Minute to Midnight, a comedic opera, takes audiences inside a surreal portrait of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Inside a fictionalized Situation Room, we witness the tensions between John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro, and Nikita Khrushchev. In reality, these leaders’ transmissions took hours to reach each other. Minute to Midnight compresses these conversations, putting the characters in each other’s presence. The fictionalized Situation Room heightens the absurdity of this conflict and war while grounding the opera in a contemporary conversation: how can we continue to have dialogue through difference and find common ground today?

As history continues to repeat itself, this opera creates a new interpretation of these historic events through a modern lens and an all-female cast. Moments of mutual understanding surface as a critical reminder of the ways in which history comes to define the present. This opera serves to highlight the vast power structures that exist in our world and the humanity of those who operate in it. In all of this is the implied question: “How should it be that this person can act on my behalf?” The events are portrayed by people who were not allowed to wield such power because of their biology, subverting the historical complacency of the narrative.

This workshop concert will showcase an unstaged version of the opera. Audience members will have the chance to offer feedback via a questionnaire, during a feedback session, or during the reception that follows the event

PROGRAM

Dante De Silva: Minute to Midnight
Alan Olejniczak, librettist

Emily Gallagher, soprano (JFK)
Chloé Vaught, soprano (Castro)
Amy Fogerson, alto (Khrushchev)

Instrumental ensemble: Timothy Loo (cello), Jordan Curcuruto (percussion), Katie Eikam (percussion), Cathy Miller (keyboard), Andreas Apostolou (keyboard)