Threshold of Brightness Wins 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition: Read more on Opera Wire

Threshold of Brightness by Nourbakhsh has a libretto by Lisa Flanagan, is directed by Shadi Ghaheri and follows a famous and controversial Iranian poet, Forough Farrokhzad, as she is seriously injured in a car crash and enters a dream-like state where she reckons with the ghosts of her past.

• THRESHOLD OF BRIGHTNESS includes much of these characters’ own real life words: Turan’s traditional gender roles, how Forough’s father blackmailed a political prisoner’s daughter into becoming his second wife; Kamyar’s aria draws on a 1999 interview describing their final encounter. And Forough’s own diary entries and love letters fill this piece. Constantly aware of death, that awareness gave Forough freedom and transcendence. At the heart of this opera, it is thru her acceptance and celebration of death that Forugh finds the love, courage & freedom that fueled her life and poetry. We hope you leave feeling some of the same love for Forough that we have found in creating this opera.

Creative Team

LIBRETTO: LISA FLANAGAN
MUSIC DIRECTOR: KAMNA GUPTA
STAGE DIRECTOR: SHADI GHAHERI
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: ANNE RUHLAND
LIGHTING DESIGNER: KRISTA SMITH
STAGE MANAGER: LINDSEY TURTELTAUB
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: CONTEMPORANEOUS

Shannon Delijani, FOROUGH
Leela Subramaniam, TURAN
Jordan Rutter, KAMYAR
Justine Aronson, SOPRANO DOLL
Silvana Chu, ALTO DOLL
Kannan Vasudevan, TENOR DOLL
Adam Richardson, BASS DOLL

Fanny Wyrick-Flax, FLUTE/PICCOLO
Ford Fourqurean, CLARINET/BASS CLARINET
Lena Vidulich, VIOLIN
Julia Henderson, CELLO
Adam Holmes, PERCUSSION
Zachary Ritter, ELECTRONICS
Sarah Haines, VIOLA
Tristan Kasten-Krause, CONTRABASS
Huizi Zhang, PIANO/SYNTHESIZER

BMP: NEXT GEN 2022