What the Spirits Show

for Soprano, mezzo, contralto, baritone and chamber Orchestra

2023

20 minutes

Commissioned by the Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and first produced at the Kennedy Center during the 2022/2023 season.

Music by Silen Wellington (they/them)
Libretto by Walken Schweigert (he/him)

Calamus is a teenage artist with a fantastical imagination and endless curiosity. Rather than easels or clay, Calamus’ canvas is their own body. With the aid of a magic elixir, Calamus shapeshifts, expressing their true spirit by bending into different forms and offering the poetry of transformation. But when a tyrannical politician criminalizes such elixirs, Calamus’ world is on the brink of destruction, and they will need all their strength to bend the arc back towards justice…

Cast

CALAMUS– a shapeshifting youth (they/them)
SYLVAN – Calamus’ rebellious anarcho-punk friend(ze/zir)
AURORA – Calamus’ Mother (she/her)
THE POLITICIAN – Comical, almost farcical in his extreme embodiment of cruelty and Christian fervor(he/him)

Contact me for more information, to see excerpts of the score, or about booking in your current area.

Dame, Not Lady

for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, and piano
2017

30 minutes

The last time Dame saw their mother, they were getting kicked out of the house for dating a girl. It's 10 years later and Dame's mother doesn't have much longer to live. Dame must decide whether or not to tell their mom that they're genderqueer. Through a journey of memories, "Dame, Not Lady" is an opera about the need to be witnessed and how much should be sacrificed for another’s comfort. 

This chamber opera was written as part of the University of Colorado's New Opera Workshop in 2017.

Check out a recording of an aria “The Bridge and the Breaker” from the middle of the opera by clicking here.

Cast:
Alicia Baker: Mom (soprano)
Tessa Romano: Dame (mezzo)
Bryce Bartu: Dad (tenor)
Zachary Bryant: Nick (baritone)
Wei-Han Wu: Piano

Email for a video, recording, or score.

Steel Altar

FOR soprano, MEZZO-SOPRANO, tenor, baritone, and piano
2016

This piece was performed for the 2017 CU New Opera Workshop Composer Fellows' Initiative at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

This piece is based on my own experience with self-harm, suicidality, and friends in mental hospitals. This single-scene opera occurs during family therapy. While Sara's therapist lists off Sara's new medications, Sara's parents are desperate to know how to help their daughter. Meanwhile, Sara's truth gets snagged in her throat, and she learns how to finally express what she's felt since her suicide attempt.

This scene aims to depict the fear that precedes honesty, the pain of discovering someone you love isn't who you thought they were, and the wisdom that is gained when we honor our darkness.