Greetings from sunny Southern California! I am psyched to share exciting opera news with you:

This October in Santa Clarita, CA, Mission Opera will present Girondines (an opera featuring music by me and libretto by Kirsten C. Kunkle) as its first 2023-2024 season production! Girondines is sung in English, accompanied by piano, strings, and electronics. It chronicles the events of the French Revolution through timeless, tragic true stories of lives, deaths, and legacies of six women. Mission Opera plans to present this opera fully staged as opposed to presenting the music ‘in concert’ as was the case with Wilmington Concert Opera (WCO) in October 2022. Kirsten will stage direct and reprise her role as Charlotte Corday, Ashley Becker will reprise her role as Olympe de Gouges, I will reprise my role as pianist-music director, and we anticipate featuring other folks from the original WCO company – stay tuned for announcements!

Want to be in the show? Casting is ongoing; for those interested, please submit an audition via this GoogleForm by July 11th, 2023 at 11:59pm PST. Auditions will take place Sunday, July 16th, 2023 by invitation only:

Here is a list of roles with their accompanying voice parts:

• Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun – Full Lyric Soprano
• Charlotte Corday – Spinto Soprano
• Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze – Soubrette Soprano
• Olympe de Gouges – Dramatic Soprano
• Madame Manon Roland– Lyric Mezzo-Soprano
• Madame Germaine de Staël – Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano/Contralto

Want to see the show? Mark your calendars! The production will run Friday through Sunday, October 27-29, 2023* (*showtimes will be announced soon). When they become available, you will be able to purchase tickets here.

Want to support the show? Send me an email if you are interested in learning about opportunities to promote your business to a Southern Californian audience and help facilitate a production championing women, new music, opera, diversity, equity, inclusion, access, education, history, and contemporary art.

As I shared previously, you can now stream the WCO Original Cast Recording album via AmazonMusic, Spotify, AppleMusic, Pandora, YouTubeMusic, and more… Physical CD copies of the album are available, too:

Album proceeds benefit the opera’s composer-librettist team (myself and Kirsten C. Kunkle) as well as WCO, an exclusively woman- and minority-run company. For those curious to compare outcomes of online vs. physical CD enjoyment: album streaming online results in fraction-of-cent proceeds for artists vs. physical CD purchases generating artist income in whole dollars. (Plus you’d have a beautiful keepsake which features cover art by yours truly 🎶 .)

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For folks involved with voice, opera, theater, musical theater, or performing arts venues, companies, festivals, or university programs, please send me a message if you’re interested in exploring opportunities to have your own reading, concert, or staging of Girondines. A piano-vocal reduction score is nearly complete!

And for those seeking copies of my earlier albums (songwriting EPs Ophelia’s Song and Puzzle Pieces plus instrumental EP Overture to an Adventure), visit the same platforms listed above for streaming and digital downloads, or order physical copies of CDs here.

Cheers,

Sarah