Welcome Opera America Folks

Opera is one of my favorite things to create. I’ve always got at least one project in progress at any time. Here are some operas that are ready to go, followed by those that are in-progress, and finally opera ideas looking for a place to get started. Please contact me about any of these works!
I would love to hear your own ideas and see how we can collaborate.
jason@jasonbarabba.com

Completed Operas

Jemima

Jemima is a chamber opera with a libretto by June Carryl. It focuses on the experience of Nancy Green, the first woman who took on the role of Aunt Jemima for the American pancake flour company.

The work is about 25 minutes in performance. The score is in final editing with the engraver and will be available in Summer of 2024.

Based on the Aesop tale "The Wolf and the Lamb", Tyrant is a micro-opera at only 7-minutes long in a complete performance.

Scored for Soprano and Baritone, with flute, and string trio, Tyrant tells the story of a bully and his innocent victim. Written in November of 2016, it came at a time when I felt we needed the reminder.

Score and parts are available for sale online at https://www.jasonbarabba.com/works/tyrant

In-progress
Projects

My Wings
Burned Off

My Wings Burned Off is an operatic monodrama honoring the life of Oluwatoyin Salau, who was murdered in Florida in 2020. Scored for soprano and twelve strings (3-3-3-3) this work sets the devastating play “The Life and Death Of” by June Carryl. Duration is approximately one hour.

This work is receiving it’s first unstaged reading during the 2024 Opera America conference in Los Angeles. After edits the score will be available by Fall of 2024.

Bartleby the
Scrivener

Future Ideas

Inclinazione: Artemesia Gentileschi

Based on Melville’s short story, this chamber opera explores what happens when a member of society politely refuses to participate in the regular operation of that society. The narrator of the original story is split into two characters, both perplexed and frustrated by Bartleby’s infamouse refrain of “I prefer not to.”

The opera is for two tenors, two baritones and a bass singer, with an ensemble of string quartet and one percussionist. All the performers are asked to perform with books as percussion instruments. The approximately duration is 90 minutes.

The first draft of the score is complete, and the book percussion has been tested and can be ready for a reading program or premiere with a few months notice.

"Inclinazione" will be a 30-minute chamber opera about Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque painter who has been regarded throughout history as, in turn, anomaly, victim, and icon. “Inclinazione” portrays the 17th Century artist as a complex woman who forged her own way in art and life against powerful social mores and a male-dominated art establishment.

This work is scheduled to premiere at the Puccini Chamber Opera Festival in Tuscany in 2026. We are actively seeking a commission, or a co-commissioner to help bring this fascinating story to life.

It will be written in Italian with an original libretto that draws from primary sources, including trial transcripts and Artemisia’s letters to her lover. While many recent works focus on Artemisia’s rape trial, “Inclinazione” will represent her as a powerful artist and unconventional woman who engaged with society on her own terms.

My Barking Dog

In American playwright Eric Coble’s play My Barking Dog “Two lonely people’s lives are pushed suddenly into the unforeseen when a starving coyote shows up at their apartment building. MY BARKING DOG is a truly unpredictable, gripping exploration of isolated urban lifestyles and a daring lament for the destruction of nature by man-made boundaries.”

Coble has given me permission to pursue an operatic version of his remarkable play. There are only two characters. The play will need to be revised down into a libretto before composing can begin. My plan is for the instrumental ensemble to start as a solo and slowly grow in numbers and strength as the tale continues to it’s society-ending/renewing climax.

This project is in need of a commissioner and presenter to get started.

Duca Castruccio

Duke Castruccio will be more of a hybrid than a standard opera, combining theater and opera with actors and singers. I never thought I’d look to Machiavelli as a source, but his short retelling of this Duke of Lucca includes a remarkable death scene where he regrets a life of violence and conquest, and wonders if it wouldn’t have been better if he stayed in Lucca and was a better leader for a smaller territory., I feel this is a depressingly important message today.

The piece is intended to be in Italian, using Machiavelli’s highly decorated version of the Duke’s life. We are seeking commissioners and presenters for this work.

The title is a working one, and will most likely change after the libretto is written.