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.