“We the Innumerable” [60′] 4 Lead singers, Chorus, Pierrot ensemble
“Stunningly beautiful, evocative, and genre-expanding”
– Christopher Koelsch
LA Opera CEO and President
STAGED PRESENTATION: We the Innumerable had it’s workshop performance co-presented by CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY OPERA and National Sawdust with support from Opera America Discovery Grant.
About We the Innumerable: After the 2009 presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Roya and her husband, Siavash, become targets of the state for participating in nationwide protests against the election result. Siavash is murdered, and Roya is imprisoned and put under extreme pressure to record a confessional stating that her husband was a Revolutionary Guard force who was killed by the enemies of the state. The opera is the heroic journey of an Iranian woman who protects the truth in the face of fear and violence.
Solitary Confinement Aria from Scene III
Presentation at National Sawdust
Photo Credits: Jill Steinberg
Artistic Director: Sara Tarana Jobin
Stage Director: Harris Doran
Lighting Designer: Bruce Steinberg
Roya, wife of Siavash, (s)
Cristina Bakhoum
Siavash, husband of Roya, (t)
Daveed Buzaglo
Maryam, subordinate of Chief Interrogator/Protestor #1
Mary-Hollis Hundley
Chief Interrogator/ Moazzen, Basiji force, (b)
Joseph Trumbo
Chorus
Maurio Hines (T)
Markos Simopoulos (T)
Brian J. Alvarado (B)
Jonathan Harris (B)
Orchestra
Pianist: Austin Philemon
Persian Kamancheh: Mehrnam Rastegari
Violin: Lily Holgate, Cello: Amy Ralske, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet: Ben Baron, Percussion: David Nyberg
Electronics: Ford Fourqurean
Featuring translations by Sholeh Wolpe, Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad.
Special thanks to Deniz Khateri (pop singer in scene I) and Golnar Shahyar (Roya’s Mother in Scene III) and Siavosh Rezvan Behbahani (Chahargah Improv in Scene III) and Sholeh Johnson (News Report in Scene I) for recordings as part of the electronics of this piece.
Audio Mix and Master: Garth MacAleavey
Composer: Niloufar Nourbakhsh Libretto: Lisa Flanagan
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