DRIFT
Commissioned by Opera Saratoga
Premiering June 2026
DRIFT is an opera about motherlands, migration and memory set amidst the pressing crises of our time. In a glacial landscape scarred by a catastrophic war, archivists aim to preserve remnants of the past. They discover Esmeralda, a young woman unmoored from time whose memory they are trying to map. Navigating landscapes both toxic and ethereal, DRIFT weaves a kaleidoscopic narrative, necessitating a radically new examination of identity, geography and the places and people we call home.
With support from Opera America and made possible by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Creative Team
J. Mae Barizo: Libretto and Original Story
Mary Birnbaum: Director
Claude & Marcel
Commissioned by West Edge Opera
Premiering August 2027
The opera tells the story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore: two women – romantic and artistic partners - Jewish activists and surrealist photographers who used their art to magnify resistance against Nazi Germany. Claude & Marcel will be scored for 8 singers and 13 instrumentalists.
Creative Team
Librettist: Stephanie Fleischmann
Director: Elkhanah Pulitzer
Dramaturg: Felix King
ISOLA
“Isola succeeds at doing what the best operas do: finding a way to express the inexpressible through song.” - Opera News
ISOLA is a poetic monodrama for soprano, string trio and electronics that explores the body as island, distorted perception, and the nature of Time, how it collapses and expands.
ISOLA charts a synesthetic practice of giving voice and color to the trajectory of isolation: deep blue of dreams; the pink noise of anxiety; toxic green of a depressive fog; and finally, orange light, a shining moment of clarity and resilience.
Written in collaboration with poet J. Mae Barizo.
Photo by JJ Geiger, Production by Long Beach Opera
Directed by George R. Miller
Listen here