza with Alyson Culbertson. 

“I hope people view all of the women in this opera with kindness and understanding and carry that forward to other people in their lives.”

Soprano Calysta Jacobs, who plays Ruth, echoed that sentiment and noted she also relishes the opportunity to explore a contemporary work and sing in a choral setting with other female vocalists. 

“It’s going to sound awesome when we put it all together,” Jacobs said. “It’s really important, as a young singer, to have a chance to sing a new piece. This is what I’m at CIM for.”

Jacobs, Culbertson, and Wangermann are three members of a predominantly female double cast that includes students Ella Sobkowicz and Shira Ziv as Zina; Kiana Lilly and Zara Smith as Almera; Caroline Friend and Morgan Potts as Presendia; Yasmin Gerardi and Logan Windley as Lucinda; and Davis Fischer and Colin DeMatteo as the Prophet and King, respectively. 

Rakefet Hak, music director of UCLA Opera Studio, will conduct the performances and Hudson will serve as stage director. Costumes will be designed by Emily Kemmerer and lighting will be designed by Cassie Goldbach. The opera will be sung in English with English supertitles. Composer Nico Muhly will respond to questions from listeners following the performance on Feb. 1. 

“Stephen Karam [librettist] and I are always delighted to see how performers engage with this very challenging material, which is at once contemporary and evergreen,” Muhly said.  

“The intensity of the family dynamic on stage...creates a tightly knit musical team which, with any luck, translates into an intense communication with the audience.”  

Hudson’s hope is slightly different. Beyond providing students with an invaluable performing experience, his goal with Dark Sisters is to incite independent reflection and conversation, to send patrons home with a feast of food for thought. 

“I hope people leave breathless,” he said. “I want them to walk away asking ‘Now what?’ It’s good to leave people with that question, and to leave it unanswered.”
 

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