Archive
As part of our mission to make opera more accessible, we provide full recordings of some of our projects for free, here and on our YouTube channel. Whenever licensing restrictions permit us to publish a recording of our work, we will do so!
These shows were made with the great efforts of our production team and the incredible artists we work with. Making great art isn’t cheap, so we humbly ask that if enjoy these free recordings, kindly consider donating so that we can continue to produce exciting, relevant, and accessible new opera. Thank you!
A note for our audience from our Board Treasurer:
more than friends: a triptych on queer love through the ages
Emily & Sue
Composition by Dana Kaufman, libretto by Aiden K. Feltkamp
Eliza Woodyard and Ashley Biehl, co-directors
Kirby Burgess, Emily Dickinson
Christine Oshiki, Sue Gilbert/ensemble soprano
Eric Angus Jeffords, Thomas Wentworth Higginson/ensemble tenor
Robin Wyatt-Stone, William Austin Dickinson/ensemble bass
Haley Posey, percussion
Emily & Sue is an a cappella pop opera that uses texts from Emily Dickinson’s best-known poetry and love letters between Dickinson and Susan Gilbert to chronicle two days fraught with grief, hope, and sapphic yearning.
Achilles & Patroclus
Composition by Erika Meyer, libretto by James T. Washburn
Kate Kelley, director
Revere Taylor, Achilles (Friday cast)
Jae Bernado, Patroclus (Friday cast)
Robin Wyatt-Stone, Achilles (Saturday cast)
Eric Angus Jeffords, Patroclus (Saturday cast)
Sam Peters, piano
Through flashes of intimate memories, Achilles remembers his life with the love he lost in this achingly beautiful, unabashedly queer chamber opera for two voices.
Thirst
Composition by TJ Rubin, libretto by Laura Barati
Molly Anders, director
Christine Oshiki, Jaq (Friday cast)
Cee Adamson, Jaq (Saturday cast)
Karen Dunstan, Jill (Friday & Saturday casts)
Sam Peters, piano
Thirst is a 10-minute chamber opera that offers a magical realist exploration of intimacy and the tension between one’s desire for partnership and one’s desire for independence.
#adulting2: here we go again
Composition by John Ervin Brooks, additional composition by Austin Nuckols
Libretto by Natalie Stewart Elder, Stefan Melnyk, and Austin Nucklos
Kate Kelley, director
Eliza Woodyard, assistant director
Devorah Detzer, Tae
Eric Angus Jeffords, Tony
Olivia Kerr, Bucket
Amy Korver, ensemble
Alex Luque, Drew
Christine Oshiki, Ruth
Nic Varela, ensemble
Sam Peters, accompanist
#adulting2 continues our beloved roommates’ journeys in unpacking the notion of modern adulthood while exploring the queerer sides of relationships, sex, pronouns, and more. Come see “the gayest opera in existence”™️, in an SNL-meets-Mozart format with the Onion levels of absurdity.
MARThA
Composition by Lingbo Ma
Libretto by John de los Santos
Kate Kelley, director
Eliza Woodyard, MARThA
Anjul Bansal, Tricia
Tina Tran, Holly
MARThAis a jovial affair that lifts up women’s voices and perspectives, while normalizing therapy. In this slice-of-life opera, two female-identifying roommates turn to a therapy app when their differences cause a tense living environment.
Diary of A Madman
Composition and libretto by Dana Kaufman
Based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol
Eliza Woodyard & Kate Kelley, directors
Devorah Detzer, Aksentiy Ivanovich Poprischin
Jared White, Head of Department
Kayla Wilkens, Sahfee
Megan Cullen, Medji
Biraj Barkakaty, Fidele
Anjul Bansal, Fidele (cover)
HyeYeon Kim, accompanist
Set in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1835, the opera follows the descent of a low-ranking Russian official--Aksentiy Ivanovich Poprischin, the "Madman"--into the insanity and despair Gogol hauntingly depicted in diary format almost two centuries ago.
#adulting - 2020
Composition by John Ervin Brooks
Libretto by Natalie Stewart Elder
Additional music and libretto by Stefan Melnyk and Austin Nuckols
Kate Kelley, director
Christine Oshiki, assistant director
Christine Oshiki, Ruth
Jared White, Drew
Nic Varela, Couch
Eric Angus Jeffords, Tony
Krissy Terwilliger, Bucket
Kate Kelley, Siri
Ava Linvog, accompanist
The Lowbrow Opera Collective returns to 18th & Union with the revival of the wildly successful farce on growing up, #adulting! Follow the journey of four roommates, recently brought together via Craigslist, through their first forays into adulthood. Ruth, Tony, Bucket, and Drew come across many challenges – mainly their own lack of practical life skills. #adulting is equal parts self-deprecating humor and a giant middle finger to anyone who says millennials can’t get shit done. Mostly absurd and just a little raunchy, the opera portrays vignettes of modern lives, from the joy of a first apartment to the horror of an icky stain you find on the only couch you could afford.
