IN DEVELOPMENT
GOOD SHABBOS
COMPOSER: Rachel J. Peters
LIBRETTIST: Danielle Durchslag
DESCRIPTION: Good Shabbos is a short musical film (though we are also considering a hybrid film/live performance situation) directed by Danielle Durchslag that tells the story of the relationship between a wealthy Jewish doyenne and her queer, progressive, adult daughter, dissolving over the course of one Jewish calendar year. The audience learns of their dynamic and separation exclusively through the sung Shabbos voicemails the mother leaves to her child. This project is currently on hold, but this aria can be made available for performance.
CAST: 1 Mezzo-Soprano
INSTRUMENTATION: piano, clarinet, cello
DURATION: 15 minutes
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY: Danielle developed the libretto as part of the 2022-2023 New Jewish Culture Fellowship cohort.
Excerpt performed at Brooklyn Conservatory, 2024.
Private live concert reading, September 2023.
THE INSTIGATORS
COMPOSER: Lisa DeSpain
LIBRETTIST: Rachel J. Peters
DESCRIPTION: The Instigators will be adapted from a comedic children’s book (we cannot currently name, but for which we have permission) about alligators in Florida whose misadventures in the big city lead them back to their natural habitat. Two alligator hunters in a Florida swamp catch young Silas. They smuggle him to New York City, where an aristocratic family buys him. The children quickly grow bored and flush him down the toilet. In a Manhattan sewer, Silas meets fellow alligators with a similar fate who teach him how to manage life in the urban underground. Together they execute an outrageous plan to return to the swamp and reunite with their families. This little known, out-of-print gem’s hilarious, anarchic charm contains a touching message we’ll convey with a score capturing the scrappy, funky 1970s vibe of its illustrations. We envision this adaptation as either a fully staged work or a concert performance with some production elements. It could be programmed on its own or as a double bill with another one-act opera or longer orchestral work on a Young People’s Concert.
CAST: 12 principals (some doubling possible) and a children’s chorus of flexible size
INSTRUMENTATION: 1 (picc).0.1 (double tenor sax).0/0.1.1.0/perc. (drum kit/mallets).pno (doubling Fender Rhodes and Organ).elec. gtr./1.1.1.1.elec. bass
DURATION: 1 act, 45 minutes
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY: TBD
LIKE I CARE! (Tales of a Middle School Scrooge)
COMPOSER: Lisa DeSpain
LIBRETTISTS: Lisa DeSpain, Rachel J. Peters, and Sara Wordsworth
DESCRIPTION: Like, I Care! (Tale of a Middle School Scrooge) refashions the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, maintaining its central message of compassion but shifting the focus from Christmas to address the contemporary issue facing many young girls: bullying and the destructive influence of social media and false narratives on their lives. Like I Care! is a musical for young casts and audiences that tells the story of Ebby, a middle school bully who will stop at nothing to win "Internet Sensation Showdown" and become a reality star, including bullying her former B.F.F., Roberta Crawford and sabotaging Roberta's charity walk. Ebby's mentor, teen celebrity Marley, returns to warn Ebby that being famous isn't the answer to happiness. Swarmed by a roving pack of paparazzi, Ebby is struck on the head by a camera and passes out. In her stupor, Ebby is visited by three spirits: The Ghost of Elementary School Past/Ms. Shiu (everyone's favorite fifth grade school teacher), The Ghost of Middle School Present/Lorraine the Lunch Lady, and The Ghost of High School Future/Priscilla the Security Guard, who take Ebby on a journey where she learns the value of kindness, charity, and the true value of friendship.
Learn more and hear work samples on Lisa’s website.
CAST: a large cast of students playing a variety of singing and nonsinging multiple roles
INSTRUMENTATION: piano/vocal
DURATION: 90 minutes
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY:
Workshop, Fall 2024, Marymount Manhattan College
MANOR OF SPEAKING: Blythely Oratonio's Glam-Operetta Reenactment of Oscar Wilde's 1882 Tour across the Barely United States
COMPOSER: Rachel J. Peters
LIBRETTIST : Kevin Thomas Townley, Jr.
DESCRIPTION: Manor of Speaking… is an operatic glam rock fever dream starring opera legend Stephanie Blythe’s tenor drag alter ego, Blythely Oratonio. When disembarking from the SS Arizona in 1882, customs asked Oscar Wilde, hitherto unknown in America, whether he had anything to declare. “Nothing…except my genius,” he replied. Thus began a hilarious 12-month lecture tour across a barely United States. A personality first and poet later, his flair for self-promotion inspired ads, fashion and music, amassing friends and foes alike. His greatest triumph was in Leadville, Colorado, where he won over an audience of miners by lecturing on home decor, proving that art can bridge any divide. While others have portrayed his tragic end, we’re fixated on the meticulous crafting of persona preceding Wilde’s literary notoriety. In our show, the Manor of Speaking is a physical amalgam of Wilde’s lodging accommodations throughout the tour and a metaphorical holding space for his lecture about the decorative arts, which evolves parallel to the proliferation and eventual devolution of his image. Influences include: Gilbert and Sullivan; the era’s popular songs; Irish folk song; and Wilde’s glam rock heirs apparent, such as Queen, Meat Loaf, and David Bowie, all mainstays of Blythely Oratonio’s existing set lists.
CAST: Blythely Oratonio and seven additional singers playing multiple roles
INSTRUMENTATION: 1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/Drum Kit, Piano, Banjo, Harp/Electric Guitar/1.1.1.1.1
DURATION: 90 minutes (upon completion)
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY:
Residency, Drama Club Camp, 2024.
Private piano/vocal concert reading, Fall 2023. 2022 OPERA America Female Composer Discovery Grant.
PUBLIC ACCESS: THE MARVELOUS WORLD OF YOUR SINGING HOSTESS, MARI LYN
COMPOSER: Evan Mack
LIBRETTISTS: Arlene Hutton, Rachel J. Peters, and Jonathan West
DESCRIPTION: Public Access, The Marvelous World of Your Singing Hostess, Mari Lyn is an opera-adjacent fantasia about the final episode of Mari Lyn, tone-deaf cult goddess of 1980s New York public access TV, who warbled opera and classic Americana on The Golden Treasury of Song. PUBLIC ACCESS is a wildly askew bridge between traditional operas and modern musicals. Our leading lady clings to her delusions against the changing cultural/media landscape of 1980s NYC. Our musical vocabulary comes from and riffs on Mari Lyn’s own repertoire.
CAST: 1 soprano and an ensemble playing multiple roles
INSTRUMENTATION: TBD
DURATION: TBD
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY: Team writing residency, Millay Arts, 2022.
THE SANDWICH ISLAND
COMPOSER: Rachel J. Peters
POET: Matt Schatz
DESCRIPTION:The Sandwich Island will be a suite of very short poems from humorist Matt Schatz’s debut poetry book, Shoes Last Longer in LA, Described as “a joyride of rhyme, reason, and irreverence,” his cheeky, spare, colloquial yet urbane style places him firmly in the lineage of quintessential New York wits such as Ogden Nash and Dorothy Parker. Schatz’s bicoastal comparisons are equal parts love and skepticism.
The eponymous first movement will be an anthemic hand-on-heart tribute to that staple of New York bodegas and diets, the egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. Next, “Airport Attire Haiku” derides a man’s poor seasonal choice to wear shorts at the JFK airport. “New York City Scheming on Such a Summer’s Night” will veer between the four-on-the-floor lamentation of the song obliquely referenced in the title and a Saturday Night Fever-inspired strut. Finally, “Shoes Last Longer in LA” will conclude the set in a slow, wistful jazz waltz reflecting on the pros and cons of dwelling on either coast.
CAST: 1 coloratura soprano, 1 lyric soprano, 1 dramatic soprano, 1 tenor, 1 baritone, 1 bass-baritone
INSTRUMENTATION: SATB chorus with divisi
DURATION: ca. 8 minutes
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY: TBD
THREE AMPUTATORS
COMPOSER: Rachel J. Peters
LIBRETTISTS: Royce Vavrek
DESCRIPTION: Three Amputators is an opera-in-progress after the story “The Three Army Surgeons” by the Brothers Grimm. The opera tells of three travelling doctors who seek lodging for a night, offering the establishment’s innkeeper a demonstration of their unbelievable skills: they can cut out parts of their own bodies only to reattach them later with the aid of a proprietary salve. After one removes a hand, another their heart, and the third their eyeballs, an enigmatic cat appears on the scene to dine on the flesh and throw the course of the story into disarray. This is a contemporary interpretation of one of the Grimms’ most eccentric tales.
CAST: 1 coloratura soprano, 1 lyric soprano, 1 dramatic soprano, 1 tenor, 1 baritone, 1 bass-baritone
INSTRUMENTATION: 1 (+picc.).1.1.1/1.1.1.0/perc (1)/pno/1.1.1.1.1
DURATION: 45 minutes (upon completion)
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY:
Concert performance of scenes with orchestra, Arctic Chamber Music Festival, February 2024.
Concert presentation of excerpts, Voksenåsen Summer Academy, Oslo, Norway, August 2023.
THE YEAR THAT NEVER WAS: A TRASH DAY SPECIAL
COMPOSER: Rachel J. Peters
LIBRETTIST: Michael R. Jackson
DESCRIPTION: Enter a world where Trash Day supplants Christmas as Ur-Holiday, following the presentational format of 1970s/1980s TV variety holiday specials and encompassing additional obscure American holidays. When everything and everyone is disposable/ replaceable, co-hosts Chevy, Legs, Moonbeam, and Patrick figure out what and how to celebrate. We began this work at the Princeton University Atelier with a dual purpose: to develop our own original musical, and as a vehicle to teach the craft of musical theatre writing. We ultimately seek to write a long-running professional variety show with a rotating repertoire of invented holidays. Separately, we now offer it as a course of flexible length where teams of students create their own holidays within the framework of Trash Day. See my Workshops page for details.
CAST: 4 principals and an ensemble playing multiple roles
INSTRUMENTATION: piano/vocal (for now)
DURATION: 60 minutes.
DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY: Concert reading, Princeton University Atelier, 2025.