Hello from sunny Southern California! Thrilled to share exciting news with you:

This October in Santa Clarita, CA, Mission Opera (MO) will present the west coast premiere of 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, harp, cello, violin, and electronics. The Girondines story chronicles the events of the French Revolution through timeless, tragic true stories of the lives, deaths, and legacies of six women. This presentation of the opera will be fully staged with costumes, lights, sets, props, and choreography rather than presenting the music ‘in concert’ as was the case in the east coast premiere presented by Wilmington Concert Opera (WCO) in October 2022. The MO production will feature supertitles (captions) in English, French, and Spanish.

Kirsten will stage direct, choreograph, and reprise her role as Charlotte Corday; Ashley Becker will reprise her role as Olympe de Gouges (with deep thanks to Ashley for encouraging MO to produce this show!); and I will reprise my role as pianist-music director in addition to taking on several other production team roles. Six fabulous folks (Kirsten, Ashley, Laurice Simmons Kennel, Marisa Robinson, Kaitlyn Tierney, and myself) from the WCO production are involved in this Girondines iteration alongside dozens of stellar Southern Californians. Kirsten and I are grateful to MO for assembling a terrific, talented, hard-working group! A full list of the MO Girondines team follows – we have two casts each with two scheduled performances:

• Erika Nicole Alatorre: Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier (Saturday evening/Sunday matinee)
• Kirstin Ariel: Stagehand ● Supernumerary
• Chris Bailey: Assistant Videographer
• Ashley Becker: Olympe de Gouges (Saturday matinee/Sunday evening)
• Leila Jay Bishop: Harpist
• Constanze Bonelli: Costume Coordinator
• Mansour Bouziane: French Supertitle Translation Team
• Beryl Canale: Cellist
• Nancy Chancellor: Box Office Team
• Jeanette Chelabi: French Supertitle Translation Team
• Nelya Coomans: Assistant Stage Manager ● Box Office Team ● Social Media Marketing Captain ● Stagehand ● Supernumerary
• Katherine Craig: Costume Assistant
• Robert Dunlap: Stagehand ● Supernumerary
• Erica Hardbarger: Box Office Manager
• Wesley Jow: Photographer
• Laurice Simmons Kennel: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (Saturday matinee/Sunday evening)
• Dr. Kirsten C. Kunkle: Charlotte Corday (Saturday matinee/Sunday evening) ● Choreographer ● Librettist ● Stage Director
• Arthur Miller: Canyon High School Liaison / Facilities
• Erik Alessandro Mondrian: French Supertitle Translation Team ● Spanish Supertitle Translation Team ● Stagehand ● Supernumerary
• Caroline Morgan: Stage Manager
• Tonya Nelson: Costume Designer
• Brian Nielson: Lighting Designer
• Maiko Okajima: Dance Soloist
• Manny Padilla: Videographer
• Claire Pegram: Madame Manon Roland (Saturday matinee/Sunday evening)
• Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro: Musicologist ● Historical Speaker
• Ariel Pisturino: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (Saturday evening/Sunday matinee)
• Don Pittman: Associate Technical Director ● Audiovisual Engineer
• Juan Antonio Rivera: Spanish Supertitle Translation Team ● Stagehand ● Supernumerary
• Marisa Robinson: Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier (Saturday matinee/Sunday evening)
• Ashley Rose: Violinist
• Dr. Edward Salm: Website & Mail Marketing Coordinator & Graphic Artist
• Catherine Antonia Samartin: Charlotte Corday (Saturday evening/Sunday matinee)
• Shawn Taylor: Set Painting & Construction
• Kaitlyn Tierney: Madame Germaine de Staël (Saturday matinee/Sunday evening)
• Jessica Tivens-Schneiderman: Olympe de Gouges (Saturday evening/Sunday matinee)
• Mariah Van Sciver: French Supertitle Translation Team
• Sarah Van Sciver: Composer ● Graphic Designer ● Music Director ● Pianist/Conductor ● Post-Production Audio & Video Engineer ● Production Manager ● Prop Designer ● Projection Designer ● Sound Designer ● Supertitle Translator & Designer ● Technical Director
• Jason Vincent: Stagehand ● Supernumerary
• Dr. Joshua R. Wentz: Producer
• Alexis Wesley: Madame Germaine de Staël (Saturday evening/Sunday matinee)
• Leeza Yorke: Madame Manon Roland (Saturday evening/Sunday matinee)

Want to see the show? Halloween Weekend (HalloWeekend), you’re invited to visit our Haunted (Opera) House ~ the MO Girondines production runs Saturday and Sunday, October 28 and 29, 2023 with performances at 3pm and 7:30pm each day. You can purchase tickets here. Please note that due to mature themes and content, this opera is recommended for ages 13+.

Want to support the show as a sponsor or donor? 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