Growing Opera

This January, for the third year, Anthony Plog and I attended the annual conference of the National Opera Association (NOA). In our operas and cantatas, Tony composes the music and I write the words. So far, using this method, we have created four operas and cantatas for general audiences and two for children and families.

For our first years of the conference, we rented a table to display our works. This year, we didn’t get a table but instead simply approached and visited with people, learning about their projects and sharing ours.

Our projects included Magdalene: A Thistle Farms Cantata, one of three pieces in a Sacred Opera Initiative. We also got some good rehearsal time for a new mini-opera, The Island, on which we are collaborating with University of Florida vocalists Chris and Lynette Pfund.

This year-by-year method seems to have been a success. Our first year at NOA, perhaps five composers and librettists attended. Our second year, themed “Our Sounds and Stories,” focused on these two groups and succeeded in attracting them to the conference. This year, our third, has seen that theme pay off, with twenty to thirty such creators gathering, alongside singers, pianists, conducters, directors, and other traditional roles. 

Looking back, we can see a mistake made in previous years. Why gather singers for the conference, several hundred of them, when the opera creators aren’t even present? The composers and librettists seated all around us this year seemed excited and eager to move ahead.   

How this group will affect NOA in the future remains to be seen. I have a feeling it will be a good thing.