Feel free to type your questions below during the Q&A session:
LETTERS AND THE LOST VOICES OF WOMEN IN WWI
March 21, 2022 at 7pm CT / 8pm ET
To mark the celebration of Women’s History Month, join The American Opera Project as they give voice to the women of WWI and explore their, many times overlooked, contributions and cultural representations. Hear selections from the opera 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, readings of newly transcribed letters from the National WWI Museum and Memorial’s archives, as well as a keynote talk by Jennifer Orth-Veillon, author, scholar and curator of the WWrite Blog and moderated by award-winning journalist Kelly Kennedy, Managing Editor for The War Horse and U.S. Army veteran. This event is co-produced by The National WWI Museum and Memorial and The American Opera Project. Free with RSVP | 7pm CT / 8pm ET.
GIVE NOW TO THE CREATION OF LETTERS THAT YOU WILL NOT GET
Featuring
The National WWI Museum and Memorial is America's leading institution dedicated to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community. The Museum and Memorial fulfills its mission by maintaining the Liberty Memorial as a beacon of freedom and a symbol of the courage, patriotism, sacrifice, and honor of all who served in World War I; Interpreting the history of World War I to encourage public involvement and informed decision-making; Providing exhibitions and educational programs that engage diverse audiences; Collecting and preserving historical materials with the highest professional standards.
Composed by Kirsten Volness with a libretto by Susan Werbe and Kate Holland, Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War 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. The opera will have its world premiere in Brooklyn, NY on July 28, 2022 in an AOP production directed by Kate Bergstrom with music direction by Mila Henry.
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. Recording of the 2022 World Premiere of Letters is made possible in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.
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.
