Operas by Rachel J. Peters:
LESSON PLAN (Based on Georg Philip Telemann’s Der Schulmeister)
COMPANIONSHIP
THE WILD BEAST OF THE BUNGALOW (Libretto by Royce Vavrek)
ROOTABAGA COUNTRY
MEN I’M NOT MARRIED TO (Music by Lisa DeSpain)
STAGGERWING (Music by Lisa DeSpain)
NO LADIES IN THE LADY’S BOOK (Music by Lisa DeSpain)
EVERYTHING COMES TO A HEAD (Libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek)
STEVE
SKETCHBOOK FOR OLLIE
Synopses:
Lesson Plan – (Soprano and contralto) Lesson Plan brings an internationally celebrated operatic contralto into the world of online teaching while her headlining stage engagements are on hold. Thought to be teaching trained singers at a prestigious conservatory, she catches her assistant in a scheduling faux pas and instead takes the Zoom stage for a community college with the same acronym. Intercepted by an overwhelmed administrator who moonlights as an amateur choir director, the pair clash over teaching technique and the purpose of art. The opera was originally conceived for Zoom; a separate version for live performance is also available.
Companionship – (7 principals and children’s chorus) Recovering from a nervous breakdown, aspiring baker Leslie Sinclair finally reaches the end of her obsessive quest to bake the perfect baguette when the 207,345th one suddenly comes to life. Companionship mirrors our contemporary world, where what we consume becomes all-consuming. Adapted from the short story by Arthur Phillips.
The Wild Beast of the Bungalow – (1 coloratura soprano plus eight additional principals playing multiple roles) This triptych of short chamber operas takes place entirely within an eleven-year-old Girl’s bedroom. Over the course of a few days, a mermaid, a family of stuffed prairie dogs, and singing groups of chicken pox and shingles force her to confront what it means to care for others and be cared for herself.
Rootabaga Country – (1 adult tenor, 1 adult bass-baritone, and a large children’s ensemble playing 17 other roles and chorus) Gimme the Ax takes his two children, Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions, to the whimsical-but-not-magical Rootabaga Country to learn more about the mother they never knew. In the process, they learn that families come in all shapes and sizes. Adapted from the book Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandburg. Winner, Sarasota Youth Opera Commissioning Competition; OPERA America Female Composer Commissioning Grant recipient.
Men I’m Not Married to – (Soprano, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 1 nonsinging male actor) Loosely adapted from Dorothy Parker’s eponymous text. In the summer of 1924, Frances, Mildred, and Evelyn are three young bridesmaids in the powder room at the wedding reception of their mutual friend, Wilhelmina. They are hiding from their respective assigned groomsmen: a prankster whose antics have run afoul; a sanctimonious judge obsessed with Prohibition contraband; and a self-proclaimed intellectual full of unsolicited advice. Thank goodness it’s the era of the New Woman, when dating has supplanted courtship and a woman’s worth will never again be tied to her marital prospects. Right?
Staggerwing – (5 principals: 3F, 2M) Staggerwing dramatizes the historical flight of Louise Thaden and her co-pilot, Blanche Noyes, as they compete in the grueling transcontinental 1936 Bendix Trophy Race during the first year the prestigious aviation competition allowed all-female teams to compete. Intercut between the intense intimacy and confinement of the plane and expansive episodes of the women’s pasts and crucial events leading up to the race, we witness Louise and Blanche navigating the physical risks of their flight, work, personal tragedies and the sexism of a male-dominated field, emerging victorious. Winner, Opera Kansas 2020 Zepick Modern Opera Competition.
No Ladies in the Lady’s Book – (Soprano, mezzo, tenor, baritone) A short comic opera inspired by an article from Godey’s Lady’s Book declaring “This great work [The Transcontinental Railroad] was begun, carried on and completed by men only.” Godey is visited by an onslaught of unsung female inventors who contributed to the success of the railroad intent on righting the history book. Winner of Utah Opera’s Golden Spike 150 commissioning competition.
Everything Comes to a Head – (Soprano, two mezzo-sopranos, and baritone) Where is Basil, Rosemary’s boyfriend? Rosemary is worried their love has gone dormant but she’s staying planted in her tiny apartment. Her roommates, on the other hand, think Rosemary doesn’t need to cultivate that kind of baggage. If the roots of love are deep enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re in mint condition. This work premiered virtually but can possibly be adapted to live performance.
Steve – (1 lyric soprano, 1 tenor) Ann attends her synagogue’s singles mixer. The only man there is the reincarnation of her dead mutt, Steve. Adapted from the play by Liz Bartucci.
Sketchbook for Ollie – (Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Tenor, Bass-Baritone) Eight-point-five-year-old Ollie questions the meaning of life after the death of his grandmother. He is frustrated with grownups avoiding his tough but important questions. The only answer that satisfies him comes from his Aunt Leeza, a composer, who shows him that life is like her music sketchbook. She shows him a wide variety of methods to make and share the ongoing compositions of our lives, whether professionally or through altruistic interactions. With these new tools, Ollie creates his own song involving the whole family and audience. Aunt Leeza gives Ollie his own blank sketchbook for the hard questions yet to come. This opera is interactive and designed to tour to elementary schools for grades 3-5. Adapted from the story Life Is a Jar of Paint by Bill Folman.
Bio:
Composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters writes operas that sound like musicals and musicals that sound like operas. Those operas include Lesson Plan (On Site Opera), Companionship (Virginia Arts Festival, Fort Worth Opera), Rootabaga Country (Sarasota Opera), Sketchbook for Ollie (Lyric Opera of Kansas City)The Wild Beast of the Bungalow with Royce Vavrek (Oberlin Conservatory); No Ladies in the Lady’s Book (Utah Opera; published by E.C. Schirmer), Staggerwing (Opera Kansas), and Men I’m Not Married To (Cleveland Opera Theater) with Lisa DeSpain; Steve (Boston Opera Collaborative), Everything Comes to a Head with Margi Preus and Jean Sramek (Lyric Opera of the North/Decameron Opera Coalition), Pie, Pith, and Palette with Marvin J. Carlton (The Atlanta Opera), and Monkey Do (Rhymes With Opera). She has the distinct honor of writing the only opera score containing a barfing cat ever performed (so far, at least) at the Caramoor Festival. In progress is Welcome to the Madness with Leanna Kirchoff for Opera Steamboat, among many others.
Rachel’s musicals include Only Children with Michael R. Jackson (NYU Tisch, Lincoln Center Directors Lab), Tiny Feats of Cowardice with Susan Bernfield (NYC Fringe Festival), Write Left with John Walch (Playwrights Horizons Theatre School), Tomato Red (UC Irvine), and Octopus Heart (NYU Steinhardt). Her score for Danielle Durchslag’s film musical, Good Shabbos, is currently in development. Scores for plays include the critically acclaimed Stretch (a fantasia) (New Georges) and Tania in the Getaway Van (Flea Theater) by Susan Bernfield, Transatlantic by John Walch (Arkansas Rep), The Bacchae (Asolo Rep Conservatory), and several works by Stan Richardson.
Concert works include Ethel Smyth Plays Golf in Limbo (Semperoper Dresden) If You Can Prove That I Should Set You Free (Albany Symphony), Jack’s Vocabulary (Hartt SPASM), I Live Here (Galapagos Art Space), and Fronds: The Wisdom of Fanny Fern (Walt Whitman Project); more are forthcoming.
Rachel’s extensive catalogue of art songs and cabaret songs has been performed at Lincoln Center, Second Stage, National Opera Center, Symphony Space, National Sawdust, Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, and cabarets and theatres nationwide. Rachel is a contributing composer/lyricist to the new generation of The AIDS Quilt Songbook. Additionally, her music can be heard on Michael R. Jackson’s Dirty Laundry and Zachary James’s CALL OUT albums.
Rachel has held residencies as composer and/or librettist at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Yaddo, Brush Creek Arts, and Soaring Gardens Artists Retreat. OPERA America awarded her a Female Composers Discovery Grant to write Manor of Speaking with Kevin Thomas Townley, Jr., the first wholly original work for Stephanie Blythe’s drag alter ego, Blythely Oratonio; other such grants were awarded to Sarasota Opera for Rootabaga Country and to Rachel’s collaborator Leanna Kirchoff for their opera Friday After Friday. Rachel is a proud alumna of New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, The American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice, and the John Duffy Institute for New Opera. She holds a double B.A. summa cum laude from Brandeis University and an MFA from New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and she serves on the Opera Committee of the Dramatists Guild.
Rachel originally hails from St. Louis and has settled in Brooklyn, a borough with an exceptionally high concentration of opera composers.
Website: www.racheljpeters.com