Friday, February 1, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm
What: Fresh Squeezed Opera premieres of new work by female composers Whitney George, Gabi Herbst, and Gemma Peacocke.
When: Friday, February 1, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/the-female-gaze/
Brooklyn, NY – Roulette is pleased to present Fresh Squeezed Opera as they premiere works by composers Whitney George, Gabi Herbst, and Gemma Peacocke. Women have always been artists, but for centuries, women were excluded from the records of history—their art was not elevated, being dismissed as unimportant or craft. Now, in the 21st century, we still see these trends, particularly in the field of opera. The exclusion of women’s art has made the male perspective dominant. Through a male lens, we encounter stories about male heroes and women as secondary characters, while exploring the male psyche and leaving women as mere tools to help male characters achieve their ultimate arch.
Drawing on 20th century feminist theory, The Female Gaze flips the male gaze: the creator is a woman, the characters are women, and the spectators are women. Fresh Squeezed Opera (FSO) aims to put women on an equal level to men in the performance of operatic works while celebrating the unique idioms and perspectives that women composers offer in their work. This project will act as a strong symbol in the new music community—a group of women coming together to create an artistic statement about the value of women in the arts. This is a statement about the operatic genre—a vastly male-dominated field—and a demand for the inclusion of women.
The project features the world premieres of three FSO commissions from Whitney George, Gabrielle Herbst, and Gemma Peacocke for female voice, ensemble, and electronics.
Mara Mayer, clarinet
Lish Lindsey, flute
Dan McCarthy, viola
Maureen Kelly, cello
Fred Trumpy percussion
Joe Tucker percussion
Sugar Vendil, piano
Nicholle Bittlingmeyer, voice
Jane Hoffman, voice
Chelsea Feltman, voice
Founded in 2013, Fresh Squeezed Opera dedicates itself to providing composers with a platform to present their new music, specifically focusing on vocal works and fully-staged opera. In their five years of operation, they’ve proudly presented over 25 composers’ works, with consistently sold-out houses as a testament to the power of new music. Fully-staged operatic productions include Knot An Opera! (Constantin Basica), Here be Sirens (Kate Soper), Scopes (Spencer Snyder), Prix Fixe (Kevin Wilt), The Yellow Wallpaper (Whitney George), Baby Shower (Bruce Trinkley), and La Zombiata (Jillian Flexner). Forthcoming fully-staged performances include The Switch (John Aylward), Bound (Huang Ruo), and Self.Fembot (Jillian Flexner).