CONCERT PROGRAM I Give You My Home: Rose Standish Nichols Music and libretto by Beth Wiemann Live Performance: June 2022 (TBA) SALT An experimental film Music by Bahar Royaee and written and directed Deniz Khateri Live Performance: November 17, 2021 Film Screening: TBA ELLIS Music by Gabriele Vanoni and libretto by Ewa Chrusciel Live Performance: October 2 & 3, 2021 Film Screening: TBA FEATURED ENSEMBLE Aliana de la Guardia Soprano, Artistic Director, Founding Artist Mike Williams Percussion, Artistic Advisor, Founding Artist Dr. Alina Betancourt Woman (SALT) Suono Vivo is a Boston-based recording service focused on all styles of classical music. https://www.suonovivoboston.com/ I GIVE YOU MY HOME: ROSE STANDISH NICHOLS Rose Standish Nichols A site specific chamber opera inspired by the life of Rose Standish Nichols, with music and libretto by Beth Wiemann and in collaboration with the Nichols House Museum of Boston. Learn more online: https://guerillaopera.org/rose-standish-nichols SYNOPSIS This world premiere opera paints a portrait of a strong-willed, intelligent, and professional Boston woman and highlights her eorts to aect change through the Women’s Peace Movement, Women’s Surage and in her professional work as a landscaper. In this scene, “Formal in Design,” Rose shares secret ambitions and aspirations in her childhood bedroom. The world premiere of I Give You My Home: Rose Standish Nichols is supported by a Live Arts Boston Grant from The Boston Foundation. With special thanks to the Nichols House Museum and Suonovivo Audio Services. PRODUCTION STAFF (APRIL RESIDENCY) Beth Wiemann, Composer and Librettist Cara Consilvio, Film and Stage Director Nuozhou Wang, Associate Director and Video Editor Craig Incardone, Director of Photography Maxx Finn, Lighting Designer Rebecca Shannon Butler, Costume Designer Sarah Schneider, Production Manager Jerey Means, Sound Recording and Editing SCENE TEXT I want to make something true to form, With clarity, and structure. Strengthened by symmetry, Arrayed in proportion. Formal in design. My design. I need to get the right teachers – Make my own way, go where I need to go. Gardens will be my art, Phlox and larkspur, Foxgloves and Canterbury bells. Evergreens, And someday, roses and dahlias. My garden, my next gardens will take shape, And the shapes will live in beauty.” CREATIVE TEAM Beth Wiemann (Composer and Librettist) was raised in Burlington, VT and studied composition and clarinet at Oberlin College and Princeton University. Her works have been performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, Continuum, Ensemble 21, Earplay, the Motion Ensemble, Opera Vista, saxophonist John Sampen, singers Paul Hillier, Susan Narucki, D'Anna Fortunato, and others. Her compositions have won awards from Copland House, the Orvis Foundation, Colorado New Music Festival, American Women Composers, and Marimolin as well as various arts councils, and have been featured on the Capstone, Americus, innova and Albany record labels. She teaches composition and clarinet at the University of Maine. (https://bethwiemann.com/) Cara Consilvio (Stage & Film Director) is currently a guest lecturer at the Boston University Opera Institute where she teaches acting for opera singers to undergraduate and graduate students. At Boston University, Consilvio serves as the stage director for the Fall and Spring semester scenes programs. Consilvio’s recent assistant director credits include American Opera Project’s As One (assisting Ken Cazan), Chautauqua Opera’s Madame Butterfly and The Ballad Of Baby Doe (assisting Jay Lesenger). Consilvio is a stage director and producer for opera, theater, film and interdisciplinary projects. She is the co-founder of Hup! productions and recently directed Aftermath for Hup!. As a film producer, Consilvio has produced NEA Opera Honors video tributes, NEA Jazz Masters videos, and the New Works Forum OPERA America videos. Her first narrative short producing project, Bowes Academypremiered in November 2014 at Berlin’s Interfilm International Film Festival. (http://caraconsilvio.com/) Nichols House Museum - The Nichols House Museum maintains and preserves an original collection that reflects the Nichols family's cultural values and changing tastes across two generations. The Museum engages with the social concerns of those who lived and worked in the house. (https://www.nicholshousemuseum.org/) SALT An experimental opera film written and directed by Deniz Khateri and music by Bahar Royai. Learn more online: https://guerillaopera.org/salt SYNOPSIS Inspired by the struggles of women, friends and acquaintances, from Khateri’s homeland of Iran, “SALT” is a portrait of an elder woman who, as she cooks soup for her husband, expounds on her salty life of being trapped in a loveless and abusive marriage. The world premiere of SALT is supported by a Cultural Investment Portfolio Project Grant from the Mass Cultural Council, a state Agency. With special thanks to Puppet Showplace Theater. PRODUCTION STAFF Bahar Royai, Composer, Sound Recording and Editing Deniz, Khateri, Librettist, and Film and Stage Director Nuozhou Wang, Associate Director, Photography, Video Editor and Eects Maxx Finn, Lighting Designer SCENE TEXT Almost dinner time… It’s getting late… He will be home soon…dragging his legs…all of his weight on the cane…his muscles dangling from his bones…too old… though younger than me! Always old…since we were 20…his eyes…old….his gaze… old…It’s finally boiling… now, carrots! No! He doesn’t like carrots… but Dr’s orders!…there! …It’s getting hot…or am I having a hot flash?! Never mind! Gotta smash those carrots… no teeth! Though he still shows them…he always has… since we were 20… his eyes… Wild! Old! His lips…his hands…wild…old… Wait! No salt! CREATIVE TEAM Born and raised in Iran, Bahar Royaee is a composer of concert and incidental music. Her compositions are a mixture of timbral and sound-based atmospheric structures, interspersed with lyrical influences derived from her Iranian background. Her works have been performed worldwide, including Italy, Greece, Germany, Canada, Iran, and the USA. Bahar was recently recognized as a runner-up in National Sawdust's 2018-19 Hildegard Competition. Other awards include the Roger Sessions Memorial Composition Award, Walter W. Harp Music & Society Award, John Bavicchi Memorial Prize, and the Korourian Electroacoustic Award. Bahar received her M.M. in composition from Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Marti Epstein and Felipe Lara, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from CUNY where she studies under Jason Eckardt and Suzanne Farrin. Deniz Khateri (Director Papillon) trained in her hometown Tehran, is an actor, director, playwright, shadow puppetry artist and animator based in New York. Her works attempt to experiment with form and exploring the unique characteristics of the mediums that she uses. She is particularly in search of the elements that highlight theatre from other mediums. Deniz performed extensively in Tehran and has worked with Boston theatre companies including ArtsEmerson, Central Square, Underground railway, Boston University, Apollinaire , etc. as an actor. Her plays have been performed in festivals in Tehran, Boston and New York. In her new work,”The Cellos’ Dialogue”, premiered at NY’s Exponential festival, she experimented using a musical instrument as a puppet. Deniz has made shadow puppetry visuals for several contemporary classical composers and is excited to return to Guerrilla opera for Sept Papillon after their first collaboration on Rumplestiltskin. Deniz has won the NYFA award for her animated web series "Diasporan Series" which is about daily struggles of immigrants. (www.denizkhateri.com) Graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2020 with a BFA in Sculpture, Nuozhou Wang 王诺舟 is a Chinese filmmaker, sculptor, and video artist. Her work, featuring women characters invariably, explores class, beauty, and transitional space. She has engaged in the production of works presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Pioneer Works, and Art Basel. Currently working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she is a new member of Guerilla Opera associated with the creation of Ophelia’s Life Dream. ELLIS (formerly “Island of Hope, Island of Tears) SYNOPSIS ELLIS, with music by Gabriele Vanoni and librett by Ewa Chrisciel, breathes life into forgotten voices of our past through the true stories and actual voices of immigrants to the US. Explore themes of the clash of cultural identities, the artifacts immigrants bring to this country, and the acceptance or intolerance of dierent immigrant cultures through time, while experiencing a journey through true stories that are human and touching. Learn more online: https://guerillaopera.org/ellis A Woman, who is a Nazi concentration camp survivor, arrives on Ellis Island pregnant and gives birth. While on the island she unexpectedly finds her father, who is also a survivor, and in terrible physical condition. After a period of shock and panic, she decides to give her baby up for adoption. The world premiere of Island of Hope, Island of Tears (working title) is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Haverhill Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. With special thanks to The Gloucester Stage, theatre KAPOW, Ovation Theater Company, Suonovivo Audio Services, and Michael and Sharon Mollerus. PRODUCTION STAFF (APRIL RESIDENCY) Gabriele Vanoni, Composer and Electronic Sound Designer Ewa Chrusciel, Librettist Laine Rettmer, Video and Stage Director Nuozhou Wang, Associate Director & Video Design Pamela Hersch, Projection and Video Design Maxx Finn, Lighting Designer Rebecca Shannon Butler, Costume Designer Sarah Schneider, Production Manager Jerey Means, Sound Recording and Editing SCENE TEXT I rest my eyes on waves ahead I can see the Lady from here I see her gentle eyes, her hands I want to climb into her arms And sleep in her hands. They look like a boat, like a cradle. I have my nest there, my dwelling place. One day those hands Will carry back a fresh twig, An olive branch. A promise for both of us.