NEW OPERA ALBUM RELEASES SPRING 2020!
Tomorrow’s Memories: a Little Manila Diary - an opera for the San Francisco Girls Chorus (2020)
Tomorrow’s Memories is a choral-opera for the San Francisco Girls Chorus and takes its name from the published diary of Filipina-American Angeles Monrayo (her diary spans from 1924-1928). The opera pulls a thread from of her eloquent personal reflections and anecdotes to fashion a young woman’s coming-of-age story and tale of immigration to the US from the Philippines during the American-Philippine Colonial Era. Angeles is a lover of song and music which represents her life’s range, from her native birthplace in Romblon in the Visaya’s, through her stay in Hawaii, and eventual settling in Stockton, California, in a neighborhood known then as Little Manila. Her tale is set as a metaphor for the unique cultural forming of Philippine-American diaspora and also as a mirror held up to our current socio-political issues of equality in immigration, labor, gender, and culture.
In the first scene presented here, Angeles Monrayo arrives with her family at a Hawaiian Strike Camp in 1924, where a multitude of recently blacklisted Filipino sugar-cane workers (sakadas) have come to dwell together, some with families. Angeles recounts the liveliness and camaraderie of the Filipinos despite their many first-time encounters with speakers of unfamiliar Filipino languages such as Ilocano, Tagalog and Visayan. Angeles also tells of Pablo Manlapit’s (The first Filipino-American lawyer in Hawaii) championing labor equality—principles of which we hear when the crowd practices protest chants to the abolitionist and pro-union tune “John Brown’s Body.” The chorus sonically mimic the plucked strings of the Philippine Rondalla ensemble, referencing prior Spanish colonial influence, mixed with 1920s US Tin-Pan Alley harmony. Accompanying the chorus is a trio of violin, guitar and cajón, imagined as an impromptu band from the crowd staying in the Strike Camp. — Matthew Welch, June 2020
Tomorrow’s Memories: a Little Manila Diary
an opera by Matthew Welch
for The San Francisco Girls Chorus
libretto adapted by Matthew Welch
based on Tomorrow’s Memories: A Diary, 1924-1928 by Angeles Monrayo,
edited by Rizaline R. Raymundo, (University of Hawai’i Press)
Scene 1: The Strike Camp
San Francisco Girls Chorus, Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director
with Hannah Gonzales (Angeles Monrayo), Florante Aguilar (guitar), Patti Kilroy (violin) and Levy Lorenzo (cajón)
Sean San José, stage director; Joan Osato, video designer; New Art Media, video design and production
New Art Media, audio engineering and mix; Thayer N. Walker/Lowdownhaus, video graphics
Additional Music / Sound Design Joan Osato
Ilang-Ilang by Luz Morales from Folk Songs of the Philippines, Smithsonian Folkways
Images from the Filipino American National Historical Society Museum, Stockton, CA
Footage care of the US National Archives, The Ford Library Ford Motor Company Collection, ca. 1903 - ca. 1954, Production Date: 1924
Director’s Dedication to the Memory, History and Heart of Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
Tomorrow’s Memories
An Opera for the San Francisco Girls Chorus
Tuesday, June 16, 2020 @ 7:30pm
Herbst Theater
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director
Matthew Welch, Composer
Florante Aguilar, Guitar
Patti Kilroy, Violin
Levy Lorenzo, Percussion
Concluding the season is Songs from the Archipelago, a program that will explore the musical intersection of western classical and Filipino classical music. The centerpiece of the program will be a semi-staged preview of Tomorrow’s Memories, a brand new SFGC-commissioned choral-opera from American composer Matthew Welch. Scheduled for its world premiere during the 2020-2021 season, Tomorrow’s Memories is based on the 1924-1928 diary writings of Filipina immigrant Angeles Monrayo and highlights the importance of the Filipino diaspora’s cultural impact throughout the United States, particularly in the Bay Area. Alongside Tomorrow’s Memories, the chorus will perform a selection of works composed in the western classical style but drawing heavily on folk songs of, and using instruments from, the Philippines. Featured guest artists for this program include guitarist Florante Aguilar, violinist Patti Kilroy and percussionist Levy Lorenzo.
Chunky in Heat (2019)
Join Experiments in Opera and Contemporaneous for the premiere production of Chunky in Heat, an opera based on a libretto by celebrated author A. M. Homes. Chunky in Heat tells the story of a girl who comes of age poolside at her family's home in the canyons of Los Angeles.
Scene 4 by Matthew Welch
Join Experiments in Opera and Contemporaneous for the premiere production of Chunky in Heat, an opera based on a libretto by celebrated author A. M. Homes. Chunky in Heat tells the story of a girl who comes of age poolside at her family's home in the canyons of Los Angeles.
Scene 13 by Matthew Welch
And Here We Are (2014-2018)
On May 6 2018, Experiments in Opera premiered And Here We Are, the new shadow puppet opera from co-founder Matthew Welch, with libretto by Daniel Neer. This 90-minute work for 4 vocal soloists and mixed ensemble was staged using an updated take on traditional Javanese shadow puppetry and will feature Welch’s long-time ensemble Blarvuster with Mantra Percussion. And Here We Are is based on the memoirs of Matthew’s great uncle Edgar, and is being developed with director and designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew.
Level (2017)
Level, a chamber opera for mezzo-soprano, tenor, flute, piano, cello, bass and percussion, 10 minutes. Premiered by Experiments in Opera at Symphony Space May 5-6, 2017.
Comala’s Song (2016)
Comala’s Song, a mono-drama for soprano and septet, 17 minutes. Premiered April 12, Scandinavia House, NYC, commissioned for Ensemble neoN by Ultima Festival (Oslo) and MATA Festival 2016.
Barbarella (2014)
Barbarella – an opera film trailer for mezzo-soprano, narrator, electronics and video. An opera as film trailer modeled on the 1968 film Barbarella. 3 minutes.
ReAnimator Requiem (2013)
ReAnimator Requiem– for choir (ssaattbb), electric guitar, bass guitar and drums (Blarvuster), 30 minutes, one act.
The Three Truths (2012)
The Three Truths, a Robot Micro-Opera, 8 minutes. Anne Rhodes and Jeffrey Gavett soloists, Paolo Bortolameolli conducting.
Borges and the Other (2007-2012)
Borges and the Other is scored for 4 solo singers (2 mezzo-sopranos, tenor and baritone) and SATB chorus, and an expanded version of Blarvuster as the orchestra, and can be performed as an 85 minute 2-Act opera or 3 separable sub-acts each roughly 25-30 minutes.
The opera is about the Argentine fiction writer Jorge Luis Borges, with text adapted and inspired by Borges. The Opera centers on Borges meeting himself in a dream, and through inquisitive dialogue, it becomes a surreal look at the self. The Chorus functions like a Greek chorus with contemplative text. All of the singers and choristers represent Borges as an idea and image. Produced by Experiments in Opera and premiered at Roulette, NYC, May 2012.