Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War
WORLD PREMIERE
part of the Irondale Ensemble Project’s On Women Festival
July 29 – 31 | Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 5 pm TICKETS
August 4-7 | Thursday - Sunday at 7:30 pm TICKETS
Tickets: $15 (Students, Seniors and Working Artists; July 29-31 only) / $30 General Admission
Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War, by composer Kirsten Volness and co-librettists Susan Werbe and Kate Holland, gives voice to American, British, European, Asian, African and Caribbean women affected by WWI through a series of vignettes that share their responses to the war—from enthusiasm to resignation; support to opposition; the war’s beginning to its end. Combining powerful contemporary music with excerpts from women’s writings on both sides of the conflict, Letters tells the story of the Great War as experienced by the women who lived through it.
Opera Cowgirls
JULY 31 FESTIVAL CLOSING PARTY : Celebrate the closing night of Irondale’s On Women Theater Festival after the show. Featuring a performance by Opera Cowgirls!
Composed by Kirsten Volness
Libretto by Kate Holland and Susan Werbe
Kate Bergstrom, Stage Director
Mila Henry, Music Director
Sara Brown, Co-Set Designer
An-Lin Dauber, Costume Designer / Co-Set Designer
Masha Tsimring, Co-Lighting Designer
Krista Smith, Co-Lighting Designer
Stefania Bulbarella, Projections Designer
CAST
Maria Maxfield, Soprano (Woman 1)
Jessica Sandidge, Soprano (Woman 2)
Sarah Beckham-Turner, Soprano (Woman 3)
Caitlin McKechney, Mezzo-soprano (Woman 4)
Tesia Kwarteng, Mezzo-soprano (Woman 5)***
Tharanga Goonetilleke, Soprano (Woman 6)
QUINTET
Andie Tanning, Violin I
Sunny Sheu, Violin II
Tia Allen, Viola
Titilayo Ayangade, Cello
Eleonore Oppenheim, Double Bass
Caitlin McKechney, Associate Producer
Becca Pickett, Production Stage Manager
Alyssa Van Gorder, Production Manager
Analiese Puzon, Asst. Stage Manager / Asst. Production Manager
Kamilla Arku, Rehearsal Pianist
Rosamund Dyer, Production Assistant
*** Tesia Kwarteng appears courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.
The Women of Letters
Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voice from the Great War was developed by AOP and will receive its premiere in July 2022. The development of Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Letters That You Will Not Get is made possible through the generous leadership gifts of Lauren Adelman, Carrie Baldwin-Sayre, John Bates, Christina Bott Murphy, Marni Davis, Pegeen Rubinstein, Barbara Suter, Jean Telljohann, Denise VanLeuven, and the late Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.