WEO 2024 Season Brochure by bandsthroughtown

West Edge Festival 2024

Oakland Scottish Rite Center

August 3rd - 18th

Bulrusher • Legend of the Ring • Jacqueline

Support West Edge Opera with the Platinum Experience

With a Platinum Ticket, You Enjoy:

Front of house and centered seating with stellar acoustics and optimal sight lines for our signature innovative staging...

Access to the Donor Lounge at intermission, including light fare and premiere wine offerings...

All while supporting West Edge Opera

Series Ticket: $420 Single Ticket: $160

Brochure design: Cory Weaver

WEO Production Art: Cory Weaver

As Jonathan and I program an upcoming season, we focus on operas that are meaningful to us as artists. We feel honored to be able to curate a trio of works that are often esoteric or new to most people. This season is especially important to both of us because all three pieces hold a special place in our souls.

Bulrusher is our first commission and world premiere as West Edge Opera. The idea came from composer Nat Stookey through his friendship with playwright and performer Eisa Davis. We knew that we wanted our first commission to be with Nat after the huge success of his monodrama Ivonne in our 2017 Snapshot program. Set in California’s Anderson Valley, the opera is based on Davis’ play Bulrusher - short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize and just recently produced at Berkeley Rep. I am incredibly proud of this brand-new opera and I’m excited to finally share it with you, in its entirety.

Over two decades ago Jonathan and I ﬁrst got to know each other when he asked me to direct Eugene Onegin for (then) Berkeley Opera. We really came to understand our partnership on the next project: a one-night version of Wagner’s monumental Ring cycle which had just been created. Jonathan was anxious to do it, and I knew the whole cycle well… And so Legend of the Ring ultimately became a project that, I believe, set the company on the path to what it is today. We revived the production in 2010 and it’s time to do it again. Now, a brand new production is entrusted to my colleague, director Sam Helfrich, who amazed us with his direction of Elizabeth Cree in the 2021 Summer Festival.

Finally, it was my plan to present early French Baroque opera David & Jonathan this summer, but that production will now be in 2025. In its place we present the contemporary opera Jacqueline from Luna Pearl Woolf and Royce Vavrek. Both intimate and epic, it is the story and tragedy of the brilliant Jacqueline du Pré—

whose recordings of the Bach unaccompanied suites for cello I treasured as a young musician. I was at the premiere of Jacqueline in 2020 and immediately knew I wanted to do it at West Edge. Jacqueline stars Marnie Breckenridge —well known to Bay Area audiences—and renowned cellist specializing in contemporary music Matt Haimovitz. Marnie, Royce and Luna, as well as staging director Michael Mori, have all been in my life as good friends for many years and so it is gratifying to share their work with you.

I hope you will ﬁnd this season to be as exciting as we do,

See you there!

Mark Streshinsky, General Director

West Edge Opera Festival 2024

For those new to opera and longstanding enthusiasts alike, there’s something for everyone.

Music by Nathaniel Stookey

Libretto by Eisa Davis & Nathaniel Stookey

In English with English Surtitles

August 3, 11, & 15

Bulrusher is a coming of age story about a multiracial girl growing up in Northern California’s remote Anderson Valley in 1955. Found in a basket by the river, she is raised by the local schoolteacher and has never seen anyone that looks like her until a young Black woman from Alabama comes to town.

Bulrusher is based on Davis’ play of the same title, short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007.

Shawnette Sulker Bulrusher Kenneth Kellogg Logger Rebecca Cuddy Madame Briana Elyse Hunter Vera Matt Boehler Schoolch Chad Sommers Boy NJ Agwuna Director Emily Senturia Music Director Eisa Davis Co-Librettist Nathaniel Stookey Composer/ Co-Librettist

Bulrusher

World Premiere

Ring Legend of the A West Edge Opera Favorite Returns

Music by Richard Wagner (1876)

Arrangement by David Seaman (2000)

In German with English Surtitles

August 4, 9, & 17

Wagner’s monumental four-opera epic of Norse mythology presented in an action-packed evening of divine music. Gods and humans fight for a magic ring that grants the power to rule the world. Perhaps the biggest challenge that an opera company can undertake, Legend of the Ring is now a West Edge favorite and is back by popular demand!

Sam Helfrich Director Jonathan Khuner Music Director Tracy Cox Brünnhilde Philip Skinner Wotan Alex Boyer Siegmund/Siegfried Stephanie Sanchez Fricka Mary Evelyn Hangley Sieglinde Kyle Bielfield Loge/Mime Matthew Lovell Fafner/Hunding Peter Morgan Alberich/Fasolt

Music by Luna Pearl Woolf (2020)

Libretto by Royce Vavrek

In English with English Surtitles

August 10, 16, & 18

Jacqueline is a powerful opera exploring the talent and tragedy of world-renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré and her relationship with her instrument.

The opera is written for two contemporary virtuosi: celebrated American soprano Marnie Breckenridge as Jacqueline, and former du Pré protégé and world renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz as her constant companion, her cello.

MAJOR SUPPORT IS PROVIDED BY THE ANN AND GORDON GETTY FOUNDATION

COMMISSIONED AND PREMIERED BY TAPESTRY OPERA, TORONTO, CANADA FEBRUARY 2020

Luna Pearl Woolf Composer Royce Vavrek Librettist Marnie Breckenridge Jacqueline Matt Haimovitz Cello Michael Hidetoshi Mori Director Photo: Dahlia Katz/Tapestry Opera

Jacqueline

Talent & Tragedy of a Virtuoso

Two Incredible Untold Stories; Two Future World Premieres

Following the World Premiere of Bulrusher will be West Edge Opera’s next two commissions: Dolores by Nicolás Lell Benavides and Marella Martin Koch premiering in 2025, and The Silent Partner by Matthew Recio and Stephanie Fleischmann premiering in 2026.

Dolores tells the story of California’s legendary grassroots organizer Dolores Huerta in the throes of the 1968 Delano Grape Strike, and The Silent Partner tells of the complicated relationship between surrealist photographers Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore during World War II.

West Edge Opera is creating these bold new operas by America’s leading artists, with partners Seattle Opera, Opera San Diego, BroadStage in Santa Monica and Opera Southwest in Albuquerque.