The American Opera Project Announces WORKING WOMEN: Songs Of Suffering and Suffrage Online Tour

The American Opera Project announces Working Women: Songs of Suffering and Suffrage, a program combining a trio of "Songs of Suffrage" presented alongside excerpts from the chamber opera Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War as an online tour ending on November 11, 2020, Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day.

Working Women connects the women of World War I, the women who fought for suffrage, and the women of today through the power of song, using archival footage alongside documentary-style music videos by filmmaker Lesley Steele.

SONGS OF SUFFRAGE Kathryn Bostic Commission by The American Opera Project finalizes Trio of New Songs Written for Women's Suffrage

On the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote, AOP has commissioned Emmy-nominated composer Kathryn Bostic (Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am) to create "Her Sovereign Blackness a Beautiful Light," a song expressing the injustice and disenfranchisement Black women faced during the Women's Suffrage Movement.

The new work written for soprano Jasmine Muhammad finishes the trio of songs, which includes two others by composer Jessica Rudman, and composer Tony Solitro with librettist Alice Eve Cohen, that will premiere under the title "Songs of Suffrage".
Rudman's "Beyond the Power of Any to Deny" uses text from Susan B. Anthony's 1872 speech voicing the right of all citizens to vote, and will be premiered by soprano Lori Phillips. "Revolution Begins in the Bedroom," by Solitro and Cohen, depicts Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President, who was arrested and jailed just before the election of 1872 and will be premiered by mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti. Both composers created their selections during their fellowship in the 2019-2021 cycle of AOP's opera writing training program Composers & the Voice.

LETTERS THAT YOU WILL NOT GET Kirsten Volness chamber opera gives voice to the women of WWI

The chamber opera Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War (composer Kirsten Volness, librettists Kate Holland, Susan Werbe) gives voice to American, British, European, Asian, African and Caribbean women affected by World War I through a series of vignettes that share their responses to the war. Using women's writings on all sides of the conflict, Letters tells the story of the Great War as experienced by the women who lived through it. It is scored for an all-women ensemble of six singers (Angel Desai, Briana Hunter, Maria Lindsey, Caitlin McKechney, Jessica Sandidge, Sarah Beckham-Turner) and string quintet (Meaghan Burke, Mimi Jones, Elena Moon Park, Andie Tanning, Melissa Tong). Excerpts were recorded at the artists' homes in July 2020 and the opera is scheduled to premiere in the 2021-22 season in a fully-staged production by AOP.

The American Opera Project's Artistic Director, Mila Henry says this about the project:

"At a time of great unrest and revolution- when those taken for granted are now in the fore, when lives have been lost to disease and discrimination, when voices need to be amplified and communities reminded to vote- I find the themes of Working Women: Songs of Suffering and Suffrage ever relevant, showing us that despite massive strides forward, we are still several steps back. Letters That You Will Not Get demonstrates how the Great War provided an opportunity for women to break out of their assumed roles and show the world that their actions and opinions mattered, bursting the door to women's suffrage open; but our 'Songs of Suffrage' reminds us that while some battles were won, some took years to achieve... and others continue to be fought today."

Working Women: Songs of Suffering and Suffrage is supported by an Art Works award from the National Endowment for the Arts, making it one of 1015 grants nationwide that the agency has approved in this category. Mary Anne Carter, chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, said "We celebrate organizations like The American Opera Project for providing opportunities for learning and engagement through the arts in these times."

More information about Working Women: Songs of Suffering & Suffrage: www.aopopera.org/working-women.

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