Opera Saratoga Summer Festival - Listen To This: Voices From The Future!

Listen to This is a three-part concert series which hands the mic to cutting-edge creators who break through boundaries of what opera can be through the lens of access and healing. The series is composed of: The Other Side of Silence, Winterreise, and finally, i woke up in the sky.

THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE

Tuesday, June 4th will feature work by RPI Director of Institute Ensembles Robert Whalen who is collaborating with librettists Mark Steidl, Katherine Skovira and Sara Pyszka on a new opera for synthetic and acoustic voice The Other Side of Silence written by and for people who use Alternative Assistive Communication.

Inspired by Pyszka’s “Inside My Outside: An Independent Mind in a Dependent Body” and unfolding in a series of interwoven storylines, The Other Side of Silence explores what it means to be our true self, and which of our voices—our inner or outer voice—most directly represents our identity. The Other Side of Silence examines technology’s role in the fabric of human society, and what role it plays in promoting and diminishing our autonomy, as seen through the lens of an AAC user - someone who uses a synthetic voice to communicate the world. When none of the six preloaded voices aligns with their identity, we embark on a fantastical, revelatory, and cathartic journey of discovery and acceptance.

WINTERREISE

On June 11th, Director George Miller, Bass-Baritone William Socolof and Pianist Chris Reynolds collaborate on the workshop of a contemporary staging of Schubert’s seminal song cycle Winterreise. Originally from Albany and Saratoga Springs, respectively, Miller and Reynolds bring their many accolades back to the Capital Region.

i woke up in the sky

And on June 18th, composer-performer Catherine Brookman shares her album i woke up in the sky with Opera Saratoga’s audiences. Her music deals with the experience of time passing, collapsing, unfinished business, heartbreak, loneliness, depression.

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