The American Opera Project and Seagle Music Colony
Legendary
Composer Joseph N. Rubinstein
Librettist Jason Kim

Famed drag performer Dee Legendary embarks on a passionate love affair with Officer John, whose fascination with Dee threatens to dismantle the House of Legendary and its drag family. Legendary is an opera about double lives and destructive desires, set in the glory days of New York City’s underground drag culture in the 1980s. It is currently in development with The American Opera Project (AOP) and will have its fabulous premiere in 2022.

Beth Morrison Projects
Adoration
Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian
Librettist Royce Vavrek

Based on the Atom Egoyan film of the same name, Adoration follows the fictional and actual circumstances of how a child became an orphan, and how religious intolerance and hatred can lead to viral hysteria and justification for death. This gripping drama fosters a challenging discussion about the root causes of hate and how we can strive for a more just society.

In 2018, Beth Morrison Projects received a Commissioning Grant for this work, as part of OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program.

Houston Grand Opera
Intelligence
Composer Jake Heggie
Librettist Gene Scheer

Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Intelligence, set during the Civil War in Richmond, Virginia, follows the historically documented story of two remarkable women, an enslaved woman and an abolitionist, whose courageous espionage efforts impacted the outcome of the war.

Lyric Opera of Chicago
Three one-act operas (titles TBD)
Curated by Renée Fleming, by composers Caroline Shaw, John Luther Adams and Daniel Bernard Roumain, with librettos by Anna Deavere Smith, poet John Haines, and a librettist to be confirmed

Lyric’s 2022–2023 mainstage season will feature three new one-act opera commissions, curated by Lyric Creative Consultant Renée Fleming, offered as a single opera production. Pieces by preeminent composers Caroline Shaw, John Luther Adams and Daniel Bernard Roumain, who will participate in the works’ rehearsal and development process, offer audiences world premieres that explore relevant, contemporary themes related to our personal connectivity with each other, society and our world.

In 2019, Lyric Opera of Chicago received a Commissioning Grant for this work, as part of OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program.

San Diego Opera
El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego)
Composer Gabriela Lena Frank
Librettist Nilo Cruz

San Diego Opera will host an orchestral workshop of El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego). A co-commission between San Diego Opera, Fort Worth Opera and DePauw University School of Music, El último sueño imagines a reunion between the influential artists and Mexican cultural icons Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, against the backdrop of a Día de los Muertos celebration in Mexico City in 1957.

In 2017, San Diego Opera received a Commissioning Grant for this work, as part of OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program.

The Dallas Opera
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Composer Joby Talbot
Librettist Gene Scheer

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir of the same name. The story follows Bauby, the editor-in-chief of French ELLE magazine, after a stroke leaves him with “locked-in syndrome,” in which he is physically paralyzed yet mentally aware. This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit and the ability to find hope and joy in the face of unimaginable tragedy.