'The Robots': a World Premiere chamber opera

THE ROBOTS BY CAROLYN CHEN
A WORLD PREMIERE CHAMBER OPERA

Sung in English with supertitles in English and Spanish.

Approximate running time 1 hr and 45 minutes with one intermission.

This genre-bending operatic adaptation of an early sci-fi play from 1920 — R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek — takes place on an isolated island where a workforce of mass-produced humanoid robots gradually gains self-awareness and revolts against the human creators. Čapek’s play first coined the term “robot” from the Czech word for “slave”, and was a strong condemnation of exploitative labor practices in the early 20th Century. Performed by a diverse cast of some of the best singers in the region, Chen’s exuberant and eclectic score will come to life in this revolutionary new production, immersing the entire audience into the action of the robot uprising!

If you would like to enlist in the Robot Army, we encourage you to bring a colander from home. It's the only way our Robots can tell humans apart from the more sophisticated Robot Worker.

About the composer:
CAROLYN CHEN has made music for supermarket, demolition district, and the dark. Her work reconfigures the everyday to retune habits of our ears through sound, text, light, and movement. Her studies of the guqin, a Chinese zither traditionally played for private meditation in nature, have informed her thinking on listening in social spaces. Recent projects include an audio essay on a scream and commissions for Klangforum Wien and the LA Phil New Music Group.

Described by The New York Times as “the evening’s most consistently alluring … a quiet but lush meditation,” Chen’s work has been supported by the American Academy in Berlin, the Fulbright Program, ASCAP Foundation’s Fred Ho Award, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, Stanford University Sudler Prize, and commissions from Green Umbrella, MATA Festival, and impuls Festival. The work has been presented at festivals and exhibitions in 25 countries, at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kitchen, Disney Hall (Los Angeles), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Guggenheim Bilbao, and the Institute for Provocation (Beijing). She has been fortunate to work with ensembles including SurPlus, Southland, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Aperture, andPlay, loadbang, koan, Dog Star Orchestra, The Reader’s Chorus, Pamplemousse, Chamber Cartel, orkest de ereprijs, S.E.M., red fish blue fish, Wild Rumpus, and The Syndicate for New Arts.

Writing and recordings are available in MusikTexte, Experimental Music Yearbook, The New Centennial Review, Leonardo Music Journal, Perishable, the wulf, and Quakebasket. Chen earned a Ph.D. in music from UC San Diego, and a M.A. in Modern Thought and Literature and B.A. in music from Stanford University, with an honors thesis on free improvisation and radical politics. She lives in Los Angeles.

Cast and crew:
Rosie Glen-Lambert, director
Kyle Adam Blair, music director
Victoria Petrovich, scenic design
Russell Chow, lighting design

CAST

Mr. Domin, the factory General Manager: Leslie Ann Leytham, mezzo-soprano
Helena Glory, daughter of the robots' inventor: Mariana Flores-Bucio, soprano
Sulla, Chief Office Administrator Robot: Danielle Perrault, contralto
Mr. Alquist, factory mechanic and clerk: Jonathan Nussman, baritone
Dr. Gall, head of the Psychological Department: Miguel Zazueta, tenor
Mr. Fabry, cheif accountant and engineer: Paul Young, Jr., baritone
Radius, robot who leads the uprising: Shelby Condray, bass

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