Hoods: A new Opera by Carolyn Chen
Hoods is a chamber opera based on Euripides’ Hekabe and Little Red Riding Hood, parallel stories of women in extremis.
Stephanie Aston – Mother/Grandmother/Agamemnon/Trojan woman
Jessica Aszodi – Hecuba / Wolf
Natalie Moran - Little Red/ Trojan Woman /Polyxena /Polymestor
Stephen Lewis – Conductor
Michael Matsuno, Samuel Dunscombe, Nicolee Kuester, Ryan Nestor, Judith Hamann, Kyle Motl, and Colin Zyskowski, sound - Ensemble
Setting myth and fairytale in the context of late empire and perpetual war, the opera explores themes of violence, gender, and metamorphosis. Three singers each play three roles from two alternating stories about women and wolves transforming into one another. Helicopters, ocean, and animal recordings subtly modulate and harmonize with chamber music reminiscent of Monteverdi and shape note songs. People are swallowed as shadows against a screen. Projected video projected enacts a shoreline, streaming war footage complicated by the unevenness of surface.