What is Chamber Opera? compiled by Jill Leahy Pittsburgh Opera According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, chamber Education thanks our opera is a term used to designate operas of small and generous supporters: relatively intimate proportions using a chamber orchestra rather than a full orchestra. Some say Benjamin Britten Allegheny Regional Asset District invented the name chamber opera when he and the English American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. November 10, 2011 Opera Group needed works they could take on tour and Bayer USA Foundation perform in smaller spaces or theaters rather than larger Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation opera houses. Cape Ann Opera (Gloucester, MA) describes Bridges General Contracting The Jack Buncher Foundation The New York Times, chamber opera as needing minimal sets and a limited Anne L. & George H. Clapp number of vocal roles. Nico Muhly said it this way: "In order Charitable Trust for a chamber opera to have legs, you want to have more Clearview Federal Credit Union women's voices than men's and you want to keep it to seven Dominion Foundation Sara Krulwich/ Eaton Corporation or eight people." Ripped from the headlines— Eden Hall Foundation EQT Foundation Libretto Stephenby Karam G by Jill Leahy Meet the Composer First Commonwealth Financial Corporation the Real Book of Mormon? Nico Muhly is a 32-year-old classical Fort Pitt Capital Group Do you wonder how librettists and composers get their ideas for operas? Production Photo by Tim Matheson at Vancouver Opera Vancouver at Tim Matheson by Photo Production and contemporary music composer who The Frick Fund of the Buhl Foundation Many famous operas use plays or novels as bases for the storylines, but was born in Vermont, ironically near the Giant Eagle Foundation within these storylines you can find real, historical facts: Tosca incorporates The Grable Foundation birthplace of Joseph Smith (the founder Hefren-Tillotson, Inc. historical references to the political climate in Italy between Napoleon of Mormonism). At the age of ten, Muhly The Heinz Endowments sympathizers and those who supported imperial rule; Madama Butterfly has began to study the piano, and after Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield at its core a semi-autobiographical diary of a real U.S. naval officer stationed earning a degree in English from Intermediate Unit #1 in Japan. According to the Huffington Post , Dark Sisters composer Nico Columbia University, attended the Levin Furniture Music Nicoby Muhly Muhly thinks all operas are political: “I can’t think of one opera that isn’t Dark Sisters Juilliard School, where he completed a Massaro Corporation political in some way. When you look at Rameau, Handel, Mozart, they were Master's degree in Music. He worked as Photo byMurphy Matthew Richard King Mellon Foundation all looking at the world around them socially and politically. Così fan tutte is National Endowment for the Arts an editor, conductor, and keyboardist for the American an incredibly political opera.” Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Dark Sisters composer Phillip Glass. Muhly’s orchestral works have been Pennsylvania Department of Community & Dark Sisters , a chamber opera, premiered by the American Symphony Orchestra, the • Premiered by Gotham Chamber Opera on Economic Development shares many similarities with a story Juilliard Orchestra, the Boston University Tanglewood Pennsylvania Department of Education November 9, 2011 at Gerald W. Lynch that gained national media attention Theater, John Jay College Institute, the Boston Pops, and more. He has scored films as The PNC Financial Services Group in 2008 when the U.S. government • Commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, in well as ballets, and his second chamber opera, Two Boys, PPG Industries Foundation conjunction with New York City’s Gotham raided a polygamist settlement in which was inspired by a real-life internet crime, was Bobby Rahal Automotive Group Chamber Opera and Brooklyn’s Music- Reed Smith Eldorado, Texas that was run by a Theatre Group performed at The Metropolitan Opera in 2013. The Techs - MetalTech self-styled “Prophet” named Warren Triangle Tech Group Jeffs. The Yearning for Zion Ranch houses members of the FLDS— Meet the Librettist United States Steel Corporation Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints—a splinter group of the mainstream Stephen Karam is a 34-year UPMC and UPMC Health Plan karam.php karam.php Mormon Church, officially called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day -old, award-winning Saints. The Mormon Church outlawed the practice of polygamy in 1890 and American playwright who For more information on excommunicates those who continue the practice to this day. grew up in Scranton, PA and graduated from Brown Pittsburgh Opera's education To do research for Dark Sisters , Nico Muhly and librettist Stephen Karam did University. He travelled to programs, please contact: extensive reading of the available literature on modern FLDS, but they didn’t want to create a piece that focused on just the aspect of polygamy. They FLDS sites with Nico Muhly Marilyn Michalka Egan, Ph.D. to do research, which really wanted to look at the lives of the women involved in the FLDS Director of Education community and portray the emotions these women feel and the thoughts they enabled him to create the libretto for Dark Sisters before [email protected] Muhly composed the music. Karam’s play, Sons of the 412-281-0912 ext 242 have, rather than to make moral judgments about their lifestyle. Prophet , a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American Pittsburgh Opera They invite the audience to observe a world where women are expected to family, was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama http://www.papermag.com/2011/12/playwright_stephen_ 2425 Liberty Avenue practice perfect obedience and compete for sexual attention, willingly give and winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Study Guide to the Opera their young daughters to be married to men who could be their grandfathers, Critics Circle, and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Play. www.pittsburghopera.org and to above all, always . “ Keep Sweet .” Practice of Polygamy in Mormonism, LDS, and FLDS Dark Sisters Synopsis by Jill Leahy Origins of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) In the 1820s, there ACT I A lunar eclipse. Against the severe landscape—red earth, sharp cliffs, and endless sky—that was a Protestant religious revival movement in the U.S. known as the Second Great surrounds a polygamist compound in the American Southwest, five mothers cry out in despair. State officials Awakening. During its heyday, millions joined existing evangelical denominations and have just raided their homes and removed all of their children, under the suspicion that minors are being many more became members of newly-formed denominations, one of which was the abused and forced to marry by members of the sect. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The LDS was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr., who claimed to have been visited by an angel named Moroni, who told him The husband of the five women, a professed Prophet of God, discloses that he has received a Revelation. where to find “golden plates written by a prophet named Mormon” that had been buried He must journey into the desert, where he will receive guidance: holy words that will ensure the return of near his home in western New York. Smith used the Book of Mormon as the basis for their children. The Prophet instructs his wives to “keep sweet” while he is away, explaining that total Salt Lake City Temple of the Church his church, which was to restore Christianity as practiced by the apostles. of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obedience is necessary to ensure their salvation and the safe return of their children. Historically, Mormons have experienced antagonism from both religious and secular groups, largely due to the Eliza (the fifth wife) has visions of her only daughter, Lucinda. A room decorated with scripture and looming practice of polygamy, or plural marriage. Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, moved many Mormons to the portraits of past Prophets triggers a memory: the day of her wedding. She was 16, afraid, an unwilling bride. largely-unsettled Utah territory. Young was a strong supporter of plural marriage and his name seems to be the Eliza does not want her daughter to suffer the same fate, but can’t imagine how they could ever leave this one most connected to the word polygamy. During the late 1800s, the federal government passed laws making life. She has no friends or knowledge of the outside world. She has no way of making money or affording a the practice of polygamy illegal, and finally in 1890, the LDS issued a “Manifesto” that ended plural marriage in place to live. the church. Utah became our 45 th state in 1896. The modern-day LDS continues to prohibit polygamy, while still explaining why it once condoned it. As night slowly turns to day, Eliza passes the time with her other sister-wives. Almera is haunted by dreams of her mother and grandmother, while Presendia and Zina work diligently to pass the time, longing for their Origins of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) During the fight for state- husband’s return. Ruth is tormented by mental illness and the memory of her two sons, both of whom died hood, when the Mormon Church officially announced that it no longer condoned the practice of plural marriage, tragically. many followers felt that the church was moving away from the fundamental teachings “revealed” to Joseph Smith. This turmoil drove many followers to leave the LDS church and form their own sects of Mormonism. Ruth discovers a letter in the Prophet's study and gives it to Eliza.