“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

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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